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When to start seed. NEED HELP remembering when it’s safe and smart to start your first spring sowings of vegetable, flower and herb seeds indoors and out?

when to start seed

This tool helps calculate when. Begin by entering your final spring frost date on the top right of the chart below. (Don’t know? Select your state, then your nearest weather station, from this USDA chart, then slide across to 10 percent possibility at 32 degrees.) The chart dates suggest earliest springtime sowings, but there is no hard-and-fast rule whether lettuce needs 4 or 6 weeks indoors—or if you never give it a headstart, but simply direct-sow. Note: Reemay or other protective row covers can “cheat” the earliest transplant dates by as much as 2 weeks, especially helpful with tender things like melons (or insect-prone brassicas and cucurbits). Many crops (salads, carrots, beets, bush beans, cilantro…) are best sown in succession, a small amount every 2 weeks, starting at the chart date.

Agriculture / Gardening. Order Receipt at Marisota. 10 Plants That Repel Garden Insect Pests. 10 Plants That Repel Garden Insect Pests Please be sure to Join our email list and receive all our latest and best tutorials daily – free!

10 Plants That Repel Garden Insect Pests

Background photo – Yummifruitbat (Wikipedia) lic. under CC 2.5 We’ve been doing some research into plants that repel pests and have compiled a list of 10 plants that can be planted together with other plants as a simple form of insect control. The idea of selecting plants for insect control is not a new one – and is part of the overall subject of companion planting. Companion planting has actually been in use since ancient times; for example the mosquito fern has been planted alongside rice in China for over 1000 years in order to assist with nitrogen fixing and the crowding out of other weeds. Shady Veg. Garden. Most people envision their gardens as being in full sun all day long, and yet there may be some of us that have more shade in our yards than full sunshine.

Shady Veg. Garden

Is it still possible to have a vegetable garden? I say yes, you can! You may not be able to have all of your favorites, but then again you may be able to grow plants that others cannot. Growing Garlic. Growing Garlic. As far as I'm concerned, garlic gets the blue ribbon for growing your own.

Growing Garlic

It's absurdly easy to plant and care for; it tastes great; it looks beautiful and it takes up so little ground that even those with very small gardens can raise enough to be self-sufficient in garlic for a good part of the year. All you have to do is choose the right varieties; plant at the right time, in the right soil; then harvest when just right and store correctly. 1. Choosing Types of Garlic. Pea Shoots. Grown from virtually any Pea variety, Shoots are the plant above the soil.

Pea Shoots

They produce a robust, tender Shoot in 8 - 14 days (depending on your climate, time of year and for how long you grow them). Really excellent stir-fried quickly with some garlic and tamari (soy sauce) and (optionally) ginger. Note: You can grow shoots from any Pea. They all have different characteristics, so experiment. Fresh (is that a flavor?) 6 Herbs That Naturally Repel Mosquitoes and Fleas. Summertime is full of fun stuff – sun, surf and big, silly blockbuster movies – but there’s one part of summer that’s not so fun: the BUGS.

6 Herbs That Naturally Repel Mosquitoes and Fleas

‘Tis the season for mosquitoes, fleas and other itch-inducing insects to come out in full force, leaving your skin covered in bites and your fingers frantically scratching away, desperate for a little relief. I’ve always been a magnet for mosquitoes and other bite-happy bugs, and my skin is super-sensitive to bug bites. Once, when I was in elementary school, my dog Louie became the unwitting host to a pretty extraordinary number of fleas that arrived very suddenly one weekend.

Unaware of his unwelcome visitors, I spent the weekend playing and snuggling with him as usual. By that Monday, I was so completely covered in angry, itchy red bites that my teacher sent me home thinking I had chicken pox! So come summertime, I’m always on the lookout for new natural ways to repel those pesky little biters. Lemon balm is a natural bug repellent. 1. 2. 3.

List of companion plants. Dill is one of the few plants to grow with Fennel This is a list of companion plants.

List of companion plants

Many more are in the list of beneficial weeds. Companion plants assist in the growth of others by attracting beneficial insects, repelling pests, or providing nutrients, shade, or support. They can be part of a biological pest control program. Vegetables[edit] Fruit[edit] Herbs[edit] Flowers[edit]

Herb Spiral

Lasagna Gardening - sheet composting - build a lasagna garden. Another practical and natural short cut to digging and tilling, lasagna gardening — sometimes called sheet composting or layer gardening — follows similar guidelines as other no-dig methods.

Lasagna Gardening - sheet composting - build a lasagna garden

You know those barren, sloped, stony, weedy, sandy or clay compacted places where you look at aghast and wonder how you could ever get a garden going there? That's where lasagna gardening proves its worth. Just toss down layer upon layer. That's what a lasagna garden is — layers. The layers are not so planned as a no-dig raised bed garden, where the compost is pre-made and added.

How to Build a Lasagna Garden. BLUERIBBONTOMATOES.COM. Gardening Forums.