Home Garden Info

Home Gardener answers:

You didn’t say what part of florida they are in, so i’m not going to recommend a plant. And you didn’t say how much you are willing to spend, so this is really a shot in the dark, but on overstock.com they have these garden trellis’ that you attach the garden hose to and the top spins watering the plants. It also has a wind chime and a stabilizer. Really attractive and practical for about $100.

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I would check with a Home Depot or Lowes down here.. And it depends which way the patio faces… North side doesnt get all the direct sun…. East facing gets morning sun but not during heat of the day…. South and West patios need really hearty plants that can take Sun and Heat beacuse tey get it most of the day in summer.

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I’d use whites alot, as this is a frequent building colour in the mediterranean – where it adds a touch of cool and calm. Otherwise brilliant blues, as you suggest, are great.

Many countries have decorative bright tiles, so if you add these, this will enhance the overall impact.

Add terracotta pots, for urns and general potting.

For flowers and plants, consider the Mediterranean Fan Palm – Chamearops humilis. This is hardy in areas as far north as the UK, once more than a couple of years old. Try some succulents too, such as Aloe Striatula – this grows well in my central England garden. Also, some of the Century plants are great, and will live if given a sheltered position, Agave americana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Agave_americana4.jpg These grow around the med area too, frequently seen on cliffs etc.

Add in some bright coloured flowers too, though the bouganvilleas seen around the med are not that hardy, but can be sheltered during winter. Oleanders are frequently found, with whites, pinks and reds being common around the med: http://www.floridata.com/ref/N/nerium.cfm

If you can afford an Olive tree, even better, as this will add a really interesting touch (the larger ones can be pricey). Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive Otherwise, a grape vine would be great, allowing you to admire the bunches of grapes hanging from its vines – it could be grown over an arch, or pergola.

I’d also add some mediterranean herbs, such as Origanum, which also add a ton of flowers when blooming, for extra interest.

Hope this helps. Good luck! Rob

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You can use planter boxes like this one http://www.foreverredwood.com/wood_planters.html . I have my small garden in every window in my home. I also place a small mini garden at the corner of my door with this wood planters.

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IF GRINDING OR MAKING THE CERAMICS INTO A FINE POWDER FOR A SOIL CONDITIONER HAMMER WITH A COVER PROTECTING YOU FROM CHIPS AND SAFETY GLASSES
WHAT COMES FROM THE SOIL RETURNS TO THE SOIL

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According to the site listed below: “Some gardeners plant marigolds in their vegetable gardens to repel harmful insects. Studies have concluded they are not effective in reducing insect damage on vegetable crops. French types may be useful for root-knot nematode control in soil.”

http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC1168.htm

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A nice dwarf flowering tree is avondale redbud. It blooms in early spring a pinkish purple color before it puts on leaves. It can take full or partial sun. I would mend the soil with cow manure however. More choices:
dwarf crape myrtle
japanese maple
tree-form wax leaf privet (ligustrum texanum)
japanese snowbell
deciduous magnolia

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A shaded out door garden room to relax in at an end of a stress full day, what a dream haven! You can have it all as well as developing a property line and enjoy the results every year with little maintenance.
Enjoy Flowering shrubs like the mountain Laural; Perennials like ferns, hosta, english bells; Annuals like begonias and impatience; bulbs like day lilies and lily of the valley; ground covers like thyme carpet , carpet phlox; and vines like old henery clematis. Go to this website for some more ideas-http://www.gardentimeonline.com/OnlineReading.html

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Try to avoid sprinkler spraying towards the house, this is easy to do, just change some sprinkler heads that shoots away from the house,and also try to install catch drains, it is not difficult to do, I did this years ago same situation like yours…. Make sure to test the drainage pipe water goes to the side yard and out towards the front of the house, you should hire a concrete/cement contractor to drill a hole on the cement curb, that’s where the extra water runs out. I had my gardener installed a drainage system, they installed perforated pipe, it failed because I have clay soil, it is the best you do it yourself.

