Chelates are a hot new additive for soils that claim to make plants grow better and solve the problem of chlorosis. Chelated fertilizer use is also on the rise and even products that aren’t true chelates are reported to have chelating properties.
What is chelation (key-LAY-shun) and should you be adding chelates to soil? Are chelating properties good for plants?
Imagine growing vegetables in your pond. You never have to water them or fertilize them. Since ponds stay cooler than soil, cool-growing crops like lettuce can be grown over a longer period of time. Ponds are a natural source of nutrients, especially if they contain fish, and these nutrients help vegetables grow aquaponically. Not only do you produce food, but the growing vegetables also help keep algae levels low.
Vegetables can be grown right in the pond or in an associated bog garden without any extra equipment, or you can get more serious about this and pump water to an external hydroponic growing area.
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2017 was a great year for GardenMyths.com as we reached almost 3.5 million visitors, since starting the blog. I also managed to publish two books Garden Myths and Building Natural Ponds and sneaked in another video on my YouTube channel before the end of the year.
The new Facebook Group; Garden Fundamentals now has 334 members and is growing quickly. If you have not joined yet, do so now so you don’t miss some any of the great discussions going on there.
Please join Garden Fundamentals Facebook Group now!
I was looking through the unpublished posts and found several in draft form that are ready for 2018. With a large back log of ideas I expect this blog to continue for years.
Thanks to all of my readers for making this such a success.
It is now time to look back at 2017 and review some of the best posts of the year: the 10 Top Gardening Myths of 2017.
Clematis alpina is a very hardy, early flowering vine that adds a great splash of color to your spring garden and then goes on to make interesting seed heads in late summer. As seen in the picture below, I grow it in a planter, in zone 5 and leave it outside all year. You can also plant it in the garden and just about forget about it. It doesn’t need to be pruned, and it will not take over most trees and shrubs the way some larger clematis do.
Heptacodium miconioidesis a small tree or large shrub that provides year long interest, especially in late summer and fall when it appears to flower twice; once in white and then again in red. The white flowers form in bunches of 7 which gives the plant its common name of seven sons plant. After flowering, it forms small fruits and red calyx that are as large as and showier than the flowers.
Colchicum autumnale, commonly called the fall crocus has one of the most unusual life cycles of any plant in my garden. It flowers with no leaves and it’s seeds are stored underground for part of the year. In a given gardening season it flowers first, then rests, and then makes leaves. This is one mixed up plant that has developed a very unique and interesting life cycle.
When should you move the corms – they are not bulbs? When can you collect the seed? Important information like this becomes clear once you understand how Colchicum autumnale grows – their life cycle.
If you spend time understanding the science behind Roundup and glyphosate, its active ingredient, you soon realize that this is a safe chemical compared to many other chemicals, even ones liberally used in the home. Why is it then that so many people fear Roundup?
Probably the biggest reason is great promotion by the anti-Roundup and anti-Monsanto crowd. That is one powerful force that brings one misleading article after another to the attention of a lot of people.
I think that another reason for this fear is our inability to understand very small and very large numbers. A recent research study found glyphosate in natural water systems, and I have seen it posted by several people as proof of a real problem that needs to be feared. If these people simply understood small numbers, they would not fear the report or Roundup.
Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’ is a wonderful little plant for the rock garden. It is not a show stopper, nor does it have big flashy flowers, but it does have a very unique look that gets people talking. It requires almost no care and has few pests.
I am seeing the term soil factory used more often, usually in discussions about Bokashi or Vermicomposting. I’ll restrict this blog to discussions about Bokashi, but most of the comments also apply to Vermicomposting.
It is claimed that Bokashi ferment, the material remaining after the fermentation process, can be used to make soil, which can then be used for house plants or in the garden. This would be quite a feat if true. It takes nature millions of years to make soil, and now Bokashi enthusiasts can do it in a couple of weeks.
Collecting seed is an easy and cheap way to propagate and share plants. It allows you to make more of your own plants or add new types of plants to your garden. You can collect from both gardens and the wild, and it is a great pastime when you are traveling.
In this post I will describe different types of seed and help you determine when they are ready to collect.
Almost every gardener grows spring bulbs like tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and crocus. Millions of new bulbs are sold every year and yet people do not agree on the best time to plant them. Some want to plant early, as soon as they arrive in shops. Others say that you should wait until the ground gets an early frost. Some wait until the ground is fully frozen, but that is usually because they forgot to plant earlier.
A couple of years ago I was in a large nursery that specialized in spring bulbs. It was early September in a zone 5 climate and a manager told me not to plant the bulbs for a couple of months until we had a light frost. I looked him in the eye and asked about the bulbs I had planted in prior years – they were already in the ground. Do they need to be dug up so I could re-plant them after frost? He did not have an answer.
Lets have a look at the science and figure out when you should plant spring bulbs.
A seed exchange is a great way to get free or low cost seed. It is also a way to get seed that you can’t buy anywhere else. For years now I have been using these services to expand my collection of plants and I just love them. One of the most enjoyable experiences in gardening is seeing a new species of plant flower for the first time.
So where are these great seed exchanges, you ask? This post provides a list of them.
