The best place to grow tomatoes will have full sun for six hours a day. Hotter southern locations might need a little afternoon shade to give the tomatoes a bit of relief so they can survive and thrive. A well-drained site with rich, loamy soil is ideal. If you don’t have a location with full sun for six hours a day, you might have to trim back some tree branches. If your soil isn’t ideal, start adding organic material like compost to it.
Summer means cantaloupes, honeydews, and watermelon. Plant them now to give ’em a good start.
This time of year, you’re going to be seeing pests coming at you from all directions. Read on for some helpful, eco-friendly hacks to help you keep the damage to a minimum.
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.)
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 …
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 …
Early mornings are the best. (Once you wake up, that is.) A fall morning with roses is even better, despite cold fingers and nose. I’ve come out to clip the leaves and buds off the roses. I hate to take the buds off, since the roses have been blooming all …