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Hold back on the watering. Do not use tap water as it contains chlorine and fluorides which have large molecules and build up in the edges and tips of the leaves causing them to burn and turn yellow. Use rain water or bottled water. If you use tap water let it sit in an open container for a few days

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Far too early for Gladiolus, even with global warming – which region do you live in? The Gladiolus you have described sounds like Gladiolus byzantium, a species variety that has just finished flowering in my garden, mauve/purple flowered, it flowers weeks before the hybrid varieties. As corms do not revert, (cross pollinated seed can change original colours, bulbs remain as you planted them), I suggest you keep an eye open for your `original` Gladiolus, as mine have only just broken the surface here (SE England). Gladiolus byzantium `travels`, and appears wherever it fancies, I suspect you have `recieved`some `travellers`, or planted some with your original corms.

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It could be drought, or it could be that your soil is too alkaline. Test your soil pH with a soil pH meter. Mix in sphagnum, peat or pine needles to make your soil more acidic. Blueberries like a low pH of about 4-5.

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Plant Pompass grass. It’s easily maintained and it has sharp blades that deters invasive people and animals. It’s nice to look at because it grows tall white feathery plooms out of the top. Mine are spaced about 10 feet apart and are now about 6ft by 6ft bushes. If you have to have a “wall” but are low on cash I’d put up a chain link fence and grow a climbing vine all over it.

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Doug seemed to cover it pretty well , i would add that i would use number 5 rebar(5/8ths in.) and drill it maybe a 1/16th big and use an epoxy to firm the fit…if you dont mind the beating you could drill it 5/8ths and hammer the 4 bys on but that seems like a lot of work…

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I recently had this situation at the house I was renting. There are good-neighbor fences with retaining walls there. The retaining wall and fence to the right side of the house collapsed during the rainy season. The neighbor was responsible for the retaining wall and my landlord was responsible for the actual fence. On the left side of the house, it would be the opposite, the landlord would pay for a retaining wall and the neighbor on the other side would pay for the fence.

If you have a good-neighbor fence with a retaining wall as I described above, your neighbor is legally responsible for 50% of the cost. If it is just a retaining wall shared with you and your neighbor, they should still pay 50% toward the overall cost. If it collapses and causes damage to your property, you could legally sue them for damages. It’s in their best interest to conform and pay half the cost.

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If I am reading your question correctly, you have some soil on top of old concrete. You would be fine to place the new soil on top of the existing dirt. I would till it or at the least, remove any sod before you add the soil. As far as material, I used landscape concrete retaining wall blocks to build mine. Should you ever decide to use your planting bed for some vegetables, there would be no issues with any chemical leaching from the treated timbers. The block also give you a nice ledge to sit on while tilling your soil.

E-mail me if you would be interested in some photos.

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Circumference = 2 x pi x radius. Using 8′ as the diameter, that gives 4′ as the radius.

2 x 3.14159 x 4 = 25.13 feet. Divide that by the size of the material you are using and you are set. Hope this helps.

Home Gardener answers:

It appears to be an artificial and light aggregate which would
be used in lieu of gravel, the more common aggregate, to
make concrete.

The following was obtained from this URL:

http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=167&q=Agr%C3%A9gats+Artificiels&search=search

Responding to current concerns regarding environmental protection, improved working conditions, energy onservation, and reduced transportation costs, Paris-based Agrégats Artificiels S.A. Has developed new artificial aggregates that produce lighter concrete. The objective in developing a synthetic product is to reduce the weight of foundations and increase the thermal insulation of the building shell.

Agrégats Artificiels S.A. Is seeking industrial partners in both
Canada and the United States for the production and marketing of its product — FTPO, One East Wacker Drive, Suite 3740, Chicago, Ill. 60601; Fax: (312) 222-1237.

I hope this helps.

Home Gardener answers:

Firstly, make sure you cast a decent foundation approx 300mm wider each side of the wall x approx 150mm thk.

