There is a lot of confusion out there about various chives and garlics. Identifying one from the other is actually quite simple, until we add other alliums to the list, then it can become very complicated. In this post I will look at the common ones and provide a simple way to correctly identify your plant. I’ll also include some cultural information.
The recommended time for planting garlic in colder climates is mid-fall – October in zone 5. That certainly works but is that the best time?
Spring bulbs, like tulips, are also planted in fall but common advice for these is to plant them as soon as you get them. Earlier is certainly better than later. Planting earlier allows the bulb more time to develop a good root system before winter sets in. Since garlic is a bulb, would the same logic not apply to it? Would it not be better to plant garlic sooner?
Rhubarb is a great vegetable that is one of the easiest things to grow. I deadhead the flower stem, mulch with wood chips and that is the only care the plant has gotten in 10 years. It produces every year. But gardeners need to make things more complicated and numerous rhubarb myths have developed.
Rhubarb is a favorite vegetable of gardeners in temperate climates since it is so easy to grow. We eat the stems, and know that you should never eat the leaves since they are poisonous due to high levels of oxalic acid.
I’ve known this fact since I was a kid so you can imagine my surprise when I learned a few weeks ago that this is all a big myth. Lets dig into the truth.
The reason cucumbers, squash, muskmelons and watermelons should not be grown near each other is that they are all cucurbits and may cross-pollinate to produce weird franken-gourds. This myth does have some truth in it, but it is not good gardening advice.
Bunching onions are very popular and can be expensive to buy. Fortunately, they are easy to grow and take up very little space in the garden.
Raised beds are becoming more popular, but do they make sense for the garden? What benefits do they provide? Will they grow more food than convention low beds? Does a raised bed need to have side walls? What is the best building material and soil for raised beds? In this and the following posts I will try to answer all of these questions so that you can make an informed decision about adding raised beds to your garden.
Lots of people are looking to buy organic seeds but as a chemist this has never made any sense to me. I started asking people on social media for their reasons for selecting organic seeds over conventional seeds or heirlooms seeds. The answers clearly indicate that people don’t understand why they want organic seeds, but one valid reason did emerge.
In this post I will look at the reasons people give for buying organic seed and discuss the validity of the reasons.
Garlic is one of the easiest vegetables to grow in the home garden, and if you grow too much, it easily keeps all winter long. Plant some today.
Blossom End Rot, known as BER, is a disfiguration found in fruiting vegetables, like tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, eggplants, and apples. This problem is usually blamed on a shortage of calcium, but this turns out to be a myth.
Companion planting is a standard recommendation for growing vegetables. One of the most commonly recommended plants for this is the marigold, which is supposed to be good for preventing various pests from eating the vegetables. I will limit the discussion in this post to using marigolds to reduce or eliminate nematodes in the garden.
The idea of square foot gardening has become popular over the last few years and some of the underlying concepts of the this gardening technique make sense.
I was at an industry gardening show recently and spotted a plastic box for square foot gardening. I just started to laugh. What a silly idea!!!
