SOIL BUILDING: Saving the world, one dirt clod at a time.
One of the most important things a gardener can do is to build up the soil in her garden. But keep in mind that soil-building is not a one-time operation – it’s a process.
Category: gardening
Some of My Favorite Roses
In the fall, after you stop deadheading the rose, you will be rewarded with large, orange hips. (On the rose, not on your body.)
STARTING TOMATOES FROM SEED
The tomato seeds will germinate more effectively if you have a heat mat under the cups or trays. This will warm the soil with dependable heat, allowing the seedlings to germinate more quickly and grow out more quickly. Just be sure to get a thermostat with the mats so you can adjust the temperature so you don’t end up cooking your seeds.
LADYBUGS – A GREAT FAVORITE IN THE GARDEN
Ladybug larvae are voracious eaters and are shaped like tiny lizards, or Komodo dragons. They are black with two little orange spots toward their head and have a long tail.
Laying Out the Garden the Square Foot Way
The backbone of the garden is the one-foot square. You take four of these one-foot squares and put them together in a grid. Separating these squares are paths, about a foot or two wide, so you don’t walk on the soil inside the four-foot areas. (Soil compaction is bad news in the garden. I lay board walkways in the garden so I can keep from mashing the soil. A light, airy soil is very good for plants.)
How to Start Your Seeds
I got my seeds a month ago. They aren’t doing much in the bag, and it’s a little early to plant, but I just like to take them out and look at them. My daughter takes the bean seeds and goes around the house shaking them like maracas. I like …
WHAT PLANT TAGS ACTUALLY MEAN
Plant tags make all kinds of crazy claims. But do you know what the truth is? The problem with plant tags is that the people who write them up are not allowed to tell the unvarnished truth about the plant, even if the plant is a real dog. If they do speak, highly suspicious things happen to them.
I was able to wrest a few secrets out of one such writer before she met her doom in a freak rose accident. Here’s a primer on what the plant tag says … and what it actually means.
Garden Design … And Creativity (Spoiler: You already have it)
When I was reading my usual pile of articles and books while researching this topic, I read about some pretentious garden writer who said, of gardens, that a real work of art is not something that could be copied or analyzed. Let me tell you all the ways this is pure bull.
A Vegemaniac in Winter
January would be a really lousy month if we didn’t have seed catalogs. There’s so much ice on my garden that I can walk over the snow without breaking through the slick crust on top. So every day I skate to the mailbox, hoping for some good reading material to …
Why Are Perennials Hard to Beat?
“I planted some dahlia tubers and got some fascinating, gigantic flowers. A perennial hibiscus startled me with magenta flowers as big as dinner plates. Grandma Mary wanted to know what these plants were! And she is wise in all things plant, so that’s saying something.”