vegetables

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water-hose

when to water your veggies

this chart will tell you when to water your garden. you may be surprised at the answers. i know i was.

THE FOUR STEPS REQUIRED TO KEEP MONSANTO OUT OF YOUR GARDEN

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now that we’ve discovered that not only has monsanto cornered the regular seed market and is forcing GMO on us all, they are also using devious ways to infiltrate the heirloom/non GMO, organic seeds.  please read how to keep them OUT of your garden.  

 

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/the-four-steps-required-to-keep-monsanto-out-of-your-garden/

DIY ~ BUILD A SUPER STURDY TOMATO CAGE

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build a super sturdy tomato cage.  we grow monsters.  our tomato plants are 8 ft tall and we got bushels from 4 plants.  we bought a house with land and plan to garden even larger this year.  i can’t wait to get this built and have my mega tomatoes growing like gangbusters but totally OFF the ground! 

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/super-sturdy-tomato-cage?cm_mmc=pinterest-_-OrganicGardening-_-Content-LearnGrow-_-super-sturdytomatocage

HOW TO GROW A VEGETABLE GARDEN IN THE SHADE

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so you have a crummy, shady area where the lawn isn’t doing it for you but just don’t know what to do with it?  MAKE A SHADE GARDEN!!! there is a popular belief that you cannot garden without full sunlight.  wrong!  read the article at the link and learn.  i’m doing this, myself.

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http://shawnacoronado.com/2011/10/how-to-grow-a-vegetable-garden-in-shade-the-story-of-a-french-potager-kitchen-garden-gone-shade/

how to tell the difference between male and female squash blossoms

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We adore squash blossoms. When stuffed, battered, and fried, they are one of summer’s chief delicacies. But we always had a slight sense of unease when buying them. Wasn’t it quite a sacrifice for the farmer to sell each flower, since he was essentially sacrificing a future squash? Wouldn’t this flower someday grow into a much larger (and more substantial) vegetable? It seemed almost greedy to eat a flower and deny it its future as a squash!

Well, it turns out that we were wrong. Not all squash blossoms will turn into a squash, and we can eat most of the blossoms in our own squash patch with impunity. Why? Read on for an enlightening trip into squash botany, with gender, sex, and fertilization featuring high on the program.

The answer is really quite simple. Squash blossoms come in two genders: male and female. Only female squash blossoms mature into a squash. The male is just there to, well, fertilize them. As in, ahem, other parts of nature, the male blossoms rather outweigh and outnumber the female flowers. The females usually grow close to the center of the squash plant, squatting low on stubby stalks that, when fertilized, quickly balloon into miniature squash.

 

for the rest of the article, click here: http://www.thekitchn.com/edible-squash-blossoms-how-to-90060

THE GREAT BUCKET EXPERIMENT

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Do windows in buckets = a good idea? Maybe.

This way I hope I’ll see what’s going on inside my buckets!

So here’s how this bucket experiment goes:

3 buckets. One has a base of sticks. The second has a log base and the last “control” bucket contains no wood at all.

All three buckets have some home made compost mixed with a readily available commercial potting mix (Miracle Grow).

All three buckets contain one red bell pepper and two lettuce plants.

What I’m looking for:

I want to see if one bucket performs better than another and if so, which one.

 

http://thegreatbucketexperiment.org/peek-a-bucket-garden/

5 EASY STEPS FOR FAST COMPOST Get garden-ready compost in about 30 days.

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http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/5-easy-steps-fast-compost

Making compost is probably the single most important thing you can do for your organic garden. The success of your garden depends on the soil, and the health of your soil depends on the compost you give it. And making compost isn’t difficult. With very little effort on your part, you can turn throw-away materials into this sweet-smelling, nutrient-rich, no-cost soil conditioner. So how do you start this easy composting?