March 29, 2007
Garden Soil
Say soil. That's where it all begins. You can dig and plant, water and fertilize, hope and pray all you want, but if you don't start with good soil, you're always playing catch-up. Do yourself a favor. For indoor gardening and outdoor container gardening, use the "potting soil" you can buy from your supermarket or garden center. It's not exactly soil, but that's what they call it. Most any brand you find will do. Scotts Hyponex is an organic variety from the fertilizer people. Available online from Shop.com for $2.99 per 40# bag. (plus shipping of course)
For outdoor "earth gardening", dig generous quantities of compost, treated manure, or other soil amendment into your garden plot. You can find everything you need in big bags and bigger bags and really big bags from the garden centers in Home Depot, Wal-Mart or Lowe's as well as your local nursery. Buy it. Dig it in. Water it well. Sure it's a pain...a little boring...and messy, but you are laying a foundation as important, relative to your garden, as the one your house is built on. Now you're ready for fun.
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June 17, 2006
Backyard Chickens
Gardeners are such smart people! Did you know that more and more urban gardeners are raising chickens in their backyards, not as pets necessarily, but as garden helpers? No kidding. Many communities across the land allow city folk to keep a few chickens, and people are using them for insect control (they eat bugs and dig up worms) and to fertilize lawns and gardens. Take Seattle. You can have one bird for every 1000 square feet, which means three chickens on the typical 50X100 foot city lot. The worries about sanitation, avian flu and undesirable odors disappear when you have such a small number of fowl together. And guess what, you get eggs too!
I could write pages about all the fun things people are doing, but one of my favorites is the "chicken tractor," a bottomless pen that encloses and protects the chickens and can be moved from area to area so the chickens can do their work and leave their droppings behind–chicken manure, the easy way. We can do this, friends. There are whole websites devoted to this hobby like backyardchickens.com and thecitychicken.com (see links below). The City Chicken site has a gallery of chicken tractor photos. Handy gardeners can build their own hen houses and tractors.
I first read about this in the May/June issue of "Natural Home and Garden," unfortunately not on the web, which tells about the city of Diest in Flanders, Belgium, that gave three chickens each to 2,000 homeowners, not for eggs, not for manure, not for pets, but for...garbage collection! According to the article, chickens are omnivores and can consume something like nine pounds of garbage in a month, so Diest is trying chickens to solve the expensive problem of what to do with biodegradable trash. If they eat leftovers, that tells me that feeding them isn't going to cost any money.
Chickens can make really good pets if you pick the right variety and, no, you don't have to have a rooster, unless you and all your neighbors thrill to the sound of crowing at 4:30 am every day. To have fertile eggs you need the male, but hens lay unfertile eggs all by themselves. If you have small children, you could start by hatching some chicks in the kitchen, and they could have the fun of seeing them grow up. Then you'll have some to share as you spread the word about backyard chickens.
The City Chicken
Chicken Info
Chickens in Seattle
A Chicken Tractor
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April 21, 2006
April Gardening Tips
See this brief overview of ideas and tasks for the April gardener in most every region in the U.S. and tips for the southern hemisphere gardener as well.
April's Regional Guide
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April 21, 2006
What Next? Soil Prep
We've got our hammock and fountain ready for resting when the work just gets to be too much, and the structure of the garden has been analyzed, a new path put in, and unsightly features covered up. Now's the time for the single most important work in gardening. Yes, I meant what I said. The MOST important. That's soil prep. Do it. There is nothing that will help your plants more than amending the soil before planting. Here's a simple one page overview that hits the highlights. Preparing Garden Soil
For more information on your particular area, contact your state college extension or visit your local nursery.
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November 10, 2005
Make Your Own Glass Terrarium
Here's Jill's article on making your own terrarium. This would be a wonderful gift for a special someone, with your own creative touches reflecting the person's passions and taste. Start now and you'll have it all ready for Christmas giving.
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November 09, 2005
Starting Seeds DVD
If the book highlighted in the previous post seemed too esoteric, here's another way to help a gardener friend learn about the subject. It's a little more expensive at $19.99 but looks like it would be easier to understand in a short time. How about adding a gift certificate to one of the seed vendors like Burpee, Park
Seeds, Heirloom Seeds, Johnny's Seeds, or for something different, Seeds of Change (all organic)? You could do it all for under $50.
Starting Seeds DVD
Johnny's Seeds
Seeds of Change
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Seed Starters Handbook
New from the Garden Gate store is this handbook for the SERIOUS gardener at $15.95 ps. Whew...247 pages, softcover. If you know someone who obsesses all winter over seed catalogues looking for the perfect heirloom or hard-to-find seeds and then obsesses over starting them under perfect conditions, this could make you very popular with the recipient of your gift. Haven't read it, but anyone who can write 247 pages about starting seeds must know a lot about her subject. I wish her editors had mentioned the rule about apostrophes, however. You see this omission more and more, and it just drives me crazy!
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November 01, 2005
November
Halloween is past, Thanksgiving coming up and Christmas not far behind. Groan...How could the year have gone by so fast? Do not fear. We here at LeafyLife are assembling a truly awesome list of gifts for the gardener in your life...or for yourself. Why not?
Here are some tips for your November garden courtesy of Tagawa Garden Center:
Continue planting your container-grown tees and shrubs as long as the ground can be worked and get all your bulbs in now.
