Step by step mulch calculator Follow this simple plan to calculate how much mulch you’ll need for your garden and landscape. The only tools you’ll need are a measuring tape or a measuring wheel and the calculator on your cell phone. Step 1: Decide on the type of mulch to use There are many different types of landscape mulch to use on planting beds, from shredded bark chips and wood chips to compost and pine straw....
I decided to modify my zucchini pizza idea and come up with some interesting fillings. Of course you can do this with any edible member of the squash family! Basically, I take the top off the squash as I would if I were about to carve a pumpkin, and scoop out the seeds. I scoop out a little more of the flesh if I want to make more room for the filling....
When I made my first raised beds, these are a few tips I gathered, as well as things I wish I had thought about beforehand. Things to think about when preparing a raised bed garden What size will it be? Raised beds are generally three to four feet wide by about six to eight feet long. This allows you to easily reach into the raised bed from the side to plant and dig and weed, without having to step into the garden where you risk compacting the soil....
Our Task-by-Task Container Gardening Tip List To make this container gardening tip list as simple as possible, we’ve divided our most useful tips into sections that follow the growing season. You’ll learn how to plant and grow a beautiful and productive container garden, filled with flowers, herbs, vegetables, fruits, and more, simply by following these snippets of useful and practical advice. Tips for selecting the best containers Garden containers can be made from many different materials....
Before I look at a single seed catalog, I take inventory of all the seeds I already have on hand, sorting them first by age. All seed packets are stamped with the year they were packed. This date is important because many seeds loose viability as they age. If you want to plant only seeds that will have exceptional germination rates, you’ll need to know how many years each variety can be stored....
I do cover some kale plants with floating row cover to get me through the winter. Last year I was harvesting all through December, January, and February. But I’m quite taken with the notion of growing food plants as houseplants. It just seems so efficient and win-win to me. Plus, it’s a little bit of insurance in case something happens to my outdoor kale. (Some years the deer treat my raised bed gardens as an all-you-can-eat buffet....
Cilantro is an annual herb that is part of the Apiaceae family, which is also called Umbelliferae (or referred to by the common name umbellifer). Other edible members of this family include parsley, dill, carrots, celery, and fennel. As one of my favorite ingredients, cilantro has a presence in a lot of my favorite cuisine—Mexican, Thai, Indian, and more. One thing that may cause some confusion if you’re reading a cookbook or a gardening book from another country is that in North America, we refer to the plant as cilantro and the dried or crushed seeds as coriander....
Most native asters used to be in the genus Aster but are now in the genus Symphoyotrichum. From here on out – or at least until they change it again – the genus Aster only refers to Old World species of asters. Regardless of the nomenclature change (and the spelling and pronunciation problems many gardeners are facing because of it), asters are one exceptional group of plants. Not only are they a good-looking and easy-natured group, they lay out the welcome mat for beneficial insects and pollinators....
What is the difference between hay and straw? I think a lot of people use the word hay to describe straw, and vice versa, not realizing there is a difference. Hay is planted and harvested by farmers to feed livestock, like horses, sheep, and cows. It’s actually a mix of plants that could include fescues, legumes, such as alfalfa and clover, and different types of grasses, like millet. Hay contains all the parts of a mature plant—stalks, leaves, and seed heads—harvested when they are fresh and still full of nutrients for animal feed....
What are squash bugs? Squash bugs (Anasa tristis) are a member of the stink bug family. If you disturb or injure them, they emit a foul odor. Like other stink bugs, they feed on plants by piercing plant tissue with their needle-like mouthpart and sucking out the plant sap. Squash bugs are found all across North America and are native to the continent. They feed on all members of the cucurbit family but tend to prefer summer and winter squash, as well as pumpkin vines and gourds....
5 Questions with Shawna Coronado: Savvy -Tell us about your garden? Shawna – When I first started gardening at my current home, about 16 years ago, I started with a few container gardens. I then installed several hostas around my front tree, which is a 40 year old crabapple that is nearly at the end of its life. As addictions go, I could never have enough garden, so I began expanding that circle until it stretched across my front yard....
How to build a wormbin: To begin your adventure in vermicomposting, start first with shelter for your worms. If you want practical, easy, and cheap, go with a 10-gallon opaque plastic storage tub with a lid. Use a nail, drill, or chisel to make a few holes around the top of the sides and on the bottom of the bin. The holes on the sides are for air circulation and the ones on the bottom are for drainage, though a properly functioning worm bin will have no excess moisture to drain out....
How to plant carrots Carrots grow best in a sunny site with deep, well-draining, clump-free soil. Of course not all of us have perfect soil, myself included, so I grow most of my vegetables in raised beds. If your soil is shallow or heavy, stick to compact varieties of carrots like Red Cored Chantenay, which has short, thick roots that only grow about five-inches long. Or, baby varieties like Little Finger that have slender four-inch long roots....
Learn how to garden with a cold frame: If I could pick only one season-extending device, it would be a cold frame. Incredibly useful, a cold frame is the key to increasing the production in your garden from three seasons to year-round. The more I garden in my cold frames, the more cold frames I want to have! It’s such an invigorating feeling to lift the lid of a frame in the middle of January and find it filled with fresh, leafy greens, crisp carrots, and aromatic herbs, just waiting to be harvested....
What is impatiens downy mildew and why should gardeners avoid planting Impatiens walleriana? Impatiens downy mildew is a nasty pathogen (Plasmopara obducens) that affects the leaves of all varieties of Impatiens walleriana. A few years ago, gardeners had to start keeping an eye out for green leaves curling downward, and then checking the undersides of the leaves, as well as the flowers, for a white, fungus-like growth. The flowers and leaves would then drop and the plants would die....
We did however, hit a snag. The lumber arrived, and just as we were ready to start building the raised beds, my husbands back gave out. For weeks. The poor guy was stuck on the couch and we therefore needed to go to plan B. We brought back the contractor who had prepped the site, and it took just two days for his team to build, arrange, and fill the raised beds....
What are globe artichokes Globe artichokes (Cynara scolymus) are the immature flowerbuds of a thistle family plant and grown for the delicious flesh at the bottoms of their bracts and the tender artichoke hearts. The plants are extremely ornamental with spiky, silvery foliage and flower stalks that grow 3 to 5 feet tall. Plant artichokes in vegetable gardens or flower borders; this is a perfect plant for edible landscaping. Most varieties yield 6 to 8 artichokes per plant, but some can produce up to 10....
How big should a patio vegetable garden be? As a horticulturist, I grow dozens of containers filled with veggies on my patio every season, but there’s no need to create something so extensive. Start with just a few pots your first year, and plan to expand your garden as you learn how to grow. Of course, if you want to dive in and go big right out the gate, go for it....
In my containers, I love to have at least one standout bloom. It might be a flowing plant that will cascade over the sides of the pot, like a calibrachoa or supertunia (in a vibrant hue), a showstopper, like a dahlia, or a petunia with a really interesting face. Don’t underestimate the power of foliage. Coleus, heucheras, and Rex begonias are all favorites, depending on whether my space gets sun or shade....
Why is preparing raised beds for winter important? What I appreciate about the changing of the seasons in the fall is it gives me the opportunity to really give things a once over. When I’m no longer watering, looking for signs of pests, staking and pruning plants, etc., I have time to assess. The end of the official growing season—even if you’re still growing winter crops—is a great opportunity to feed your soil, get a head start on next year, and take stock of winter project planning for spring fixes and builds....
