Veggie Garden Info

You Might Be A Gardening Geek: Halloween Edition

Original post from May Dreams Gardens, October 31, 2007

You might be a gardening geek on Halloween if…

1. Your kids decide to dress up as scarecrows, raid your closet to get some old clothes, and then you realize they picked out the exact clothes you were just wearing this past weekend while working in the garden. Bonus points if you once dressed as a scarecrow at Halloween.

2. Your favorite Trick or Treaters are the little ones dressed like lady bugs, bees, sunflowers, daisies and garden fairies, and you sneak them extra treats. Bonus points if you ever dressed your own kids in these kinds of costumes or posted about plant-themed costumes.

Read the rest of this post HERE.

Grow dome goodies

Original post from Fluffius Mupetus, October 31, 2007

 

Although the nights are getting colder, the grow dome is doing its job and protecting my seedlings.

The peas are growing nicely into their twiggy sticks, although some of them are a bit lazy and attempting to trail along the ground.

The tatsoi and coriander are doing well in their tub.

Read the rest of this post HERE.

Welcome to Matron's Squashblog!

Original post from Down on the Allotment, October 30, 2007

 

Welcome to Matron's Squashblog. Many thanks to all of you who contributed, I have posted them below with a link to your blog. I hope you enjoyed my contribution above, he's got a face only a Mother could love, hasn't he?
The origins of Hallowe'en date back over 2000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). This festival, which means the end of Summer, celebrated the end of harvest and the beginning of the Celtic new year on November 1st. All Saints' Day is said to fall on this day when souls walked the Earth. In early Christian tradition souls were released from purgatory for 48 hours on All Hallow's Eve. Spooky!

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Death & Taxes - Let's Add Frost to that List

Original post from Veggie Gardening Tips, October 29, 2007

I can’t imagine why Ben Franklin left that one off his list in the first place. After all, any gardener will tell you that frost is just as certain as the other two, at least it is if you garden anywhere close to my Zone 6 growing region.

Sure, I heard the freeze warnings that were broadcast over the weekend, but who pays much attention to the forecaster’s predictions these days? Besides the leafy greens and fall vegetables that occupy most of the garden have been anxiously awaiting a satisfying frost to stimulate and sweeten their cold hardy leaves for weeks as it stands.

Who’s Afraid of an Itty Bitty Frost

In fact, the only plants left in the garden that would even flinch at a wimpy little frost are a few pepper plants that have been on notice for a while that they were living on borrowed time. So it wasn’t much of a shock or disappointment when I looked out the window this morning to discover a thick, white coating of frost covering the lawn and greenery. 

Read the rest of this post HERE.

How to Find Seeds Suitable for Seed Saving

Original post from Bifurcated Carrots, October 29, 2007

Many gardeners, experienced or beginners, have in the back of their mind they would like to save their own seeds. Perhaps you have even tried it before, but were frustrated or lost interest. One of the most common reasons for failure is not starting with the right seeds. In this post, I’m going to explain how to get the right seeds. This post is mostly about vegetable seeds, but many of the basic principles can be applied to other plants as well.

Other Seed Saving Gardeners

One of the best sources for seeds suitable for seed saving is other gardeners who save their own seeds. I’m not talking about someone who buys a packet of seeds, plants half, then gives you the rest. I’m talking specifically about gardeners who are experienced in saving their own seeds.

You can sometimes find these gardeners in the context of seed exchanges, perhaps fellow community gardeners if you have a community (allotment) garden. There are of course other blogs like this one with people behind them that save their own seeds.

Read the rest of this post HERE.

Confessions of a Compost Hoarder

Original post from Life In Sugar Hollow, October 29, 2007

"Hi. My name is Tracey. I collect and covet bags of leaves for my compost bin."

"Hi Tracey." (Blog readers respond - all in unison.)

"I scope out potential hotbeds of leaf raking and bagging activity during the day."

"Uh-huh." (Again, in unison.)

"And, then, I plan return trips to these spots. Under the cover of dark. With a pick-up truck. It is all I think about during my days in the autumn. Amassing as many bags as possible. To shred for my compost bin. My heart races. My palms get sweaty. I may even . . . . duke it out with another gardener for these leaves."

(Audible gasp from around the world.)

"I see I have shared too much."

********

Decomposing leaves are the backbone of some of the best compost around. 

Read the rest of this post HERE.

Putting food by

Original post from Tiny Farm Blog, October 28, 2007

With the farmers’ market over, time to turn to fall-and-winter things. This year, I’m for the first time organizing a proper veggie selection for storage (it’s about time I started…training for that future CSA root cellar!). Instead of the usual bushel baskets of this and that, casually left around the barn to take their chances with temperature and location, now, there’s a bit of plan. For a root cellar, the basement of the farmhouse, the side with a dirt floor that used to be filled with potatoes when this was a fully working, big family farm. For the veggies, today’s haul has a mix of potatoes, assorted winter squash and pumpkins, various carrots, onions, garlic, plus apples picked up at the market. 

Read the rest of this post HERE.

Contemplating Cover Crops

Original post from This Garden Is Illegal, October 28, 2007

For the first time in my gardening life, I have managed t clean out the vegetable beds BEFORE the snow started to fall. Which leaves me with an interesting dilemma. What do I do with the beds since there are no dead plants and overly hardy weeds growing in them?

My neighbor says that I should do what she does and cover the beds with clear plastic. I am not so certain about this as I had one of my beds like this for the whole summer in an attempt to solarize the bed. I think all I managed to do was provide a decent greenhouse for super weeds like Canada Thistle and Creeping Charlie. The plastic grew brittle and broke in the sun/rain/cold/drought merry-go-round of a climate we have here.

I could just le it lay fallow. It is a time honored tradition after all. I watched for two decades as the farmers where I grew up followed a plant/fallow/till rotation year after year. But, since I went through the trouble of actually getting the beds clear, I feel like I should be doing something.

And so now I am contemplating cover crops. This fine bit of alliteration is causing more trouble than it needs to. The problem is, what exactly do I plant for a cover crop? The choices are surprisingly dizzying. Rye, winter wheat, clover, hairy vetch and dozens more are available. 

Read the rest of this post HERE.