The most profitable plants in your vegetable garden 5.3 years ago cheap, cilantro, garlic bulbs, organic, seedling, seeds, vertical gardening, winter garden Many vegetables can be expensive to purchase by growing the most expensive vegetables in your garden and buying the least inexpensive vegetables at your grocery store you can easily help drop your food budget. This especially important for people like me with very limited space to grow everything that I consume. It may be impossible to put a price on the satisfaction of bringing in a basket of produce fresh from your garden. I did a little research first to determine yields of various plants per square foot and secondly what the value (organic supermarket prices USD) of the yielded produce at harvest. Sources: for plant yield information, for current produce prices So go out and get some cheap vegetable seeds (or in many cases free) and plant some profitable vegetables in your backyard/patio garden this spring.
Garlic Gardening I haven't purchased garlic since 1996. That's because I grow enough to eat a bulb of garlic every day, year-round. While most of my garden adventures are hobby-level attempts at self-sufficiency, my garlic crop is for real. Garlic is an overwintering crop, planted in fall and harvested mid-summer. A year's supply of garlic hanging in your garage hints at many great meals to come, but by the time you reach that milestone the rewards have already been flowing for months. As spring continues, your plants will continue to skyrocket, and in late May—assuming you planted a flowering variety—you'll be treated to a funky display of garlic blossoms curling from the plant tops. The flowering varieties of garlic are collectively called hardnecks, so named because of their woody flowering stalks. The first step in growing your own garlic stash is getting your paws on some good garlic for planting. In my case, x = 365/(5-1), or 91.25, which I round up to 92. Ask Ari: Got milk options? Q: Dear Ari,
Garden pests, weeds, and disease solutions | Go Organic - Organic Gardening and Garden Tips Using pesticides and herbicides need not be synonymous with toxic chemicals that harm our health and our gardens. There are many natural techniques, home-made recipes and commercial organic sprays that are effective without harming the surrounding environment. The problem with pesticide sprays, besides introducing yet more chemicals into our system, is they often kill the “good” insects that would otherwise help us combat problem pests. The spray that kills aphids could also kill dragonflies, butterflies and honeybees. In fact, 95% of all insects in your garden are either harmless or actually help your plants. If your home needs serious pest treatment and you would like to stay away from pesticides, you can learn how to control termites along with other general tips on keeping insect populations low. As organic gardeners, we need to find natural and safe products to keep the bugs away and control weeds from messing up our gardens. Natural Pesticides Pesticides in the Kitchen and Garden
Late blight on potatoes More late blight information Large leaf spots (lesions) are common with late blight. These were the main symptom seen in a commercial field on LI in 2009 when this disease was first found. Upper leaf surface with late blight lesions (below) Spores of the pathogen are visible on the lower (under) surface of leaves (below) Close up of spores (below) Leaf lesions can be small when they first start to develop (below left). Symptoms also occur on other parts of potato plants including stems, petioles, and flowers. When first symptoms are mostly on stems (next two pictures below), it can be difficult to detect the onset of late blight, especially in a large planting as on a farm. Below: tuber blight (Photo courtesy Dr. More late blight information: 2014 updates: Webinar on Recent Occurrences and Management Experiences (organic focus) 2013 updates: 2012 updates: Late blight brochures for gardeners: 2011 updates: 2010 updates:
Plants that Repel Insects Certain plants are known for their ability to repel some types of insects. This is a guide about plants that repel insects. Solutions Read and rate the best solutions below by giving them a "thumbs up". Tip: Wintergreen, Spearmint or Pepperminte to Repel Insects Beware of the coming seasonal flying insects that are attracted to floral and fruity scents! By melody_yesterday from Sedalia, MO Tip: Aphid Repellent Plants You can help prevent aphid infestations on your vegetables by interplanting them with plants that repel aphids. Tip: Plants that Repel Insects Here are a list of plants and what insects they repel. Share Your Feedback: Once you try any of the above solutions, be sure to come back and give a "thumbs up" to the one that worked the best for you. Questions Here are questions related to Plants That Repel Insects. Question: Plants That Repel Flies I visit my neighbor just about every day and in the past week his place has been adorned with flies. By Suntydt from Tazewell, TN Question: Lynn,
