Troubleshooting

Below are links to articles posted in Troubleshooting.

The Virtue of Buying Small Plants

Have you ever seen a seed grow? Stupid question right? You’re on a gardening blog I’m sure you’ve seen a seed grow. Have you ever stopped to think about the difference in vigor because something grow from seed versus something grown in a pot and then transplanted at some later date? It is astounding. I […]

Sunscald: White rot on the sides of my peppers

I am learning a lot of new things gardening in a new state. Including something recently. I really like growing peppers, all kinds, I think they’re relatively free from pests and diseases (especially hot ones) and we eat a lot of peppers. Bell peppers are one of the few vegetables neither kid complains about. So […]

I don’t mind spots on my apples, but save me the leaves, please: Apple-and-thorn skeletonizer Choreutis pariana

We’ve been having a drought here, and up where my house is being built my fledgling fruit orchard is not doing super great, just not the sort of summer where they’re going to put on a big fat growth ring. But a few of my apples, specifically my Honeycrisp, are doing particularly bad. They’re invested […]

How to add more topsoil the natural way

The modern method of building is to wipe all the top soil away from a lot, build a house, and bring back 3 or 4 inches or soil or just sod and call it good. This, of course, is not good for gardening, and many people want to increase the depth of the top soil […]

What is Hugelkultur?

There is this old German fairy tale where a pair of spoiled children take their parent’s hard work for granted, not appreciating what is provided for them, until a monster known as the Hugelkultur attacks their cottage on night and eats their parents, leaving the children to survive on their own. Just kidding. It is […]

On Composting Meat

In many places, probably even older blog posts here, you will find advice on composting that say do not do meat, or meat and dairy, or meat and dairy and bread. I followed this advice for awhile, but I’ve stopped, there isn’t really any good reason not to compost these things. First of all, composting […]

Dealing With Deer Eating All the Leaves Off My New Fruit Trees

I have moved, previously I lived in town with no deer problems, now… I live in town with no deer problems. However I have property where I’m building a house up in a relatively rural area, and there are deer. Because I am such a gardening fanatic I have been planting fruit trees up there, […]

How to Divide Ornamental Grass

Step 43 of my preparation to move to another state was digging and dividing my ornamental grass today. But even if I weren’t moving it was past time to do this. Miscanthus, the sort of grass I have (miscanthus sinesis ‘Morning Light’) also called maiden grass, grows from a rhizome and as it gets older […]

How to Divide Daylilies and Other Perennials

My move gets ever closer, less than 2 months now and I say goodbye to the garden I’ve built over the last 12 years and… well… its traumatic. But one thing is for sure, I don’t want to have to buy a lot of these plants again. So I’ve been busy taking divisions and otherwise […]

Mantis Tiller Review: Making Quick Work of My Garden

So I’m sure we’ve all seen these commercials. The Mantis tiller, plowing through soil, I never bought into it. My only memory of using a tiller was when young, at my parents, a big tiller, twice as big as the mantis easy, and it’d have trouble breaking through the soil. Plus in the commercials it […]

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