By Vanessa Richins

When I was little, I was fascinated by black-eyed peas.

I had never eaten them, but somehow decided that they were a plant I needed to grow.

Perhaps it was the fact that they looked like a little eye.

I bought packets of seeds yearly. I don’t think I ever harvested any, but I kept buying seeds.

Hopefully you’ll have better success with this Southern favorite – Vigna unguiculata, also known as Cowpeas. Did you know they come from Africa?

When you are choosing a Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

If you’re a fan of salsa, you’re probably very familiar with cilantro.

If you also like to cook, you’re probably familiar with coriander.

Did you know, however, that these come from the same plant?

When you’re using the leaves of Coriandrum sativum, it’s called cilantro. If you let it flower and produce seeds, those are called coriander.

Cilantro prefers cooler weather. If you’re wanting to use the plant for cilantro, then plant outside in early spring or keep inside in the kitchen. When it’s warm, the plant will become bitter and go into seed production, so you could plant for coriander then.

Start the plants where you Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

“Why I’m a Victory Grower” – Kids Video Contest

As part of Food Independence Day (July 4th – created by Roger Doiron of Kitchen Gardeners International and White House Victory Garden fame), a video contest for kids entitled “Why I’m a Victory Grower” is being held.

Once the child is signed up with TEL-A-VISION, they will receive a free one year membership to the Seed Savers Exchange, along with a packet of seeds.

The TEL-A-VISION site will provide them with the tools that they need to make their victory garden video.

As the site advises, the child should, Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

I often get requests to identify some plant that the person found in their yard.

Sometimes they are kind enough to send me pictures, but many times I just get a definition.

It isn’t always easy – Botanic Gardens Conservation International notes that there are an estimated 400,000 different species of plants in the world.

One way to identify your plants is to use an identification key. Another name you may see is a dichotomous key. The name dichotomous means “two parts” With these keys, you will be asked a question that will have two choices (it’s like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books!). Your choice will Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

If you’ve ever stopped to look at the fertilizer product shelf at the garden center, you may have wondered what the numbers on the front mean.

Never fear – it isn’t as complex as it seems.

First, the main number you want to look for is usually plastered across the front. You’ll see a series of three numbers separated by dashes, like 5-10-10.

These three numbers stand for the amount of Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium and are abbreviated as N-P-K. The numbers are the percentages of the elements that are contained in that bag.

For example, if there was a Read the rest of this entry »