How to plant a living wall Amelia B. Lima's lush and verdant wall of plants. Jennifer Cheung Click to Enlarge There’s no need to stick to the expected succulents when planting a living wall. San Diego landscape designer Amelia B. One purpose of soil is to support roots, Lima says―if you create another way to hold them up, you could even plant shrubs. Now her sideyard is a jungle of ferns, bromeliads, coral bells, spider plants, and elephant ears. How to get the look: You’ll need patience, time, and a frost-free climate to get this look. 1. 2. 3. Pictured: $4,825 for Wall Materials AND Watering System
Garden Designs With our free online planner, you can design a super-productive vegetable garden, based on square-foot gardening techniques instead of traditional rows. Just drag and drop crops to the planting grid and the planner fills in the number of plants. Or choose from 16 pre-planned gardens. Get Started or Expert Advice and Resources Potato Gardens Across the USA Detection of Potato Tuber Diseases & Defects fact sheet Introduction Good disease management is critical to the successful production of the white potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). The potato plant is susceptible to at least 75 diseases and nonparasitic disorders, many of which consistently cause yield losses in potato production areas in the northeastern United States. Potatoes are a vegetatively propagated crop, and potato seed tubers can be an important source of disease inoculum. Several types of injury that can influence plant vigor and subsequent yields also occur on seed tubers. The objective of this bulletin is to aid in the diagnosis of those tuber diseases and defects that most often result in production problems. The Why, When, and How of Potato Seed Evaluation Why. When. How. External. Internal: Five of these disorders usually produce no diagnostic symptoms on the exterior of the tuber, and diagnosis must be based solely on internal symptoms. In the material that follows, the numbers and lowercase letters refer to the photographs. 1.
Remedies Homemade Fertilizers Fish emulsion and seaweed extract are the best store-bought natural fertilizers. You should follow the directions on the labels or make your own fertilizers: Compost Tea I’ve read that the active ingredients in compost actually help control disease and shoo away insects. Stinging Nettles Tea or Comfrey Tea Mix these greens together or use them separately. Homemade Pest and Disease Remedies Insecticidal soap, rotenone/pyrethrum liquid spray, and diatomaceous earth for horticultural use (silica particles from the skeletal remains of sea creatures that penetrate the bodies of insects on contact-sold as a dust) are good store-bought natural pest remedies. Alcohol spray for Aphids Mix ½ to 1 cup alcohol with a quart of water. Beer Traps for Slugs Put some cheap beer in saucers. Chamomile Tea for Damping Off Spray seedlings with a hot water infusion of chamomile tea to prevent the disease. Insecticidal soap Sold under the Safer brand name. Three Sprays for Powdery Mildew
DIY Vertical Herb Garden with a Shoe Organizer by LiveOAK Staff on July 20, 2009 Confounded by vegetable digging cats and toiling in the vegetable patch, Instructables member pippa5 came up with this cool DIY vertical garden solution. In case you don't recognize it, she used an old closet shoe organizer. Meant to keep your shoes off the floor and save you some space, this new use saves some space by getting your veggies or herbs off the ground. It is similar to the reclaimed gutter vertical garden DIY we featured in April, but this one is even easier. Check out the DIY at Instructables About the Author:
‘Paris Market’ Carrots are Round Delights Carrots (Daucus carota) are popular cool-season, root vegetables to grow in home gardens. But the longer varieties – which can grow up to 8 inches long - are hard to grow in heavy, clay soil conditions. If you have clay soil, consider ‘Paris Market’ (aka ‘Tonda di Parigi’) carrots, which I discovered last year. The round French heirlooms from the 19th century grow only 1 to 2 inches in diameter. These carrots thrive in containers and can handle clay soil (although you’ll want to add organic matter like compost regularly to improve your garden soil quality.) This early variety ripens in 50 to 68 days. Growing Carrots: This root vegetable is difficult to transplant, so sow carrot seeds directly into your garden about 3 to 4 weeks before the last spring frost … or as soon as soil can be worked. Carrots prefer full sun, but tolerate light shade. As the seeds are tiny, they can be hard to handle. Thin new carrots as they start to pop up, so they are spaced 2 to 4 inches apart.
Bloomingfields Farm Garlic - - How To Make a Garlic Braid (illustrated) - - Tools Materials Preparation Braiding Finishing T o o l s — scissors, old toothbrush, 2 medium-sized bath towels, pocket knife M a t e r i a l s — 13 dried and cured, softneck garlic bulbs with long leaves, Jute twine 36 in. long ( Note: there is no true plant stem in softneck braiding garlic, but for our purposes here we will refer to the lower third of the top as a ‘stem’ ). P r e p a r a t i o n — Step l. Step 2. Step 3. Step 4. Step 5. Step 6. Step 7. Step 8.