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Harvest Time: Cold Storage Ideas & Root Cellars
Growing your own food can be very rewarding, especially during the summer months when veggies can be washed, cooked and on the table the very same day they’re picked (nothing fresher than that!).
If you plan ahead and produce more…
-
Budding Home Farmer? 25+ Clever Ideas To Check Out
Did you know you can make your own rooting hormone using willow twigs? Or that geraniums can be overwintered? How about a few ideas for soil savers, pest control and fighting weeds? You’ll find all that and more in this…
-
Making Sense Of Fertilizer Labels & NPK Numbers
When looking at the various commercial fertilizers on the shelf in any home & garden center, you’ll notice they have three digits on their labels (something like 20-15-5). Unless you can properly interpret those numbers, how can you know which…
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7 Nutrient-Rich Elixirs Your Seedlings Will Thank You For
Sure you can buy fertilizers and soil additives to help boost production, but did you know you can also take advantage of waste from Mother Nature and household scraps that you’d normally toss? These too can promote blooms and growth…
-
An Introduction To Organic Mulches
Mulch is very popular for a few reasons:
It helps prevent a profusion of weeds by forming a barrier over the soil, this makes it more difficult for seeds to germinate.
Helps control the soil temperature (especially useful in hot…
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When To Sow & Set Out Transplants: {Reference}
Here’s a handy chart to help you determine when to get vegetables into the ground. They’re divided into two groups: Cool-Season and Warm-Season with each having varieties that are hardier than the rest (these are noted by color in the…
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Clever! Unwanted Grass Or Weed Patches? Try Solarization
If you have a patch of lawn in your yard that you plan on getting rid of (for making a flower bed, patio, etc.), here’s a way you can do that without breaking your back digging it all up.
It’s…
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The Magic Of Manure & How To Use It
Years ago my grandparents would have a truck from the farm come into town and dump a load of fresh cow manure over their garden. They would do this each year after everything was harvested and had died back. A…
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Try Wood Ash As A Soil Fertilizer: {Good To Know}
Consider saving the ashes from this summer’s campfires, backyard fire pits and even your home’s fireplace or wood stove, did you know they can be spread throughout the garden to act as an organic soil booster? They’ll also deter pests…
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6 Companion Plants To Battle Those Dreaded Potato Bugs
These pests (Colorado Potato Beetle) are a well known predator that target potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants and even our prized petunias! They not only thrive on the leaves, but are also known to feast on the fruit. If left unchecked, they…
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Can You Grow Blueberries In A Pot? Sure!
Fresh blueberries can cost a pretty penny at the grocery store, but did you know it’s easy to grow your own…even on a balcony! Depending on the variety you choose, it can take 2 or 3 years for a plant…
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A test is done when you want to know whether your soil is acidic, neutral or alkaline. Why does it matter? Most plants need a fairly neutral soil so they can retrieve all the nutrients from it that they require,…
-
15+ Lovely Ideas For Incorporating Succulents Outdoors
Looking for a few creative ideas for making succulent planters and wreaths? Here’s a nice collection using either cuttings or full grown plants that I’ve handpicked from around the ‘net, most are for outdoor gardening but there are some ideas…
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Easy To Achieve: Your Own Bounty Of Zucchini
This is a great vegetable for beginners to start with since it’s pretty easy and grows quickly…though fair warning: it will make you feel like quite the farmer when you see the abundant harvest each plant produces 😉 .
Part…
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Yes – Easter Lilies Can Indeed Be Saved & Thrive Outdoors!
Easter lilies (Lilium longiflorum) are beautiful with their white trumpet flowers and are traditionally given as gifts or purchased for decoration during the holiday season. They produce such a lovely fragrance and when they’re arranged in groups, the display is…
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Earth Friendly: Homemade Weed Killer Recipes & Solutions
Pulling weeds by hand is not always easy or practical, they’re pesky and determined to pop back up and spread in no time. If you’re looking for more natural ways to control them that don’t include harsh chemicals and are…
-
Love Strawberries? Why Not Clear A Patch & Plant Some!