Place some visqeen (heavy duty plastic) in between the soil & wall,(stops damp penetrating).

I would build a 225mm(1 Brick or 1 block laid flat) retainer wall first, your cavity with tie wires & then your 110mm facing wall.

Good luck.

Home Gardener answers:

If you have access an area with sunlight you can do container gardening some people call it square foot gardening if not you can buy local to be green and get the freshest food you can have. (look at the first link) Energy wise you are ahead of the home owner because you typically have less area to maintain climate control over. You should use weatherstripping and caulk for drafty windows if this is not allowed place rugs up against doors to prevent draft. Get smart strips to prevent phantom loads. (second site) Recycle, if your building doesn’t have bins go to earth911.com to find out where. And the last site has good tips in general for apartment dwellers. Oh yeah and if you do go for the container gardening you can compost indoor with this last site.

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Yep…. But that’s AFTER you pay for the canning equipment… The boiling pans, jars, lids, seals, pitters, coring devices, etc….. Then the next year, that’s not part of the cost….. But that first outlay is a doozie, unless you can find someone with lot of jars to give away!….

The first year or two it might be good for you to just learn to grow things…. And only grow what you will eat in the harvest season… Tomatoes, cukes, beans, lettuce, etc… And not worry about canning for the winter…. Lots of things can be frozen, too, ya know…. Learn all you can from the Extension Office literature on both ways to keep your foods…..

Then, when you’re feeling competent in growing things and know you have good soil and great sunlight and are used to the work that’s involved, THEN get into things like corn, fruits and berrys…. That you will put up for later… You’ll have better success once you’re more sure of your abilities…..and you won’t make dumb mistakes like I did…. Planted nine zuchinni plants!!…. DUH!!!!…. LOL!!!>…

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LOVE QUOTES –

“Hatred can be overcome only by love.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“They say true love only comes around once and you have to hold out and be strong until then. I have been waiting. I have been searching. I am a man under the moon, walking the streets of earth until dawn. There’s got to be someone for me. It’s not too much to ask. Just someone to be with. Someone to love. Someone to give everything to. Someone.” – Henry Rollins

“Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Let the man who does not wish to be idle, fall in love” – Ovid

“That which is loved is always beautiful” – Norwegian Proverb

“Women give nothing to friendship except what they borrow from love.” – Seneca

“Self-love exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

QUOTES ON BROKEN HEARTS –

“How else but through a broken heart may Lord Christ enter in?” – Oscar Wilde

“The human heart knows thing the eyes cant see, and feels the things the mind cant understand.. But if love is just a word, then why does it hurt so much when you find it is not there???” – vanessa schiffer

“I didn’t expect to fall for you, but I did. I didn’t expect you to break my heart, but you did. I didn’t expect the wounds to heal, and they didn’t.” – Ani Ovasapyan

“If a man talks bad about all women, it usually means he was burned by one woman” – Coco Chanel

“Great loves too must be endured” – Coco Chanel

“I got along without you before I met you and I’ll get along without you a long time after you’re gone.” – Willie Nelson

LIFE QUOTES –

“Life, like a child, laughs, shaking its rattle of death as it runs.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.” – George Bernard Shaw

“Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Thy fate is the common fate of all; Into each life some rain must fall.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” – William Penn

“The great advantage of a hotel is that it’s a great refuge from home life” – George Bernard Shaw

“Consideration for others is the basic of a good life, a good society.” – Confucius

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” – G. K. Chesterton

Home Gardener answers:

Start googling – there are many websites around dealing with your question.

You’ll read things like the best time of day to shoot, fill flash, reflectors, etc.

Http://lmgtfy.com/?q=outdoor+portraits+tips

Home Gardener answers:

Google the address of the Botanical Gardens.

Home Gardener answers:

I hope you mean flower garden…because vegetable gardens are another story altogether.

First, find plants good for your hardiness zone. If they aren’t hardy in your area, they won’ t survive the first winter.

