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Growing Vegetables

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Water Efficient Irrigation with Clay Pot Ollas. I bought 2 ollas from East Central Ministries, the organization recommended by Agroinnovations. On their site, the ollas are under Urban Farm on their table of contents down the left side. I've since contacted them to clarify that YES, the ollas are 100% LEAD-FREE and to also ask what size ollas to use.

Here is what they told me: Squash - 1.5 gallon size Cucumber/zucchini - 1 or 1.5 gallons Eggplant & peppers - 1/2 gallon Beets - 1/2 gallon Tomatoes - 3/4 gallon or larger In the case of something like beets, you would bury the 1/2 gallon olla and then plant beets all the way around it so several beets would share one olla. My ollas came in the mail yesterday. Buried olla, in between 2 tomato plants Olla covered with a rock I went out to check on the water level today and I was shocked to find the olla only 1/4 full. Veg-seed-guide.jpg (JPEG Image, 900 × 1800 pixels) Growing Tomatoes, How to Grow Tomatoes, Planting Tomatoes. Back in the 80’s when I started growing tomatoes organically, the only way to get good tomatoes was to grow your own. Now you can get good tomatoes in season at farmers markets and high-end supermarkets, but they still don’t come close to tomatoes you can grow in your back yard, if you know how to grow tomatoes.

The first time you tuck into a sun-warmed, vine-ripened tomato, you’ll be hooked. Tomatoes need a long growing season, 6-12 hours of sun a day, and summer heat to set and ripen fruit. As a general rule, the larger the tomato, the more heat the plant needs. Beefsteak tomatoes need the most heat, and cherry tomatoes need the least. Tomatoes perform better when you can mimic the conditions they evolved under. Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) evolved in the Orinoco basin. Grow tomatoes in the sunniest, warmest part of your garden. Tomato Cold Tolerance/Season Tomatoes are summer vegetables that die at the first touch of frost.

Soil Amendments and Garden Preparation for Planting Tomatoes. Adding Flowers To The Vegetable Garden. Are you on a mission to grow your own food? Become sustainable, or at least, less dependent on your grocer? I understand that desire and realize many people want to utilize every square inch of their garden for growing vegetables, but there are several good reasons for adding flowering plants, mixing them right in with your veggies.Flowers Attract PollinatorsIt's amazing how many of our vegetables actually require an insect to pollinate them: broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, cucumbers, eggplants, kale, melons, okra, onions, peas, peppers, pumpkins, radishes, squash, and tomatoes! And while all of these don't necessarily need pollinating for you to enjoy them, those that produce fruits definitely benefit from happy pollinators.For example, did you know that tomatoes (which have been considered wind pollinated by many) actually produce more fruit when visited by a bumblebee?

And then there is the squash family. No honeybees, no squash. Companion Planting Table. Garden compost making. How To Compost With A Compost Pile - Pictures And Description. Custom Search When you think of garden compost - what comes to mind? Warm sunny days spent planting a vegetable garden... only to be spoilt by having to plunge your gardening fork into a smelly mass of slimey, rotting vegetable matter.

Well, if that is your experience, you're just not making compost correctly. Vegetable gardening and garden compost making are like Laurel and Hardy or Morcombe and Wise - I added the second pair because they`re more my era and I don't want you thinking I'm that old... get my drift! Garden Compost - Getting Started It is tidier to make your compost pile in a bin or compost container. Locate your compost bin in a sheltered, level area of the garden - where there is good drainage and access if it is possible.

Garden Compost - How/Where To Use Garden Compost Your compost can be used at any time of the year but for maximum impact it should be applied to the existing soil in the autumn or spring. How Do You Make Garden Compost? How To Make A Compost Pile Home Page. The 10 Best Tomatoes for Containers. Growing Strawberries. By Mr. Strawberry Introduction to the Growing Strawberries Page Do you want to begin growing strawberries? Or, have you been growing strawberries for a long time and simply want to get fresh ideas or helpful suggestions? You’ve landed in the right spot! We are passionate about everything related to strawberries here. To help you navigate to the information that is most helpful for your present situation, use this handy-dandy table of contents to go directly to the information you need.

How the Growing Strawberries Page Works This main Growing Strawberries page serves as a hub for everything related to growing strawberry plants. So, while the basics of growing strawberries will be contained on this page, there will be regularly updated links to more pages on this site at the bottom that go into more detail about different methods and aspects of growing strawberry plants and how to grow strawberries using different methods. Why Should You Consider Growing Strawberries? The Matted Row System:

Plants to plan for

Tips for Growing the Best Winter Storage Vegetable – Winter Squash! This week our family is eating the last of the stored winter squash, the longest ‘keeper’ of the 36 we harvested last summer from our backyard garden. Since last October’s harvest, we’ve been able to enjoy one squash per week for almost nine months! Winter squash are fairly large, and there is usually enough ‘meat’ from the squash to use in three or four meals, so more than half of our meals have included squash in one form or another. Since we save seeds from previous squash crops, the cost of growing this nutritious vegetable has been next to nothing.

The produce manager at a nearby supermarket told me that winter squash is not that popular, and he thinks this is because people don’t know what to do with squash. This is a shame, since squash is as versatile as potatoes. The health benefits of winter squash are as rewarding as its rich taste. The health benefits of winter squash are as rewarding as its rich taste Here are our tips for growing your own winter bounty of Buttercup squash. Garden Planner. Eggplant: Planting, Growing and Harvesting Eggplant. Botanical name: Solanum melongena Plant type: Vegetable USDA Hardiness Zones: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Sun exposure: Full Sun Soil type: Sandy Soil pH: Slightly Acidic to Neutral Eggplants are short-lived perennial vegetables, but are usually cultivated as annuals. Planting Start plants indoors 2 months before the soil warms up or buy nursery transplants just before planting.

