Out of Respect for the Environment
Urban Gardeners show respect for the environment by reducing wastage and recycling. Plans for the upcoming growing season might include reduced plastic and increased composting. The first will help the environment, the second will help your urban food and flower gardens, and both will save you money.
Brief Tomato Management Review
Just in time for garden planning, Rob Danforth reviews all things tomato: varieties, plant forms, planting, watering, dealing with blight, training and supporting, and of course… enjoying!
Grow Some Salad Greens Indoors this Winter
If you have full spectrum grow lights (fluorescent tubes or LED’s) or a sunny window, you can grow and enjoy fresh salad greens this winter. I do, heirloom spinach is a favourite.
A do-it-yourself, standard box bed
This is a box bed of 4×4 posts assembled with simple overlapping corners: no complicated corners, no upright posts to drive into the ground or to nail the boards to, no metal corners or strapping, and no shelving to add to the top of the bed.
Insect Hotels!
An insect hotel near your garden is yet another way to encourage the helpful insects (pollinators & predators) to take up residence in your immediate area.
A Stone or Two in Your Garden
Is there a stone in your garden? Not a rock, but a decorative stone, a focal point, an eye catcher, a contrast to the plants to show them off more, a natural look ornament instead of artifacts of glass, metal, cement, resin, or plastic. I have long been fascinated by trees and stones – in addition to gardens.
Kew Gardens, London, UK – a quick look
Visiting a garden (any kind) can be an inspiration in itself, and you may get to chat with the gardener(s) on site. I have done this many times and learned much from the visits. Kew is one of the many gardens we visited.
Garden Inspirations Series – Part 9
Insects! A challenge to live with them; an even greater challenge to live without them! Insects annoy, bite, sting, and frighten people. They also pollinate our plants, eat the bugs that are a problem, and feed the local wildlife.
Garden Inspirations Series – Part 8
As long as we construct lawns and gardens, we will never be weed free. Our lawns and gardens are evidence of our drive to impose our will on nature. Many people prefer neat and clean and pretty to the hodge podge that is nature’s choices. True, we need gardens for our food and we will forever be weeding and battling nature to manage plants and insects so our food survives. I suppose we need golf courses. Do we need lawns?
Garden Inspirations Series – Part 7
In addition to mental stimulation, gardening is also a very healthy physical activity (fresh food and fastidious outdoor fresh air work) but one must exercise some caution. Planting everything at once – the attack style of gardening to “get-er-done” – is not recommended. Planting in stages is better for your health and for more sustained food and flower production.