Prune summer annuals by cutting back half the plant if you are wintering them inside. You'll get much bushier growth.
Prune dead wood from trees and shrubs, thinning and shaping them as you go.
Don't forget to deep water your young trees (up to six feet) and shrubs if the weather stays warm.
Feed the birds.
Use tree wrap on young fruit trees and lighter barked trees to prevent sunscald.
Finish raking leaves and cleaning up the garden to prevent mold and disease from overwintering. Spade your empty beds, leaving soil rough and chunky so the freeze-thaw cycle will break up the clods and hold snow moisture.
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September 28, 2005
Home Food Preservation
The National Center for Home Food Preservation has current research-based recommendations for canning, freeze drying, curing and smoking, fermenting, pickling and otherwise preserving fruit and vegetables at home. Funded by the USDA, it provides information for both amateurs and professionals as well. You can even enroll in a self study course offered by the University of Georgia in canning acid and low-acid foods. Just in time to finish using up the abundance of our summer's gardens and the fall harvest.
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September 27, 2005
More About Bulbs
Martha's program today featured a how-to on bulbs. In case you missed it, a few of her tips follow.
1. Look for plump, unblemished bulbs from a good nursery or Costco (the turnover there is so fast, you don't have to worry about the bulbs being picked over). Check for bruises, breaks and mold just as you would produce you were buying to eat.
2. Always be sure to plant with the root side down. Roots go into the ground, right? The little tip is the top.
3. Plant three times the depth of your bulb in light, loose soil amended with bone meal or super phosphate. Her hyacinths and tulips were two inches long and planted six inches deep. The narcissus were two and a half inches and planted nine inches deep. Squirrels and deer LOVE all bulbs except narcissus, which is another good reason to plant deep.
4. You can layer your bulbs in the ground or in a container (she used a very cool clear acrylic planter), with the large bulbs at the bottom covered by a good layer of soil, and the smaller bulbs like crocus above. Then you can top it all off with a planting of violas or the like. The bulbs at the bottom will come up through the ones on the top, even if they are directly underneath.
5. A nice way to plant bulbs for a natural look is to scatter them, then push them into the soil where they land. They will naturalize if planted in a hospitable environment and you let the foliage die back after blooming in the spring.
6. If you do not live in an area with cold winters, be sure to check your garden center's directions for pre-chilling your bulbs.
Bulb Tips
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September 19, 2005
Forcing Bulbs
Forcing bulbs that would ordinarily be planted in the ground for spring bloom provides color, fragrance and beauty in the depths of winter. And it is so easy to do! This is a good article on the how-to...
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All About Bulbs
Welcome to LeafyLife the week of the autumn equinox!
This is the time for bulb mania. A little advance planning and outdoor work in the fall pays a spectacular dividend in the spring.
A word to the wise: order your bulbs now! Premium bulbs are cheaper and generally in better condition when purchased by mail order rather than from your local nursery or hardware store. Breck's, White Flower Farms, Spring Hill Nursery, Burpee, Park Seed Company, and the like (see links below) offer collections at prices far less per bulb than buying them separately. Many suppliers give discounts for ordering BEFORE October 15th. If you're too late to order by mail, look for large, plump bulbs that have not been picked over or damaged. Be sure to check the zone hardiness for your area. And don't forget the tools and all-important bone meal!
The U.S. Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center is a good place to find out all about bulbs...
Breck's
White Flower Farms
Wayside Gardens
Spring Hill
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Tools for Planting Bulbs
These are Martha's recommended tools for serious bulb planters. Most everything you need is available at Home Depot, Lowe's or your local nursery, or order online at bulb suppliers' websites.
Also, here's a group of interesting garden tools featured on an HGTV show called "Gardening by the Yard" with Paul James. I especially like the new spring-loaded bulb planter he highlights. They list Charley's Greenhouse and Garden and Gardener's Supply Company as good resources for tools.
[via HGTV] Gadgets and Gizmos
Charley's
Gardener's Supply
[via Martha Stewart] Tools for Planting Bulbs
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September 06, 2005
Propagation Techniques
Propagating new plants from your own plant materials is not that complicated. Check this article out for detailed instructions on creating new begonias, African violets, succulents, gloxinias, irises and many others by both leaf cuttings and rooting rhizomes. There is also a very clear explanation of the art of the root cutting, by which the energetic gardener can propagate herbaceous plants with thick roots.
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August 31, 2005
The Starbucks Garden Connection
Looking for the perfect mulch? Need to feed the worms you're raising for your garden? Want a way to control slugs and snails? It turns out that coffee grounds are a valuable ingredient in compost and have a multitude of other uses to aid the active gardener. Mixed with grass and leaves, they can be used as a side dressing for vegetables and flowers. Or, use them straight on acid-loving plants like azaleas and hydrangeas. Either way, they make an excellent mulch that can protect plants from leaf-chomping snails while nourishing the plant's roots.
Isn't this a great reason to have an extra cup of joe? And if you don't drink coffee, your friendly local Starbucks provides grounds for free. Perhaps other coffee stores and cafes will do the same. After all, the grounds just get thrown out. This is recyling at its most effective. Thanks to our Canadian friends at i Can Garden for this good news.
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