Veggie Garden Info

Tulips, Cherry Blossoms and Artichokes

Original post from Dreams and Bones, April 08, 2008

                                                                                                       I am headed to Europe for some travel. Some of it will be in the tulip fields of Holland. I must say the Dutch do not make it easy to find out when these tulips are scheduled to be at peak bloom. (though thanks very much to this one informative blog) Here in DC where the Cherry Blossoms are a key part of OUR tourist industry, the National Park Service has it down to a science. I made my annual pilgrimage last Monday and despite the foggy weather, the delicate beauty of shone through the dismal weather. I will be gone for three weeks and I have devised a way to manage my emerging artichokes.

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Growing Artichokes in Spite of Mother Nature

Original post from Veggie Gardening Tips, February 23, 2008

An interesting question was raised by a gardener looking for tips regarding growing globe artichokes in the home garden:

“I want to grow artichokes this year up here in the Boston area. I have ordered the seeds and am wondering when to start them, when to transplant, and if I will get any edible buds this season. Isn’t there a way to “fool” Mother Nature into thinking this is the second season?” – David P

Globe Artichokes in the Home Garden

You won’t run across too many home gardeners cultivating globe artichokes in their gardens, but I love the challenge as well as the ornamental features that growing artichokes provides to the backyard veggie garden.

I’ve even been known to grow this exotic looking plant just to let them flower; which spoils the opportunity to harvest edible chokes, but produces an ornamental display of extremely large and colorful flowers to admire instead!

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A Prezzie from the Postman

Original post from Down on the Allotment, February 18, 2008

                                                                                                      

Phew! my seed potatoes finally arrived in the post today. I ordered them through the Thompson & Morgan catalogue ages ago. My frequent complaint about buying seed potatoes is that they come in huge quantities. Fortunately I have a gardening buddy with whom I have swapped some tubers. I now have a nice variety - Rocket, Vitelotte, Nicola, Red Duke of York and International Kidney. All chitting in the shed.

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Dog days of August...or should I say FOG days?

Original post from Garden Experiment 2007, August 21, 2007

It's been really cold this month so far with only 1 decent week to be had over 20C. There are tons and tons of green tomatoes maturing in all 3 gardens, and only a few starting to change to their mature colours. I'd've expected by now that I'd be swimming in ripe tomatoes but that is -so- not the case. I can only hope now they will all ripen before the first frosts coming in september. Our average first frost around here is Sept. 7th, so I may have to look into covering the plants for protection.

I know for sure my gourd plant will not have the fruits ripen in time, so I'll leave it outside as long as I can and then bring it in the house under grow lights to mature the gourds. If all goes well with that, I intend to cure the gourds and make them into Shekeres, an African percussion instrument. Any extras I make will be for sale.

Ok so here's the garden roundup report!
 

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Compare and Contrast Cardoons and Artichokes

Original post from Dirt Sun Rain, July 08, 2007

Top: Cardoons, Cynara cardunculus - Bottom Artichokes: Cynara scolymus

They're both thistles and equally delicious. Cardoons are grown mainly for their stalks while the edible portion of the artichoke is their flower buds.

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