By midsummer, the structure that underpins a terraced vegetable garden disappears as it is overrun by exuberant plants. Concrete blocks are less costly, though heavy to handle. Extra reinforcement is not needed for block retaining walls less than 18 inches...
Kale seedlings ready to transplant atop buried caches of summer compost 2. Get Ready for Planting Garlic Finally, it's never too soon to get ready to plant garlic, which deserves loose, deeply dug soil that has been generously amended with compost.
This matters, because many fruits, including peppers and tomatoes, emit ethylene to promote ripening. If it's too windy, much of the gas simply blows away, slamming the brakes on the ripening process.
Remove covers during the day to enable pollination, then replace it in the evening to provide a little warmth and protection against lower temperatures. It will also avoid the annoyance of fruits splitting, which happens when they have dried out too much...
A pest is just a creature that likes the same food we do, so show some tolerance, protect what crops you can, and use nature's own balancing system to ensure your crop doesn't get munched before you have time to harvest it.
For the healthiest growth they need an open, sunny site and rich soil. Savoy and other winter cabbages benefit from a light frost to bring out their flavor. A bed improved with compost or well-rotted manure is ideal for these hungry feeders, who will...
For this, nothing beats a water feature. Avid gardeners are busy gardeners. Make your own flower pot beer cooler – no tools required! And how about this ingenious idea to keep your chosen tipple cool in the garden: take two clay terra cotta pots, one...
Expect to be inspired by these long-storing beauties. Purple daikons like ‘Sweet Baby' are popular at fall farmers markets. Some people rate the leaves as edible, but I'd rather hold out for the large, red-skinned roots, which pop up out of the ground...
Tougher vegetables, such as carrots, need four. Follow the steps above. Hang herbs upside down in a warm, dry and airy place. Chop the produce up into small cubes about 1cm (0.5in) square.
Supplemental boron is easily supplied with a light sprinkling of household borax into the planting row, or you can mix borax with water and douse the planting once, while the rutabagas are young.
Once the plant displays its fluffy seed heads, pull it out of the ground and hang it upside down indoors to dry. Spread them out onto newspaper to dry out on a warm windowsill for seven to ten days.
They look like they've been used for shotgun target practice, giving the disease its alternative name of ‘shothole' (careful how you say it!). Silver leaf disease is spread by spores from a bracket fungus.
If you don't have a dehydrator you can simply dry your fruits by threading them onto lengths of fishing line or cotton thread, spacing them out one by one like miniature Christmas stockings.
The solution is to wet the seed drill before sowing, to give them the cool, moist surroundings they crave. Mulches may not be very high-tech, but they are incredibly effective in a hot summer.
Cover over with another 10cm (4in) of compost then add more compost as the stems grow, topping up 5-10cm (2-4in) at a time until the top of the container is reached. This creates more ‘room' for the developing spuds to grow into (container potatoes...
Plants Related to this Article Apple (Dwarf) Grow Guide Pear (Dwarf) Grow Guide Plum (Dwarf) Grow Guide < All Guides Thinning helps to produce bigger, healthier apples How to Thin an Apple Tree So let's show you how to go about thinning an apple tree.
Repeat over several days to begin to bring an infestation under some semblance of control. Begin with a good, strong blast from the hose to knock the whitefly off your plants and onto the ground where they'll perish.
They will root during the winter, and multiply into a cluster in late spring or early summer. Harvesting Harvest in early summer when the tops begin to fail, and the bulbs have divided into several plump bulblets.
Delaying spring planting by two weeks can often help with cucumber beetles management. You can also coat the fingertips of a yellow rubber glove with petroleum jelly to make it easier to collect any beetles clustered in blossoms.
Troubleshooting Beware of sleepy bees when pruning or otherwise working with mature borage plants. A good companion for any crop that needs strong defense from insects. Notes Borage seedlings are only edible when very young.
Dig and move perennial onions every fall. At the end of each season, be sure to pull all onions from the garden. Managing Outbreaks: Remove badly damaged plants, as the maggots can move from one plant to another.
Planting and Harvesting Calendar < Back to All Plants Pests which Affect Valerian Aphids (General) Slug Snail Our Garden Planner can produce a personalized calendar of when to sow, plant and harvest for your area.
You also can start seeds in late winter, and set out the seedlings in spring. Locate it where leaves can be conveniently picked, crushed and sniffed. Position Any sunny spot. Notes Lemon balm is very easy to grow.
Companions Daylily, Catnip, Bells of Ireland and Salvia. Perennial candytuft makes an ideal companion plant. Planting tulips behind daylilies or other summer-blooming perennials hides the fading foliage from view.
Planting and Harvesting Calendar < Back to All Plants Pests which Affect Ageratum Aphids (General) Slug Snail Most gardeners buy ageratum seedlings, but only dwarf varieties are widely available as bedding plants.
Planting and Harvesting Calendar < Back to All Plants Pests which Affect Parsnip Aphids (General) Carrot Rust Fly Slug Snail Plant Diseases which Affect Parsnip Carrot Powdery Mildew