Care Stake plants over 24 inches tall. Pests Harvest/Storage Harvest 16 to 24 weeks after sowing when the skin of the fruit is shiny and unwrinkled. Recommended Varieties 'Black Beauty' 'Easter Egg' 'Little Fingers' Recipes Wit & Wisdom At one time, women in the Orient used a black dye to stain their teeth a gun metal gray. Bell Peppers: Planting, Growing and Harvesting Bell Pepper Plants. Botanical name: Capsicum annuum Plant type: Vegetable USDA Hardiness Zones: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Sun exposure: Full Sun Soil type: Loamy Soil pH: Neutral Peppers are a tender, warm-season crop. Planting Start seeds indoors 8-10 weeks before last spring frost date. Care Soil should be well-drained, but maintain adequate moisture either with mulch or plastic covering.

Pests Harvest/Storage Harvest as soon as peppers reach desired size. Recommended Varieties Look for varieties that ripen to their full color quickly; fully mature peppers are the most nutritious—and tastier, too! Green to Red: ‘Lady Bell’, 'Gypsy,' ‘Bell Boy,’ 'Lipstick' Yellow: 'Golden California Wonder' Recipes Wit & Wisdom The popular green and red bell peppers that we see in supermarkets are actually the same thing; the red peppers have just been allowed to mature on the plant longer, changing color and also gaining a higher content of Vitamin C. Bokashi Composting | Anna's Favorite Things. My Bokashi Bin It was not hard to decide what my first entry would be about. You see, I’m a bit evangelical about composting in general but especially Bokashi composting! I recently wrote an article called, “Putting Your Waste to Work”, about Bokashi and deep mulch gardening for Natural Life Magazine.

And I was lucky enough to give a talk on the topic to a packed house at our local library last week. So, it just made sense to make it my first official post here! Bokashi composting is just EASY! A standard American family of 4 sends 2000 pounds of food waste to the landfill each year. Bokashi is a Japanese word meaning “fermented organic matter”. The process basically “pickles” the waste, instead of “rotting” as we see with traditional compost. The microbials work in an anaerobic environment to ferment the waste, once it is fermented it’s transferred to the soil (or compost pile) where the soil microbials take over and finish the job breaking down the food.

My compost and a worm friend :) How To Grow Organic Beets | On The Green Farms. Beets can be stored in a “Zip Lock” bag in your refrigerator for several weeks.Beets also store well in a root cellar or cool, dark area packed in peat, sand or sawdust with moderate to high humidity – ideally 33° to 35°F with 95% humidity – don’t let them freeze! Harvested beets also may be stored in a pit in the ground covered with enough straw to keep them from freezing (that’s what we do).Beets can be frozen, canned, pickled, or dried with good results.To Freeze – If you choose to freeze your beets, select deep, uniformly-red, tender, young beets for freezing. 1.

Wash gently and sort according to size. 2. Trim tops, leaving 1″ of stem and tap root intact to prevent bleeding of color during cooking. 3. Cook in boiling water until tender for small beets (1 inch in diameter) 25 to 30 minutes; for medium beets (2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter) 45 to 50 minutes. 4. To Can – Beets with a diameter of 1 to 2 inches are preferred for whole packs. 1. 4. Back To Top. How to Side-Dress Your Vegetable Garden. Some garden vegetable plants and soil types require a consistent side-dressing of fertilizer throughout the growing season. To side-dress vegetable plants, you apply fertilizer to the soil on or around the sides of the plant. This practice is especially important in gardens with sandy soils that don't hold nutrients well, and during growth spurts when plants require lots of nutrients. Side dressing takes little effort, and the payoff is a bountiful harvest.

Keep these pointers in mind for side-dressing your vegetable garden: Depending on plant spacing, side-dress either in a narrow furrow down a row or around each individual plant. The kind of plants that you grow makes a difference in how often you side-dress. Gardening Glossary annuals Plants that complete their entire life cycle within one growing season. Biennials A plant that take two growing seasons to complete its life cycle. Bolt When a plant flowers or produces seed prematurely. cold frame cole crops complete fertilizer deadheading humus. How to Plant and Grow Sweet Potatoes. How To Grow Sweet Potatoes? Growing Sweet Potatoes The Easy Way. How To Grow Sweet Potato Vines At Home Growing Sweet Potatoes is very easy in tropical and sub tropical climates. (And not difficult in cool climates, either.) In fact, the question is not how to grow sweet potatoes, it's rather how to stop sweet potato vines from taking over the whole garden! Sweet potato is a very invasive creeper...

But even though they can be a pain in the you know what if not managed (harvested regularly), you absolutely have to grow sweet potatoes! Sweet potato is one of the most useful food plants in a warm climate: Sweet potatoes are the perfect substitute for normal potatoes.Sweet potatoes have less disease problems.Growing sweet potato vines is much easier than growing other potatoes.Sweet potatoes are very nutritious.And sweet potatoes grow with little water and fertilizer.

You can use sweet potatoes in the kitchen just like you would use potatoes. So, how do you grow sweet potatoes, and how do you keep them under control? How To Grow Sweet Potatoes Return to top. Plant Potatoes in Bags of Burlap Above Ground from Home Grown Fun.