I end up visiting a lot of nursery websites as I research plants for articles.
I noticed from time to time that I ended up at one called TyTy Nursery.
Each time I noticed how strange the pictures were, but didn’t think much of it.
One day I actually stopped and started laughing at the pictures on the page. I started clicking around to the different plants and noticed that all the pictures featured plants that had images like bikini-clad women and shirtless men inserted.
I visited again today for a giggle and noticed that it’s gotten even better – now they have videos, too! I watched the one about the “Italian White Fig Tree”, fascinated as someone moved a fig around the screen, with a painting of an Italian street in the background. Read the rest of this entry »
“I plan to eat beets grown inside my kitchen in containers and would love any tips!”
Hi Vonnie. That should be a fun project!
For starters, make sure your container is deep. It should be at least 12″ deep. Since beets are root crops, the more room you can give them, the better.
Also, since a large root is being formed, the soil needs to be loose. Sand is the best soil for producing well-formed roots. Make sure there are no rocks or sticks that could make the roots grow strangely.
When you go to plant your seeds, it’s important to give them a good start in life. Plant them 1″ apart in your container. As Marie Iannotti points out, “Beet seeds can be slow to germinate, because of their tough outer shell. Soaking the seed clusters over night will help soften the shell and speed germination”.
Pomegranates were so mysterious when I was growing up.
We’d buy them once in a while at the store and would break them open.
There were all these little red fruit pieces throughout, each one nestled away in its own cell.
I would have to break it apart bit by bit so I could nibble on the delicious bounty.
As I grew older, I learned interesting facts about the pomegranate. Some say that this, not the apple, was the fruit of the Garden of Eden. The seeds are covered in bright red flesh, which is called an aril. They are considered to be, hands down, one of the best sources of antioxidants. Hummingbirds just love to visit their red flowers.
What’s the best fact of all? You can get this as a dwarf shrub, so it can fit in many an urban garden!
The first and most important rule in building a garden in a new home is to hurry up and wait.
Watching your new property for one year is recommended in order to gain a good feel for how things work on your new piece of land- what the soil is like, how light changes through a season, what special challenges your new location will present.
It is really important to become well-acquainted with your new gardening home before letting a shovel touch the soil.
I freely admit that I broke this rule less than 24 hours after moving in.
Patience has never been my strong suit and in gardening matters I am usually at my most impatient. As expected, in some ways I am now paying for this rush to plant, but given that there were no gardens at all on my new property this was not an unforgivable sin. At least that’s what I am telling myself.
These past few months I have been MIA from Urban Garden Casual, but I have been busier than ever before.
I moved across country to a new city, a new home and most important, a new gardening zone.
My gardens were well established in my old home, and it was a bit wrenching to leave the.
Going from a zone 7 to a zone 4 has been a real shock to my system, and I am having to relearn many things.
My new home had no landscaping at all. However, with 3/4 of an acre, I now have enough room for my vegetables. At least for now- I’ve warned my fiance that no matter how much land one owns, a gardener never remains satisfied. He now winces when I say things like this.
Anyway, I have spent most of this summer trying to build gardens. This has involved bringing in load after load of topsoil and manure, scrounging free things from Craigslist and buying materials to build Read the rest of this entry »
By Vanessa Richins
By Vanessa Richins
By Cindy Naas
By Cindy Naas