If you’d like to get your kiddos interested in growing food, strawberries are just the ticket! They bear juicy, red fruit that nearly everyone loves and are pretty easy to manage.
If you don’t have space for a patch outside,…
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Friendly Visitors: How To Draw Hummingbirds To Your Yard
Why are these little birds so popular? There’s something so charming about washing your dishes at the kitchen sink or sitting at a table and looking out the window to see a hummingbird (also known as “hummies”) hovering a few…
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Building A Raised Bed For The Garden: Plans & Tutorials
Here’s an assortment of free tutorials and plans for building raised beds, especially useful with the square foot method (wonderful for both vegetable and flower beds). Most of the online projects I came across seem pretty similar to each other…
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Bounty Of Garlic Crops In Your Backyard: Try It!
Garlic (Allium sativum) is easy to grow in home plots and since it’s used so much in cooking (and in home remedies), why not try plant some this year and have a stockpile to enjoy (and some to share with…
-
Speed Up Tomato Ripening With These Helpful Hints
Here are a few tips to help speed up and encourage tomatoes to ripen on the vine when it’s close to the end of growing season (there are also off the vine instructions below):
Keep plants free of diseased leaves…
-
How To Plant Tulips For Beautiful Spring Blooms
Tulips are a favorite in flower beds and are known as harbingers of Spring (they’re one of the first of the season to produce blooms). Their beautiful flowers and vibrant colors are a refreshing change after a cold and dreary…
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I found this interesting article in a magazine from 1946 that gives advice for care of several different kinds of pruned flowers, enjoy!
If you are addicted to using a gathering basket, put it away and substitute it for a…
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Bury The Pit In Soil & Voila! An Avocado Tree
You can make some pretty tasty dishes with an avocado but did you know that you can grow a tree from it too? It probably won’t produce any fruit, but it is a nice addition to your home plant life.…
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How To Save Tomato Seeds From Prized Heirlooms
When saving seeds from this year’s harvest for next year’s, you’ll find best results with heirloom tomatoes rather than hybrids (hybrids are typically the ones you purchase in grocery stores and regular greenhouse seedlings). Once you make your initial purchase…
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Make A Delightful Moon Garden Haven
Did you know that with a clever arrangement of certain flowers and plants, you can have a beautiful display that will provide a visual feast and delight your senses–even during the middle of the night? Creating a moon garden does…
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Creative Container Gardening: New Uses For Old Things
Lots of goodies today! If you’d like to get creative with your yard display this year, I’ve put together a list to help tweak some ideas for you (this is also a great way to repurpose household items that would…
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Invasion Of Garden Slugs? Here’s How To Combat Them
These common garden pests are soft-bodied mollusks that are like snails but without the shell for protection. Their size can be between 1/4″ to 10″ in length and come in a variety of colors from light grays or yellows to…
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Keep The Blooms: Extending The Life Of Potted Hydrangeas
In the area where I live, potted Hydrangeas show up full force in the stores around Easter time and are very popular because of their beautiful colors and abundance of flowers.