Second, find plants that are appropriate for the amount of sunlight you get in the area you’re planting. Full sun plants will not thrive if they only get one hour of direct sunlight a day. Shade plants may get leaf burn in full sun.

Third, select plants which will mature to the size you want in each area. Don’t pick plants based on the size when
you purchase them. If so, they will become overgrown and look bad.

Fourth, choose colors that go well together and complement each other.

Fifth, choose some evergreen, some perennial, and some annuals. Evergreens keep their leaves all year. Perennials die off in the fall but come back every year. Annuals last only one season and usually are planted to give a large amount of seasonal color–things like petunias and impatiens.

For vegetable gardens, it’s important to improve your soil, make sure the garden gets plenty of sunlight (most vegetables need full sun), keep out the critters who think it’s a salad bar, keep out the bugs who will destroy your plants, plant at the right time, and choose plants and space them appropriately.

I also recommend composting your yard and kitchen waste so that you have a free source of soil improver for next year.

Gardening is really satisfying once you get going. Good luck to you!

Home Gardener answers:

Look at rhs.org.uk Im looking for a course myself but on gardening not design.
Happy Hunting.

Home Gardener answers:

U can very well accommodate your puppy in the balcony area. Use some DISINFECTANT occasionally. Some of the plants you can hang it on the top to get spacious area.

Home Gardener answers:

Choose It! Is decision making software that builds a simple-yet-sophisticated decision matrix while you complete a step-by-step decision tree. This decision making process organizes your thinking. Result? You make correct choices for the most complex, nuanced questions.

Best of all, it’s free! Http://chooseit.sitesell.com/wotsnext.html

Or try http://searchit.sitesell.com/wotsnext.html This is an amazing search program that included a domain name search tool. Also free to use.

Home Gardener answers:

I sink dey sirteen dolla!

Home Gardener answers:

I once drafted the “home of the future” for a science fair. Unfortunately, I was too young, it was not my field of interest at the time, and I got a B. However, I long to revisit the idea, and one day, build (have built?) and live in that house.

Since all the things mentioned, and so many more, appeal to me in some way, I’m inclined to think I would like a large property with an eclectic landscape. The home should probably then take place around that. The colors, materials for the climate, etc. – all would be a function of location.

The building itself would take a lot of thought. I would like the amenities of the “futuristic” home, but really long to live in a stone castle. So, I combine the two concepts, throw in a splash of Japanese gardening, a Greek pillar or two – and viola.

Home Gardener answers:

Anything here ring a bell?
Http://recipes.bhg.com/recipes/searchResults.jsp;jsessionid=GXJKX5000JPYLQFIBQNR42Q?incomingrequest=yes&catId1=12&adCategory=12&browseCat=Grilling

Home Gardener answers:

Glue

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Probably something custom. Not available.

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Good 1 shifty me old mate
it would really pev NAB that a team sponsored by westpack took their cash

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Garden Gnomes.

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Http://www.howtofoldashirt.net/

Watch it.

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Try this site good luck

http://www.howtofoldashirt.net/

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First–Allanman plainly you have never had a garden. Gardening is exercise. Fresh air and Exercise that brings you fresh veggies–you go to the gym–I’ll garden.

Peter I don’t know where you live but it is clearly in the Southern States.

The last frost date in Missouri is somewhere in the first or second week of May. Plant peas, lettuce,, and radish seed and onion dutch sets now. They like the cooler weather. Plant other seeds the first week of may. It will take a couple of weeks to come through the ground. Plant peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and melon vines last when the ground is warmer about the third week of May. Tomatoes and peppers must be plants, cucumbers can be plants or seed as can the melon vines if they are early maturing

Home Gardener answers:

That depends upon whether you are good at seed starting. If you enjoy gardening and like to watch the development, seeds are the way to go. If you are rather in a hurry and not too gardening savvy, you will want to go with the starts. I love to plant, and there is only one way to get started: just do it!

If you do not want many herbs, however, you may just want to buy a start or two; depending upon the herb.

