Holiday Blooms From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, millions of houseplants are used as gifts and decorations just to be dumped when holiday cleanup commences. That’s a nice boost to growers and sellers of poinsettias, Christmas cacti, amaryllis, paperwhites, Norfolk Island pines, rosemary, citrus and numerous lesser-used gift plants. As a thrifty gardener who really… Read More
So Many Types of Peppers Capsicum annuum, also known as peppers and chiles, are members of the same botanical family as tomatoes, tomatillos, potatoes and eggplants. These nightshade relatives were thought to be poisonous when first introduced to the old world, but were soon adopted with enthusiasm by adventurous food lovers. Now sweet and spicy… Read More
Choose the Right Tomatoes Tomatoes are the number one homegrown backyard garden crop. If not for quantity, then for enthusiasm and anticipation. The promise of a full-flavored, juicy, thin skinned, meaty tomato drives gardeners, both new and well seasoned, to fantastic displays of devotion and dedication to this crop. But it all starts with selecting… Read More
How to Plant Potatoes in Your Garden Yesterday was St. Patrick’s day, and I celebrated by planting potatoes. It’s not hard to grow potatoes. Just let the sun warm the soil and dry it enough to work. If you want to get a jump on the weather, do like I did and cover the soil… Read More
Starting a Vegetable Garden Years ago when we bought our house, one of the great attributes to me as a gardener was the big open backyard. It meant that I could finally have a big vegetable garden like the one I grew up with. However, unlike the one I grew up with, I had to… Read More