They’re lovely indoors but if they don’t receive adequate…
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Grow 100 lbs. Of Potatoes In 4 Square Feet: {Instructions}
Quite the clever method here folks! Today’s feature includes tips from three different sources for growing potatoes vertically (in layers) instead of spread out in rows across your garden. If you have limited space or want to try some nifty…
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Petunias: A Lovely Option To Add A Burst Of Color
Petunias are an old-fashioned favorite that offer a lovely burst of color and work well in most patches of soil, they bloom in nearly every color you can think of. You can grow them in flower beds, hanging baskets (wave…
-
An Easy, Old-Fashioned Favorite: Geraniums
If you’re looking for a hardy plant that offers plenty of blooms in a large variety of colors, geraniums are a great choice. These old-fashioned favorites grow well in flower beds, hanging baskets, containers, window boxes and they’ll bloom beautiful…
-
Peonies Question & Answer Sheet
I have some peonies that never bloom. What can be wrong with them? Several things might prevent them from blooming but the most likely is that they are planted too deeply. Two inches is the proper depth, and beyond that…
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Tips For Growing A Bumper Crop Of Tomatoes
When: Seedlings should be planted in the Spring after all danger of frost has passed. You can either purchase these at a local greenhouse or try starting your own by seed (start indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before the…
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Enjoy Potted Basil Year-Round: Thrives Inside & Out
Basil is a great choice to plant since it’s easy to grow and is useful in so many ways. It can be used in salads, makes a great pesto and seasons dishes like soups, casseroles and sauces. It is also…
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How To Sterilize Soil & Organic Potting Mix Recipes
Potting soil is sterilized to give your plants the best environment possible by killing weed seeds or disease organisms that might be lingering in the soil. Most commercial products have already done this but if you want to use that…
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Effective Way To Store Seeds For Next Year’s Season
One good way to really save the budget is to plan ahead and make use of this year’s vegetables, flowers and other plant life you have growing in the garden for next year’s crop. If you’ve tried saving seeds from…
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21 Natural & Homemade Pesticides That Work: {Recipes}
These homemade pesticides are cheap and easy to make with many being just as effective as some commercial products on the market. No fancy items required, everything you need is likely stocked in your kitchen and garden. Most of the…
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Want Greener Grass? Try Epsom Salts, Beer (oh my) & More
Everyone wants their lawn to look as lush and green as possible, it’s one of the least expensive methods for giving your home nice curb appeal (whereas a brown, patchy yard is one of the first things that can downgrade…
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Old-Time Tips For Garden Tenderfeet
These snippets of advice come from a household booklet published in 1947 and features suggestions given for handling plants, cut flowers and other related topics. *Updated: I moved two more pages here for one lengthy sheet of vintage notes. What…
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How To Pot A Plant & When To Repot It
Start with clean, scrubbed pots–preferably sterilized–for better success. Coarse steel wool or metal scouring pads clean them in a jiffy. Here’s how:
Most harmful organisms can be killed by placing a stack of pots on a cloth under the hot-water…
-
Yard Compost Tea That You Can Make From Refuse
Compost tea may not be made from tea leaves, but it is very rich in nutrients that plants thrive on and removes the need for commercial fertilizers. It can also be considered a method of organic pest control since the…
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Helpful Notes For The Medicine Plant Aloe Vera
Buying Tips:
Succulent usually grows slowly inside–purchase a large, mature one if possible. If a young one is your only option, it’s still suitable for first aid treatments–just know it will take a few years to get large.
Young aloe…
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A Few Fall Cleanup & Winter Preparation Chores
Here are some suggestions for preparing your yard for winter, this makes yard maintenance much easier to deal with in the Spring!
Clean Plant Pots: Wash grime & rings away with a 50/50 water and vinegar solution. Works well on…
-
Spoil Kitty With Home-Grown Catnip: He’ll Love It!
Although approximately one third of cats could care less about catnip, the majority flip for it. And drool. And race around! Why do they love it so much?
This plant produces Nepetalactone oil which acts something like an aphrodisiac for…
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Daylilies & Irises: How To Divide & Transplant
Best Time For Daylilies:
Best done in the Spring and early Fall to give the plants a few weeks to adjust before the weather becomes extremely hot or cold.
When doing this in the Fall, at least 6 weeks before…
Growing your own food can be very rewarding, especially during the summer months when veggies can be washed, cooked and on the table the very same day they’re picked (nothing fresher than that!).
If you plan ahead and produce more…
Did you know you can make your own rooting hormone using willow twigs? Or that geraniums can be overwintered? How about a few ideas for soil savers, pest control and fighting weeds? You’ll find all that and more in this…
When looking at the various commercial fertilizers on the shelf in any home & garden center, you’ll notice they have three digits on their labels (something like 20-15-5). Unless you can properly interpret those numbers, how can you know which…
Sure you can buy fertilizers and soil additives to help boost production, but did you know you can also take advantage of waste from Mother Nature and household scraps that you’d normally toss? These too can promote blooms and growth…
Mulch is very popular for a few reasons:
It helps prevent a profusion of weeds by forming a barrier over the soil, this makes it more difficult for seeds to germinate.