Organic means there were no chemicals used on the seed and that they were harvested and grown naturally. You can buy organic seed; most of the ones in the stores are not. Some are, so read the packet.

I would avoid peat pots and peat in general. It is running out and soil and pots are great anyway. We do not want to deplete the earth too quickly!

Seeds of Change has great organic seeds. You pay a bit more for them, but of course it is environmentally desirable to use them.

Http://www.seedsofchange.com/default.asp

Home Gardener answers:

Corn,  just save a cob. You can re plant it all next year. You can take it off the cob and put it in a jar. Tomato seeds should be dried on a piece of paper towel and stored in a cool dry place until next spring.

Home Gardener answers:

Given that people get a bit fried if they stay under a tanning bed too long, I fear your plants would not fare well. Also, I don’t think these things are designed to be left on 24/7 – could be a fire hazzard, not to mention your electricty bill going through the roof. Go to the garden centre & buy a small heated propagator – you’ll get reliable results for a fraction of the cost !

Just seen your additional details. It still wouldn’t be good. Propagators work with a gentle heat underneath, to mildly warm the soil. Intense heat from above will destroy young tender leaves. Sell the tanning thing on ebay & use the cash to buy a heated propagator.

Home Gardener answers:

Hi,

there are several options for you.

Start them after the first frost. You will have great luck

Home Gardener answers:

You use mulch last.  Or you can spread the mulch first and then open a small hole in the mulch to plant the seed or seedling in and leave it open so the plant can grow.

Also, when your flowers or plants start to grow, put banana peels around them. Helps them bloom to their fullest.

If you plant bulbs, put hair (dog, cat, yours) around the bulb so other animals don’t dig them up and eat ‘em.

Home Gardener answers:

I too planted wildflower seeds in a shady/sunny part of my garden, I watered them every morning and I did get some flowers after a while (can’t remember how long) but I didn’t get near what the container said I would get nor did they ever look real healthy. I am sure I did everything right but I think its easier just to buy flowers and plant them. Though saying that there is something about feeling like you actually grew them from seed which is a pretty good feeling.

Home Gardener answers:

Great questions! You are going to love growing your own vegetables! Let’s start with preparing your beds. So you have clay! Clay has gotten a bad rap and causes a lot of people to not even attempt gardening. Soil is a mixture of three types: sand, silt and clay. These types are just descriptions of tiny rocks. Sand is the biggest of the tiny rocks, silt is much finer and clay is actually the smallest and flattest. Sandy mixtures drain rapidly taking fertilizers away with the water. Clay actually has an electrostatic charge that can really be a problem if it is churned up with a rototiller for instance or walked upon when it is wet. Management of any soil is first knowing what you’ve got to work with and you can send in a sample (s) of your soil for a free analysis or small fee to your local extension service. People have learned so many tedious but erroneous ways to improve their soils, especially clayey ones. What does one make by mixing lime, gypsum, crushed rock, clay and water together? Concrete. No wonder people become disallusioned with gardening.

To make soil better just remember the ONLY WAY to make any soil type better for plants is to add DECOMPOSED ORGANIC MATTER. I just put it on top and let the micro and macroorganisms of the soil come alive and eat it and take it down into the soil and poop it out. Plants thrive when you feed (with decomposed organic matter!) your soil or rather the micro and macro organisms. Plants need a soil that is ‘alive’ to thrive and uptake more readily Nitrogen(N), Phosphorus(P) and Potasium(K) plus micronutrients (Boron, Magnesium…blah blah blah).

PH of your soil (acidic to alkaline) is also an important factor, critical for some plants for survival. Home tests aren’t reliable. You are pretty safe as long as you don’t add anything to change pH without knowing for sure what your soil’s pH is! For example, I see people putting lime on their lawns every year like a ritual. Along with moss killer (usually with ferrous sulfate that lowers pH while lime raises pH) Your garden soil should be close to neutral (7). Don’t mess with it unless you get it tested.

