Monday, June 17, 2002

 

Gardening Tips

Raspberries

I was talking to someone the other day about my rasberries and she said you need to water them every other day for 25 min. They need lots of water during th growing season. I put some fruit fertilizer spikes at each end to help them produce better. I will add some half way down the rows on each side next year.

The time to transplant raspberries is in the early spring, and or in the early fall.

Cauliflower
I also found out if the cauliflower doesn't form heads, it lacks water. you can tell this by when it starts to grow like
broccoilli florets. If the heads mature in the heat, they're apt to have a bitter taste or go by very quickly. Put plants
out 3 or 4 weeks before date of average last date of frost. Blanching keeps heads creamy white and sweet tasting.
Nornal blanching takes 4 to 8 days, but it may take a little longer in the fall. The way to blanch is to cover the heads by taking an outside leaf from the plant, breaking it partially at the stem, laying it over the top of the cauliflower, and tucking it in on the other side of the head. I do this on all sides of the plant. This lets the air in but keeps the sunlight out. The folded leaves also shed the rain, so you have fewer problems with rot. When heads are about 6 inches across, you can begin to harvest them. You can let them get as large as 12 inches accross depending the variety. Be sure to cut the heads before the tight flower buds open. Cauliflower looses it fine texture and taste when the buds start to loosen.

Weeds
Someone told me if you apply newspaper down the sides of each furrow and put grass cippings on top this keeps
your weeds out and you can roto till it in at end of season. We used old worn out carpet one year in our furrows and
it kept weeds down also.

Carrots

I learned a tip on a good way to make carrots come up everytime for you. Make a furrow fill the furrow with
water and wait for water to disappear. Then sprinkle carrot seeds in furrow. Cover up furrow with amount of soil it says on your package. Then water again good. Place a 2x4 on top of furrow and let it remain till carrots are up about 1/8 inch. Then
remove board and that is it. Check ever so often to see when seeds come up and that the soil is kept moist also.
This is important.

Cleaning Broccoli and Brussel Sprouts

Soak in water and salt for about 1/2 hour then pour off. Keep doing this till bugs are gone out of them. Blanch
them for 3 min. and put ice cubes over top and water to cool them down. Then put in zip lock bags and freeze.

Planting Broccoli and Brussel Sprouts.

The center head must be cut before it blossums. Lack of water, heat, and stress causes the plant to send out
yellow flowers. The only way to stop this is harvesting. Once you cut out the center head, many smaller heads , or
parts of the stems starts to produce. It's important to keep them picked or the plant will stop producing. I go out
every other day in hot weather and pick. You can pick even the smallest shoots it is almost a non stop harvest till
you get tired of them and want to stop. Then pull up the plant.

Brussel Sprouts

Little sprouts start forming at base of each stem. You can pick them when they are the size of marbles. You strip
the leaves off after you see small sprouts starting to form. and it causes the plant to grow taller and give more sprouts.
You do this about 6 to 8 inches up from the ground. These grow in a hurry about 5 to 7 days and they are
ready to pick. When I harvest them I take a minute and pick off more branches or stems and this causes the next
harvest to grow. I do this through the season, forcing the plant to grow taller, to send out new branches, and to
produce more sprouts. They will keep growing till winter knocks them out or until some of the sprouts send out
seed stalks and blossums, When plants gets about 3 feet tall, try pinching out the center terminal on a few plants.
This will encourage larger sprouts.

posted by Marieva 2:00 PM

Sunday, June 16, 2002

 

COMPANION PLANTING

Some plants seem to grow healthier when matched with certain other plants. Plant companions in alternating rows, as alternate plants or mixed matched.

Beans: like pepper, potato, carrot, cumcumber, tomatoes, marigold.

Tomatoes: Like onions, mint, parsley, asparagus, marigold.

Corn: Likes potatoes, peas, beans, Plant as a border around block of corn.

Catch Crops

Organic gardeners often use "catch crops" to attract insects from plants.

Basil: Improves growth and flavor of tomatoes, Repels flies and mosquitoes.

Broom: Planted very close to rows of seedlings, protects radishes, cabbage and cucumbers from ground fleas.

Catnip: Plant in borders to deter the flea beetle.

Chives: Improves growth and flavor of carrots.

Dill: Improves growth and health of cabbage.

Flax: Deters potato bug. Improves growth and flavor of carrots and potatoes.

Garlic: Plant between strawberries, next to roses and beneath fruit trees. Deters Japanese beetle. Improves growth and health of roses and raspberries. Staves off peach bore.

Marigold: Plant throughout garden to discourage Mexican bettle, nematodes and other insects.

Mint: Improves health and flavor of cabbage and tomatoes. Deters white cabbage moth.

Petunias: Protects beans.

Wormwood: Used as a border, it keeps animals from the garden.

Sprays:

Spider mites: and aphids and crops susceptiable to viruses:

Puree 3 or 4 hot peppers, 2 large onions and 1 whole garlic bulb in a food processor or blender. Cover with three or four pints of water and let sit overnight. Strain through fine sieve. Add enough water to make 1 gallon. Add a few drops of soap or dishwashing detergent. Spray vegetable crops as needed.

For Ant Hills and virus diseases: Sprinkle with dried hot peppers.

For Flower Pest: Make a teas by mincing 1 clove of garlic with 2 or 3 red hot peppers, 1/2 onion and 1/2 mild green pepper. Blend in water, let sit one or two days, strain and spray.

For Mites and fungus diseases: Steep 20 to 50 grams of onion peel in one quart of water for four to seven days. Filter and
spray undiluted.

For Cabbage-eating caterpillars : Dust cabbage leaves with powdered slugar.

posted by Marieva 8:39 PM

 

ROSES

My father showed me how to grow my own roses from a cutting.

He told me to do it in Nov. I lived in Prescott Arizona at the time. You want to be sure it is cool enough in your area.

I cut just below the "y" about 4" where another branch is coming usually make it about 7"long from top of "Y" to the bottom. Then get some root tone and dip end in it and dig a hole and put the cutting in ground so you have the "Y" sticking up out of ground fill the hole with water. Fill dirt in and put a quart jar over the top and check it so often till it freezes and then just leave it until next spring and warm enough to remove jar without freezing the cutting. Usually plant cutting where you want the rose bush to grow. Can move them after a few years. I did one for a friend and the next spring I took it up out of the ground and took over to her, she now has beautiful yellow roses on her bush.

Just experiment it is a cheap way to get rose bushes for your yard. I have around nine bushes now I have done.

posted by Marieva 8:29 PM

 

COMPOSTING

I had someone show me how to compost one day, it seemed so much easier than any other method I had read about and less difficult to understand.

This is what he told me: you take 1/3 leaves, 1/3 grass, 1/3 hay. Mix it up and you can add vegt. waste to this also make sure it is mixed and distributed evenly. Then you wet it down so it is damp not soggy. Cover it with black plastic and wait for three days then remove plastic and stir it well with a pitch fork and wet down again. Then check it each day to make sure it is still damp and then make sure you stir it each time well and put water on it each time. It usually takes around seven days and it is done and ready to add to your garden. You can put it around plants. The things you can put in as far vegt. is anything that does not have grease in it. You can add rose clippings just make sure they are cut into small pieces. You can add shredded newspaper, egg shells. It is a lot of work but your yeild in your garden will increase a lot. I have done this for serveral years now and am extremely happy with it. The only problem is trying to find a place to do the compost it really smells .

posted by Marieva 7:07 PM