Recent Articles
How to investigate the pests/diseases attacking your plants
14.4 years ago aphids, disease, free, pests 7 Comments
Though there are many sites that contain this information, my experience in the past you have to go through a series of detail on colors and attributes of the insect/fungus and without a degree in botany or Entomology I really have little idea what they are asking for. Gardeners.com’s “Pest and Disease Detective” on the other hand allows you to simply select the specific plant and the area that is being attacked (leaves. stems, flowers, fruit, roots) and it will show you thumbnails to quickly identify the pest/disease that is harming your plant. With a simple click you go right into the description and details how to terminate the problem.
Simple but effective just the way I like it…
More Early peppers
14.4 years ago jalapeno, peppers 6 Comments
The tomatoes have been lacking this year though the peppers are still doing great.
Under normal circumstances this would make no sense at all but the secret with this success is the two months this summer these peppers have been spending in the grow box with their perfect temperature and lighting conditions…otherwise there is little hope for me growing peppers in my short season here in the Pacific Northwest.
Serious weed control
14.4 years ago peppers, weed prevention, weeds 7 Comments
I have been having a losing battle with cattails for the past couple years. This was what was lurking under my snow peas after I pulled them out. The problem with cattails is they do not emerge until the temperatures increase and given their broad root structure trying to remove them will most likely kill the plants (in this case peas) surrounding them.
If you attempt to pull cattails not only will you not kill them but this disturbance will actually encourage more growth. There are a couple of techniques to stop these evils weeds, first is instead of pulling them cut them at the base, second it to shade them. I decided to attack these weeds using both techniques.
Step 1: Chop weeds to their base. I used some scissors to cut down all of the cattails at their base.
Step 2: Covered the weeds. I used black plastic to smother the weeds. Not only will this smother the weeds but also bake the soil to kill any bacteria/fungus (or any other weed seeds) to hopefully end up with a moderately sterile soil when I plant next year.
Not to waste any of my very limited space in my garden, I moved my peppers and one tomato plants to this location.
Create your own hydroponic window farm
14.4 years ago cheap, hydroponics, recycle 11 Comments
If I didn’t have a big house blocking my southern exposed window, otherwise I would have completely tried this myself. The basic idea is to take come recycled plastic bottles, use an air pump and some tubing to create an air water pump to push the nutrients to the top and gravity takes care of the rest.
The great part of this is that it is an open design community making and sharing new innovations as they are discovered. Here are the complete instructions of the most recent (version 3) of their system. They also offer a complete kit if you want to save some time with assembly.
Via LifeHacker [via Window Farms]
How to use egg shells in your vegetable garden
14.4 years ago calcium, egg shells, nutrients 27 Comments
Egg shells are a great additive to increase the calcium content in the soil of your vegetable garden. Calcium is important to plants specifically because it helps with cell wall structure imperative for strength of plants. There are many specific plants that respond well calcium supplementation: apples, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cherries, citrus, conifers, cotton, curcurbits, melons, grapes, legumes, lettuce, peaches, peanuts, pears, peppers, potatoes, tobacco, and tomatoes [1]
Now you know why you need calcium in your garden, now lets talk about how you can make your own calcium supplement at home from egg shells heading to your trash.
1. When cooking eggs for breakfast or baking rinse them quickly. They do not have to be spotless just enough so they will not create an odor.
2. Lay the shells on a cookie sheet or a piece of aluminum foil in your oven for 5-6 minutes at 350 degree F until the egg shells start to brown. I normally do this when I am doing some baking and throw them in while the oven is preheating, by the time I am ready to bake the eggs are ready to go.
3. At this point (after they cool for a few minutes) you can simply put the shells in a plastic bag and roll them out with a rolling pin, though the smaller you break up the shells the easier it is to leech the calcium out of them. For this reason I like to use my Magic Bullet using the grinding attachment to really pulverize the shells into powder.
4. Place the egg shells into a sealed container for future use. I used the same aluminum foil I used to bake them to funnel the powder into an old spice container.
How to use your ground Egg Shells:
1. Sprinkle a couple of teaspoons into planting holes when transplanting new seedlings
2. Sprinkle on surface and gently work into soil when tomatoes are beginning to flower to prevent blossom end rot and promote overall health of the plant
3. Add 2 tsp of egg shells to 1 liter of water and let them sit for 24 hours, apply directly to plants
4. Add ground egg shells to your compost bin.
5. Sprinkle around plants to deter slugs
How to make dried basil
14.4 years ago basil, dehydrator, herbs 8 Comments
Summer has finally appeared here in the Pacific Northwest with temperatures in the 90s I decided this would be a good time to dry some herbs in the garage given it was already at the right drying temperature without any heating required.
Here is the basic steps to harvest, dry, and store your own dried basil.
- 1. Pick and clean (optional) the leaves
- Start by trimming as much as you may need for the next month. If the leaves are dirty give them a quick rinse and pat them dry with a paper towel. If the leaves are clean you can skip this step. You want to pick the greenest leaves you can find. In my case many of the leaves were not as green as I would have likes (they are getting better now the weather is improving)
- 2. Strip the leaves from the stem
- Unlike oregano this part if very easy use scissors (or just pinch off with your finger nails.
- 3. Dry the leaves
- If you have a food dehydrator place the leaves in a single layer and set to 90-100 degree F for about 24 hours. Alternately you can also dry the leaves by placing them in a screen in a dry warm place. You will know they are down when the leaves are crispy and can be pulverized easily with your fingers.
- 4. Storing the leaves
- Now you have two choices:
- 1. Keep the leaves whole and chop them as you need them for added flavor
- 2. Chop them up using a spice/coffee grinder (or Magic Bullet
with the grinding blade) and use them immediately as needed
As you can see the freshly dried basil (left) looks much better than the stuff hanging around in my spice rack, which was only a few months old.
The picture above had two purposes, I actually place my herbs on paper then fold to easily pour into the old bottles.