As for fertilizer, remember the following; Fertilizer is not ‘food’, more is not better, and if you want vegetables (flowers first of course) make sure your fertilizer is higher in P and K than N by percentage…at least equal in percentage. If N is higher than P and K you are going to promote VEGETATIVE growth. Don’t become confused here. Vegetative growth means lots of stems and leaves. You want REPRODUCTIVE growth, flowers, seeds, fruit…vegetables!

Next, drainage. I wish I could draw but here goes. Envision beds in your garden that are 2 1/2 feet to 3 feet wide at the top, at least a foot higher than your ‘paths’ so the sides slope towards your paths. The length is whatever you want. The paths are wide enough for a wheel barrow, a lawnmower (yes, you can have lawn for your paths!)or a rototiller. I’ve even had beds that were 4′X4′ square. It will look like a graveyard sort of. You walk on the paths not on your beds just like you don’t walk on your bed in your bedroom, right? I plant my vegetable seeds all over the top of these graves after I lightly tamp the soil firm and smooth. Then, using a rock rake, I flip soil lightly and thinly on top of my seeds. The salad stuff I put in a hot pepper shaker (like Round Table Pizza?) and mix it all up. Seeds like radish (globe and icicle), carrots, beets, spinach (early and late), all the lettuce types I can find and sprinkle them all mixed up on the ‘salad bar’ bed. I cover beds containing root vegetables and those of the cabbage family with ‘row cloth’. It’s a light, white, tightly woven cloth that I keep loose over the new seedlings so they will have room to grow but carefully bury the edges with soil and a few stones. This keeps out a few pests that lay their eggs and ruin root crops, cabbage crops…after the pest’s season for laying eggs is safely past (you can look it up or call your extension service in your area for info). Oh, Water goes right through it so no problem.

I was trying to address drainage. By raising your beds you create great drainage. You don’t have to use wood or stones to shore up the edges. Every winter you plant a ‘cover’ crop like annual rye grass, clover…lots of choices, dig it under when you turn the soil in the beds (fluffing it up) and it adds great organic matter while it kept weeds from setting in over winter! Looks great too. Wood and stone would just give housing for slugs and you wouldn’t get to turn the soil over easily. Paths stay the same each year if they aren’t lawn, you can gravel them with 3/8 minus or sawdust or chips or whatever so you don’t get mired in mud. They get compacted and I love gravel. Finer gravel or crushed granite looks more refined and easier on bare feet.

You never use pesticides unless you’ve got a problem that is LISTED on the label. Also, you HAVE to read the label from top to bottom FIVE TIMES and keep it with the bottle. I rarely use pesticides, don’t need to. I know how not to make mistakes and if I do I know simple ways of manual pesticide. Scissors! I go out and start chopping all slugs, big and small. I love to find cutworms! They are even worse than slugs. I also know that most insects HELP you with the bad pests. Non selective pesticides/herbicides I NEVER use…especially because of bees.
Another story. I hope this helps. I’m a Master Gardener, Pesticide Operator, Landscape Architect and have been a gardener since a child. My fingernails I have given up on.

The more you understand the easier it is to get out there and enjoy being part of the natural world. In this way you are Organic! I just won’t get on my soap box about the misconceptions of words like ‘Natural’, ‘Synthetic’, ‘Chemicals are bad’, ‘Drugs are bad’, ‘Organic’…sigh, just become Garden Savvy and learn how to become a good cook using frest stuffr and spices, stay away from canned, boxed and frozen foods as much as you can. That is all you need to do to eat well. Another soap box of mine I dearly love to talk about.

Oh! My favorite mulch is ‘Gro-Co’ but not for the garden, I use a cover crop during the winter for my vegetable garden. I swear by ‘Gro-Co’ on all planting beds, it is the ONLY product that is tested and you know what you are using. I’ve installed topsoils and other ‘organic’ mulches only to find they were ladden with weed seeds or worse pesticide residues. A few times I found to my horror everything I had planted died because of this. Don’t have to worry about that with ‘Gro-Co’… I added this because I had to snicker at your comment ‘not my own’…It is called something else whereever you are but look it up…I NEVER USE BARK. IF A CLIENT WANTS BARK I TELL THEM TO FIND SOMEONE ELSE.

