Showing posts with label vegetable gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegetable gardening. Show all posts

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Easy to grow vegetables for beginning gardeners





Everyone is a beginning gardener at one time or another.  Vegetables are so satisfying to grow.  The feeling of using vegetables you grew in your cooking is awesome.

Some vegetables are easier to grow than others.  For me, it is the tomato.  Click here for lots of great information!



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Tuesday, June 21, 2016

More Gardening Tips and Tricks




One of the things that I love about the internet is gardening benefits through other gardeners sharing their tips and tricks through their blogs.

Today I ran across an excellent article with some great photos for vegetable gardening inspiration, along with tips and tricks that you may find useful.

Click here for the article from Live, Laugh, Farm.




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Thursday, June 16, 2016

Tomato Plants: 10 Gardener Mistakes




Taking a line from an article in Plant Care Today, birds and insects find tomatoes as tasty as we do!

Love this informative article on growing tomatoes . . . click here.









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Sunday, June 12, 2016

Prune tomato plants for a healthy productive crop





Proper pruning can be an effective practice for producing strong and productive tomato plants.

Click here for an article from Old World Garden Farms on how they prune their tomato plants.







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Friday, December 11, 2015

Start lettuce from seed



Every year I say I'd like to grow my own lettuce from seed, but never get around to it.  I was reminded again by an article on the Birds and Blooms website.

Growing from seed really takes little effort.  You just need the right place to get them going

Click here for the article from Birds and Blooms . . . the photo source is from that article.



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Thursday, September 4, 2014

Fall Veggie Gardening for Florida


Although this was prepared for Florida gardeners, it would also work for those states with similar fall climates, like certain parts of Texas.

Click on the graphic for a larger version.

I've been able to grow tomato and pepper plants all year long in Florida.  Fall is one of the best months to grow veggies in my area!

The source for this illustration is University of Florida, one of my favorite resources for Florida gardening information.

Click here to go to my Florida gardening page on my website . . . includes lots of informative links.





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Friday, April 18, 2014

Peppers ~ Southern Summer Favorites to Plant This Week



The following tips are courtesy of Home Depot's Garden Club.  Click on the source link at the end of the post to join.
Peppers are easy to grow in the garden and containers and thrive in long, hot summers with a weekly watering of 1-2”.
Huge, sweet red bells, mildly hot Anaheims, petite purple sweets, and wildly hot yellow habaneros – take your choice or plant them all in the garden or containers.
Peppers love hot weather, so pepper transplants, seeds and seedlings should be set out only after soil temperatures are above 65 degrees. Once the plants have flowered, give them a dose of Epsom salts (magnesium) to produce bigger peppers and more of them.
A note about hot peppers. Be mean to them, especially as they approach maturity. Quit watering as much, and don’t worry if leaves go limp in the afternoon sun. Lack of moisture concentrates the capsicum in the pepper, raising the heat level.
  1. To speed germination, place the seeds between a few damp paper towels and put in a zippered plastic bag in a warm place. The top of the refrigerator works fine.
  2. Add a 1” layer of compost over the planting bed, or scratch an organic vegetable fertilizer into containers before planting. 
  3. As soon as the pepper seeds sprout, carefully plant them in individual containers or directly into the ground spaced 12-18” apart.
  4. Water deeply, 1-2” every 5-7 days, unless plants are in containers, which require more frequent watering.
  5. When flowers appear, scratch a tablespoon of Epsom salts around the base of each pepper plant. Or spray the tops and bottoms of leaves with 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts mixed with 1 quart of warm water.
  6. Mulch flowering plants with 2” of organic mulch.
  7. Cage or stake plants as they grow taller and begin producing peppers.

Another excellent post about growing peppers






Source of featured article
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Monday, January 20, 2014

Plant a Spring Container Garden . . . Lettuces



It is never too early in the season to start thinking about spring plantings, especially if you live in a subtropical climate as I do.  

I found the following article very interesting since I love container gardening and have been meaning to give growing lettuces a try.  You may want to try growing lettuces this spring after reading this article!





Growing Gourmet Greens
Of all the planting I do each year, I think my spring container kitchen garden is my favorite. Maybe it’s because the containers are conveniently placed right outside the kitchen door or maybe it’s because it’s so easy to plant, maintain and harvest.
Whatever the reason, I look forward to the first cutting of container-grown spring greens. I prefer to plant and grow baby lettuce mixes because they grow quickly and a packet of seeds yields enough for many salads or sandwich toppings. They’re also inexpensive, too. These are the same pricey gourmet blends found in up-scale grocery stores, specialty produce markets and farmers’ markets.
I buy packets of mesclun which are mixes of small salad greens that vary in color, textures and flavors. Traditional mesclun salad mixes include chervil, arugula, lettuces and endive, but they can also include dandelion, mizuna, mâche, radicchio and sorrel.
Look for salad mixes that offer assorted colors, textures and flavors. I like combinations that include bronze and lime-green leaves, curley and leafy textures and flavors that are tangy or peppery. Baby leaf spinach is also a good choice.
The tender leaves will grow quickly and can be cut and recut several times. For a continuous harvest, sow successive batches until the weather gets too hot.
In addition to planting from seed, consider adding small transplants, like chives. The chives in my container are perennial, so they’re the first greens to appear in my container garden each year.

Planting is Super Simple
One of the advantages of planting in containers is that you can plant 4-6 weeks before the last killing frost in your area. Another advantage is that you don’t have to wait for the soil to warm before planting. Just fill a container with new potting soil and you’re ready to plant.

Planting Instructions
  1. Fill a container with soil to within 2 inches of the rim.
  2. Tear open a small corner of the seed packet.
  3. Sprinkle seeds lightly over the top of soil, with seeds landing about a half inch apart.
  4. Cover with a thin layer (about 1/4 inch) of soil.
  5. Pat down the soil gently.
  6. Water with a fine spray to keep seeds in their place.
Grow the plants by placing the container in a sunny spot and keeping the soil moist. When leaves are about 5 inches tall, grab a small section and use scissors to make a clean cut; leave several inches of plant remaining. New leaves will sprout from the roots you’ve left behind.
Wash greens carefully and blot dry. Use immediately in a spring salad or to top sandwiches. Refrigerated greens can be stored in a plastic bag for several days.

Disclaimer about photo and article source . . . In the past, I have given websites the courtesy of not cutting and pasting their articles into my blog posts and just providing a link to the article.  In going back through all of my blogs, it occurs to me that most websites reconfigure their websites often and wipe out articles all together or change the url, making it impossible to find the article again.  That is a major waste of time and lots of valuable information lost!
I would prefer to preserve the entire article and give the website credit for the article and promotion for their website.  In the case of this article, it comes from VegetableGardener.com, one of my favorite blogs.  An email subscription is available for their newsletters which is the source of this article.

Photo and article by Jodi Torpey


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Thursday, March 7, 2013




We are gearing up for the tomato growing season and waiting for our seeds to arrive in the mail.  Although we should have started growing the seedlings mid-January, it is better late than never!

As the Captain and I have done research on growing tomato plants, I have been updating my tomato page for my website, DonitaWorld.com.

Check out my updated tomato page if you are growing your own tomatoes this season.  I love visiting websites to get inspiration and great tips on how to grow the best tomatoes possible.  

Click on the graphic to go there . . .






For Florida gardeners and those who live in similar
climates, check out my Florida page too.

I'm so excited about getting my hands in the dirt again!!




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