In the interest of how people find my gardening pages I occasionally see certain questions pop up. If I were the searcher I would like those answered. After you garden for awhile you sometimes forget how many things were a mystery at first. So to the person who asked,"What is peat moss used for in gardens?" there is my post,I ♥ Peat Moss, but in sum I would say it is simply a soil conditioner. It helps retain moisture and it breaks up clods of clay soil by providing clumpy organic material. What it isn't used for is mulch. It can dry into a hard cakelike substance that causes the water to run off and deprive plants of the moisture that it helps to conserve when incorporated into the soil, that is a reason you want to bury the edges of any peat pots, they would wick up moisture to the surface and cause the roots to dry. There is the odd use of peat as a part of the mix that you use to make tufa containers, and here is an informative video to show you how to make your own.
Another question that came up, "What season should you start gardening?"
Any season, really. It just is a matter of finding out what to do in that season, so a garden calender for your climate zone is helpful. A few of you fellow Northern gardeners are scoffing at me, now, aren't you? What does one do in the winter? Well.... a huge part of garden success is in the learning and the planning, and wintertime is ideal for that! Gather your garden books (or get some from the library), use a notebook and pencil and make plans. View how-to videos, and of course, read garden blogs.
But if you are thinking about real hands on touching the earth gardening, the fall provides preparation time: get your garden spot ready for next spring season when all the garden planting begins for that year. Just dig in!
Technorati Tags: peat moss, beginning gardening
Jul 17, 2011
Jul 7, 2011
Responsible and Remarkable Resource
The price for a subscription is $35 for four issues a year. It turns out that not only do they have a magazine, but for the rest of you who access your information online, there is a wonderful site.
Edible Columbus
Writeups on local food, and farmers markets, events and more than a few tasty recipes. Not just for Columbus!
If you are up around Lake Erie on Saturday, July 16th, you might want to visit Milan, Ohio's Ninth Annual Veggie U Food and Wine Celebration. Find out more, here.There are many such events to put on your calender.
I wasn't paid and received no compensation for pointing you to this - I just want my readers to benefit from something I know they will love.
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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.
Labels:
armchair gardening,
food
Mid July Chores
It finally heated up and this is what we expect in July: hot muggy weather.
It is time to keep up with the weeds, hoeing them out in the morning means that the hot sun is killing the weeds and not you. Afternoons are made for sipping lemonade in the shade of a tree.
Look for bargains beginning in the garden sections of the stores.
Keep your tomatoes and other veggies watered, either in the morning or evening. Keep water soaking the ground and spare the leaves, to avoid diseases. Fertilize.
You still have time to pinch the asters and the chrysanthemums, but do it right away, don't wait until the second half of the month.
If you don't have chrysanthemums, consider planting some. Small plants should put on good growth in the next month and be ready to bloom their heads off in the early fall.
Sow your cool season vegetables for your fall garden.
Time for annuals to get their haircuts; they will look renewed and refreshed if given a chance to put on new growth after you have trimmed back the seedy, floppy, spent growth of their first flush of the summer. Just trim away with sharp shears and then lightly fertilize and water.
For more July garden tasks, see the July calender page of tips and chores and the Summer garden pages.
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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.
Jul 6, 2011
Everything Is Late, But Coming Along
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| Home in Late June |
My main endeavor this summer has been to weed, since absent from the garden so long. While taking care of the vegetable plot, which if you will remember was planted hurriedly just before leaving town, I noticed some tomato fruits. Green, small to medium sized, but coming along. After all the rain you wouldn't think I need to water, but they are in raised beds and it looks like I will need to give them a drink. Planted with a few pepper plants, which are not as far along as I'd like, but looking healthy, I gave the bed a dust mulch.
The Annabelle hydrangea is blooming her head off, one of the few things of note in my garden this year. In fact I can't well contain her or get rid of her... she loves it here.
The bugs are intolerable, it makes work in the garden constrained to short increments of time. Sometimes the mosquitoes, sometimes little gnats that won't leave your eyes alone. Maybe I should use swimming goggles to extend my worktime, what do you think? I do love weeding when it is hot and dry, though. It means sure death for those that are grubbed out. There was also some time spent pruning and trimming the spring flowering shrubs- better late than never, removing poison ivy from inside them.... hopefully will get to the roots later... once poison ivy gets a foothold it can be tenacious.
Many people, including myself, often dislike the chore of weeding, but as in housework, it isn't the effort, but the result that is of such great satisfaction. To look over a freshly cleaned walkway, flower bed, or nicely trimmed shrubs makes for a good feeling... even when sticky with sweat and bothered by bugs. I don't know how to translate that good feeling of being in touch with the earth, and yet playing a part in the care and control of it that makes gardening such a deeply passionate pastime. I know there is something of the happiness that comes from making the world, even a small corner of it a better place.
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| puppy-sitting |
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| Visited Lake Erie |
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© 2011 written for Ilona's Garden Journal. An excellent blog.
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