Gardening

Below are links to articles posted in Gardening.

Vibrant Variegated Holly

Recently on a Saturday between kids birthday parties I had some time to kill so wandered over to a nearby Lowes to look at the plants and I’m glad I did. I shop a lot at Lowes and Home Depot but generally their plant selections aren’t too great, especially the sort of stuff I like, […]

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 […]

The truth about those expandable hoses

I’m sure we’ve all seen this commercial, you turn the water on and this hose grows, stretching to where you need it, you turn the water off, and it shrinks back, neatly putting itself away. It does not actually work like that. I was given this hose for free to try out, and now I […]

How to start and grow new sweet potatoes

I’ve been working on this post for months, because it is a months long process. Taking pictures along every step of the way, documenting the process. And then I lost a ton of pictures. I used some recovery software and was able to get some of them, but not all, so there are far fewer […]

Greenstalk Review

As I’ve said frequently, one of the best parts of blogging is the free review swag. I sometimes turn things down, honestly, if I just think it’s a bad idea or I know I won’t like it. But I was happy to accept the Greenstalk container, because it looked like a good idea. Essentially this […]

How to garden in a concrete crack; or kale will grow almost anywhere

I was doing some tidying up in the “back yard” of our rental house where we’re living while we’re building our forever home and I moved this plastic adirondack style chair and what did I see under it? Boom: A 16 inch tall kale plant. What is this sorcery? I’ve planted kale this Spring in […]

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 […]

Planting Bonanza

My dirt is spread, my fence is up, I tilled in one brief window of no rain, and now after even more rain, and some nice warm weather, I have started to plant. This weekend I planted 5 apple trees in my “orchard,” and two mulberry trees in my chicken run. The mulberry trees are […]

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