Whatever you use it just needs to be DECOMPOSED. Never, never use plastic either. Drives me nuts. Undecomposed material used as mulch( anything that blocks out light stops weed growth, plant growth and is termed a ‘mulch’) causes the decomposer organisms to come alive, multiply to do the work of decomposing something that used to be alive, is now dead but not decomposed. Fact of life. Until the bark or whatever needs decomposing there isn’t enough food (decomposed stuff) for the rest of the soil organisms and they go to sleep (become dormant). Meanwhile the decomposers need lots of NITROGEN for energy and the plants suffer greatly. Use of Bark is literally causing deserts in our urban areas. Nothing for the birds to eat…either. If I were king I’d order bark to be ILLEGAL to use on gardens. OK …I could write books and make money….? Grin. Happiness is Gardening…

Home Gardener answers:

The trouble with saving seeds from store bought fruit and veggies is that most of them these days are hybrids, or from grafts. And of course, all vegetables don’t have seeds. The seeds will grow a plant/tree, but the plant probably won’t produce, or if it does the fruit will be inferior. If you want to give it a try, make sure the product is thoroughly ripe. If not, the seeds won’t be mature enough to be viable. Different methods of recovering the seeds from different fruits have been devised, but in most cases you can simply hand pick seeds, dry them in a cool, low humidity location and store them in paper bags, again in a cool dry place, until you are ready to plant them. There are dozens of online articles and sites specific to seed saving for about any fruit and veggie you can think of.

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Hey dude…….I grow what I can in my small city backyard. Tomatoes, habaneros, jalapenos, cayennes, green bells, banana peppers (Hungarian Wax peppers), oregano, cilantro, dill, and basil. A group of friends readily trades what they grow too so I have access to olther fresh grown produce as well.

Good luck with your garden! Freshly picked produce is so good it will spoil you away from store bought

I use a product called “Miracle-Gro” and I doubt it’s organic. I don’t spray any pesticides organic or otherwise. Inner city pests of that variety are few and far between.

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The easiest and most successful method is: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ but it can be costly up front. Be sure you till the soil deep and that the garden patch gets at least 8 hours of sunlight daily. Starting from seed it difficult for certain crops, plants are stronger and hold up better to transplanting. I would suggest going to the library and checking a couple of book on the subject. Good luck!

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Always. Healthier that way.

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Of course. I grow:
Corn
Carrots
Turnips
tomatoes
Irish potatoes
Purple Hull beans
Okra
watermelons
cantaloupe
blackberries
muscadines
seedless grapes
passion fruit
satsumas
lemons
naval oranges
mandarins
peaches
persimmons
figs
blueberries
quince
pomegranites
bananas
pecans
peppers
cucumbers
mulberries
parsley
onions
onion tops
garlic
garlic chives
paw paws
& jujubis

Home Gardener answers:

Of course it’s a good thing! Just a bit of work. Till the land with a good compost to prepare the soil before planting. Start out with things like tomatoes, green peppers, potatoes, carrots, green beans,lettuce, cucumbers – anything that you like to eat really. I find corn to be hard to grow, since I am limited on space and you need it to be several rows thick.

Home Gardener answers:

Wooden spoons, frisbees, plastic cups of different sizes, cookie cutters to make designs. Legos are lots of fun.. Just don’t bring the good legos.. (they make some seriously interesting castles built with sand and legos.. ) straws to make posts, bring a plastic container. You can cut a milk gallon bottle in half, it helps bring the sand faster. And the cap lets out for pouring.

When I go to the beach sometimes I have pirate treasure hunts with mine. I make a map and hide stuff (maybe the tools) and have them find it..

Home Gardener answers:

You might have to collect these items. Shop around your local stores, I have seen childerens’ garden tools before that are “pink”.

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