Gardening

So, we attempted to grow some carrots this year. I’m not sure what went wrong but it was a huge disappointment. These Royal Chantenay carrots amounted to this after more than 3 months: This variety states 60-70 days to harvest on the seed packet. After doing a few minutes of …

They’re codling moths and they can ravage your apples. Momma codling moth sprinkles her eggs on the leaves and flowers of the apple trees and once hatched, the larvae burrow into those juicy apples and feed for weeks. We have not yet had any issues with this kind of pest …

Every spring we invest in a variety of garden seeds, plant as much as we can fit into our garden, and stash the remaining seeds. When the seeds are pulled out the following spring I always question how viable they are after being stored in a ziplock bag in the …

While it’s snowy and frigid outside, the calendar says we’re about 8 weeks away from our last frost day. That means one very exciting thing: it’s time to start seeds! Previously, I posted some information on the rockwool substrate we’re using this year for the majority of our seed starting. …

How to prep and treat Rockwool for horticulture use: 1. Place Rockwool in the seed flat or other container to soak. You may want to wear gloves when handling dry Rockwool to avoid skin irritation. 2. Add water with a pH of no lower than 5.5 and no higher than …

Made of melted and spun rock, Rockwool is an inorganic man-made material used as a growing medium. More commonly, rockwool or stonewool is used as insulation. Basaltic rock, a volcanic rock, constitutes the highest quality Rockwool because it is non reactive to nutrient solutions. Other ingredients include chalk and binders. …

About 8 weeks ago (16 weeks from our last expected frost) I started our strawberry seeds. It was rainy and cold and I needed a touch of spring. I had my heart set on starting the first seeds of the summer crop before I went into the garage to search …

During our glimpse of spring a few weeks ago, I tried to get a head start on my spring to-do list. On that list was pruning the unruly climbing rose bush pictured below with front and back views. This tall climbing rose bush was in the ground when we bought …

It’s that time of year again. Even with snow on the ground and cold gloomy days I know spring is not far away because it’s time to start my very early seeds! We ordered some perma nest sets a few months ago and I’ve been itching to use them. After …

Let me start by saving that quite frankly, pruning scares me. It’s intimidating. The thought of hacking off limbs and the possible damage I could cause is frightening. But I put on my big girl panties and got over it. I’ve nipped at various flowers before but the worst case …

We recently added 3 more highbush blueberry bushes to our collection. Last year blueberries were an afterthought and needless to say we didn’t have a huge variety to choose from. This year we’ve balanced out the bunch by adding varieties that collectively will give us fruit all through summer and fall. The …

The 2 potted blueberries didn’t fare so well through our first significant snow fall of the winter. Nearly 3 feet dropped over the course of about a week and these blueberries were completely buried. Once ma nature showed us some mercy and the snow washed away with rain we were …

Well, it’s been roughly 2 weeks since I first started treating my daisies infected with powdery mildew with Serenade, a biofungicide. Here’s the original post: Powdery Mildew. Here are the results : After 1 treatment there was a significant difference. The mildew disappeared for a few days leaving behind the …

I  brought these daisies home from work thinking they would be comfy in our planter window. Soon after they settled in powdery mildew struck. Slowly, one by one, the mildew took over a large percentage of the leaves and sucked the life right out of them. I cut off the …

For those of you who haven’t followed our garden this year, we brought home 6 fruit trees in the spring, one of which is a lovely dwarf nectarine tree. There was a single nectarine growing when we got it and FINALLY about 2 weeks ago the tiny little guy was …