Helps control the soil temperature (especially useful in hot…
Here’s a handy chart to help you determine when to get vegetables into the ground. They’re divided into two groups: Cool-Season and Warm-Season with each having varieties that are hardier than the rest (these are noted by color in the…
If you have a patch of lawn in your yard that you plan on getting rid of (for making a flower bed, patio, etc.), here’s a way you can do that without breaking your back digging it all up.
It’s…
Years ago my grandparents would have a truck from the farm come into town and dump a load of fresh cow manure over their garden. They would do this each year after everything was harvested and had died back. A…
Consider saving the ashes from this summer’s campfires, backyard fire pits and even your home’s fireplace or wood stove, did you know they can be spread throughout the garden to act as an organic soil booster? They’ll also deter pests…
These pests (Colorado Potato Beetle) are a well known predator that target potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants and even our prized petunias! They not only thrive on the leaves, but are also known to feast on the fruit. If left unchecked, they…
Fresh blueberries can cost a pretty penny at the grocery store, but did you know it’s easy to grow your own…even on a balcony! Depending on the variety you choose, it can take 2 or 3 years for a plant…
A test is done when you want to know whether your soil is acidic, neutral or alkaline. Why does it matter? Most plants need a fairly neutral soil so they can retrieve all the nutrients from it that they require,…
Looking for a few creative ideas for making succulent planters and wreaths? Here’s a nice collection using either cuttings or full grown plants that I’ve handpicked from around the ‘net, most are for outdoor gardening but there are some ideas…
This is a great vegetable for beginners to start with since it’s pretty easy and grows quickly…though fair warning: it will make you feel like quite the farmer when you see the abundant harvest each plant produces 😉 .
Part…
Easter lilies (Lilium longiflorum) are beautiful with their white trumpet flowers and are traditionally given as gifts or purchased for decoration during the holiday season. They produce such a lovely fragrance and when they’re arranged in groups, the display is…
Pulling weeds by hand is not always easy or practical, they’re pesky and determined to pop back up and spread in no time. If you’re looking for more natural ways to control them that don’t include harsh chemicals and are…
If you’d like to get your kiddos interested in growing food, strawberries are just the ticket! They bear juicy, red fruit that nearly everyone loves and are pretty easy to manage.
If you don’t have space for a patch outside,…
Why are these little birds so popular? There’s something so charming about washing your dishes at the kitchen sink or sitting at a table and looking out the window to see a hummingbird (also known as “hummies”) hovering a few…
Here’s an assortment of free tutorials and plans for building raised beds, especially useful with the square foot method (wonderful for both vegetable and flower beds). Most of the online projects I came across seem pretty similar to each other…
Garlic (Allium sativum) is easy to grow in home plots and since it’s used so much in cooking (and in home remedies), why not try plant some this year and have a stockpile to enjoy (and some to share with…
Here are a few tips to help speed up and encourage tomatoes to ripen on the vine when it’s close to the end of growing season (there are also off the vine instructions below):
Keep plants free of diseased leaves…
Tulips are a favorite in flower beds and are known as harbingers of Spring (they’re one of the first of the season to produce blooms). Their beautiful flowers and vibrant colors are a refreshing change after a cold and dreary…
I found this interesting article in a magazine from 1946 that gives advice for care of several different kinds of pruned flowers, enjoy!
