It has been awhile since the last post and I have been real busy with planting new seeds, making rows, digging up soil, and even began transplanting many plants as well. Let’s get into what has been going on in the garden up until now. (more…)
Now that the garden is coming to a close I will be writing less about my latest harvests. This week I saw that many of the sunflower seeds were being eaten which means that the seeds are ready to be harvested. Rather than removing each seed individually it is better to just cut off the head and bring it inside to dry. This way birds, squirrels, or other pests will not be able to steal them.
Once they dry you can then use the seeds for anything you want such as frying them, eating them as is, or just grinding them up for a sunflower seed meal. You can just feed them to birds if you like or put them in a bird feeder. The choice is up to you. (more…)
It was only a couple of days ago that the tassels began to grow from my corn and it looked like that I was going to get some corn in the near future. I went outside today and discovered that there were some silks appearing from one of the corn stalks. This was the first sign that I could be getting corn in a week or so.
Granted this was only one corn stalk, but it signaled that my corn was growing correctly and I have been doing something right. I would be very surprised if this was the only stalk that began growing ears of corn. (more…)
The past two days have been quite busy especially with all the weeding I had to do through the entire garden. The bad thing about getting rain is all the weeds that grow real fast around the plants. If you do not keep an eye on your plants these weeds can easily overpower any plant making for a real poor harvest.
Not only was I able to get most of the weeding completed I even had time to finally plant the rest of the tomatoes into the ground. They were part of the later crop, but they should be able to produce enough tomatoes with the time that they should have left in the season. (more…)
This has been a very busy memorial weekend especially for garden work that had to be completed this past week. First of all with good weather it was time to begin transplanted the bulk of my plants that were ready to get out of their restricted containers.
I only was able to plant about half of the tomatoes that I grew inside because some of the later seeds that were grown are not ready to be removed from their pots. I like to wait until the roots of the plant actually reaches the bottom of the pot and they wrap around all the soil. This makes it easier for the plant to be removed and it will come out in one piece as you can see below.
Today I decided it was time for getting some plants ready for the spring. This would include alyssum, dill, and queen annes lace. I grow these particular plants early mainly for attracting beneficial insects such as lady beetles, parasitic wasps, and even honey bees.
I also like to get a head start with watermelons and sunflowers. Watermelons take a very long time to mature and produce fruit. Some can take as long as 110 days. Since I live in a temperate climate I always like to get right into growing this fruit as soon as possible. By the time they are ready to be planted into the garden it should be warm enough for them to flourish
Sunflowers I like to get a head start on is because this is one of the first things I need to begin flowering. The flowers of mammoth sunflowers are perfect for attracting pollinating bees. Whether it be honeybees or native bees these plants can attract all kinds of pollinators. This is the main reason for getting them a head start as well. (more…)
