(Via Gardening Question of the Day (from The Old Farmer's Almanac))

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-06-21, 19:00:00

My strawberry patch is a mess of weeds. Every year, I think I have removed so many, and they just keep coming up between the berries. Dandelions by far are the worst, and you know that trying to get that whole taproot out at least once every week seems like it would destroy the berries. I do mulch with composted pine bark, but the weeds are worse among the strawberries than anywhere else in that garden. Can I ever hope to win this battle, or should I just give this up? (answer).

From The Old Farmer's Almanac.

(Via Comments for Anne's Garden)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-06-21, 17:58:27

Oh Im so jealous of your fruit trees. Its something Ive always wanted, but I dont think Ill be able to plant them at this house. Ill have to settle for raiding my sisters backyard every once and a while

(Via Snappy's Gardens Blog)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-06-21, 14:22:00

(Via The Blogging Nurseryman - The Art of Running a Small Garden Center or Nursery)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-06-21, 06:32:06

Here is the latest video on fertilizing vegetables in containers. It’s so important to feed vegetables grown in containers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov_0YlwIVzo Feeding keeps the plant healthy and growing. It also vital for the best tasting fruit. I actually like using a organic based fertilizer that has added micro-nutrients. Here in California we are not allowed to label [...]

(Via An Iowa Garden)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-06-21, 04:40:00

There is the calendar year, and then there is the natural year... we march to both drums. Early summer here is turtle time, when the painted turtles make the long, slow climb up the hill to lay their eggs in our back yard. They are eagerly watched for (and worried about, when they are late to show). This year, with our cold, wet spring they had been complete no-shows until today, when a rather small one was found digging her nest. I always wonder for how many years turtles have been struggling up the hill to lay their eggs here, and how many little turtles have caught their first view of the world from this spot. I know I'm happy it's turtle time again.

(Via An Iowa Garden)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-06-21, 04:13:00

Once in a while the Linnaean name for a particular species is somewhat of a head scratcher... take Arisaema robustum, a jack in the pulpit from Japan. it's a cool little thing, with a deeply embossed, thick, five part leaf, and the spathe/spadix arises from the base on a short stalk with the spathe (pulpit) being green and white striped.
When I bought this jack I thought from its name (robustum) that it was going to be a hunk. However, compared with the giant, four foot tall and three foot across Asian jacks like speciosum and heterophyllum that I have growing nearby, robustum is rather... small. Also, while several of these other jacks have multiplied nicely, robustum just kind of sits there; no bigger and no smaller. In fact I'm going to move it this fall, because another Japanese jack (sikokianum) is starting to push robustum out of the way. Maybe it needs some steroids?