If you are addicted to using a gathering basket, put it away and substitute it for a…
You can make some pretty tasty dishes with an avocado but did you know that you can grow a tree from it too? It probably won’t produce any fruit, but it is a nice addition to your home plant life.…
When saving seeds from this year’s harvest for next year’s, you’ll find best results with heirloom tomatoes rather than hybrids (hybrids are typically the ones you purchase in grocery stores and regular greenhouse seedlings). Once you make your initial purchase…
Did you know that with a clever arrangement of certain flowers and plants, you can have a beautiful display that will provide a visual feast and delight your senses–even during the middle of the night? Creating a moon garden does…
Lots of goodies today! If you’d like to get creative with your yard display this year, I’ve put together a list to help tweak some ideas for you (this is also a great way to repurpose household items that would…
These common garden pests are soft-bodied mollusks that are like snails but without the shell for protection. Their size can be between 1/4″ to 10″ in length and come in a variety of colors from light grays or yellows to…
In the area where I live, potted Hydrangeas show up full force in the stores around Easter time and are very popular because of their beautiful colors and abundance of flowers.
They’re lovely indoors but if they don’t receive adequate…
Quite the clever method here folks! Today’s feature includes tips from three different sources for growing potatoes vertically (in layers) instead of spread out in rows across your garden. If you have limited space or want to try some nifty…
Petunias are an old-fashioned favorite that offer a lovely burst of color and work well in most patches of soil, they bloom in nearly every color you can think of. You can grow them in flower beds, hanging baskets (wave…
If you’re looking for a hardy plant that offers plenty of blooms in a large variety of colors, geraniums are a great choice. These old-fashioned favorites grow well in flower beds, hanging baskets, containers, window boxes and they’ll bloom beautiful…
I have some peonies that never bloom. What can be wrong with them? Several things might prevent them from blooming but the most likely is that they are planted too deeply. Two inches is the proper depth, and beyond that…
When: Seedlings should be planted in the Spring after all danger of frost has passed. You can either purchase these at a local greenhouse or try starting your own by seed (start indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before the…
Basil is a great choice to plant since it’s easy to grow and is useful in so many ways. It can be used in salads, makes a great pesto and seasons dishes like soups, casseroles and sauces. It is also…
Potting soil is sterilized to give your plants the best environment possible by killing weed seeds or disease organisms that might be lingering in the soil. Most commercial products have already done this but if you want to use that…
One good way to really save the budget is to plan ahead and make use of this year’s vegetables, flowers and other plant life you have growing in the garden for next year’s crop. If you’ve tried saving seeds from…
These homemade pesticides are cheap and easy to make with many being just as effective as some commercial products on the market. No fancy items required, everything you need is likely stocked in your kitchen and garden. Most of the…
Everyone wants their lawn to look as lush and green as possible, it’s one of the least expensive methods for giving your home nice curb appeal (whereas a brown, patchy yard is one of the first things that can downgrade…
These snippets of advice come from a household booklet published in 1947 and features suggestions given for handling plants, cut flowers and other related topics. *Updated: I moved two more pages here for one lengthy sheet of vintage notes. What…
Start with clean, scrubbed pots–preferably sterilized–for better success. Coarse steel wool or metal scouring pads clean them in a jiffy. Here’s how:
Most harmful organisms can be killed by placing a stack of pots on a cloth under the hot-water…
Compost tea may not be made from tea leaves, but it is very rich in nutrients that plants thrive on and removes the need for commercial fertilizers. It can also be considered a method of organic pest control since the…
Buying Tips:
Succulent usually grows slowly inside–purchase a large, mature one if possible. If a young one is your only option, it’s still suitable for first aid treatments–just know it will take a few years to get large.
Young aloe…
Here are some suggestions for preparing your yard for winter, this makes yard maintenance much easier to deal with in the Spring!
Clean Plant Pots: Wash grime & rings away with a 50/50 water and vinegar solution. Works well on…
Although approximately one third of cats could care less about catnip, the majority flip for it. And drool. And race around! Why do they love it so much?
This plant produces Nepetalactone oil which acts something like an aphrodisiac for…
Best Time For Daylilies:
Best done in the Spring and early Fall to give the plants a few weeks to adjust before the weather becomes extremely hot or cold.
When doing this in the Fall, at least 6 weeks before…