AAS Winner Bell Boy Sweet Pepper Beginning vegetable gardeners can be easily intimidated by the scores and scores of vegetable seed varieties available from even the smallest seed retailer. There are hundreds of vegetable varieties available in garden centers and online each year. What to plant? Taste, quality, speed to harvest, total yield, ease of
Canning asparagus Home grown asparagus can be cut for canning the second spring after planting. The harvest time lasts 4 to 6 weeks and begins when temperatures rise above 55°F. Then asparagus sends up stalks from its thick underground roots. Asparagus stalks grow 2 to 3 inches a day in cool weather, 7 to 8
Flavor is the best reason to grow tomatoes in the home vegetable garden. (You can always find tomatoes without much flavor at the grocery store.) Choose flavor first when deciding which tomatoes to grow. Next, decide–before you plant–how you are going to eat and enjoy the tomatoes you grow. Tomato flavor comes from more than
Lilacs in full blooms Events in the natural calendar can be used to guide planting times in the vegetable garden. The study and observation of seasonal events and their correlation to plant, insect, and animal life is called phenology. Modern phenology got its start in England with the observations of naturalist Robert Marsham. Marsham began
Plastic sheeting warms the soil in advance of planting. Pre-warm cold soil before sowing or transplanting warm-weather crops into the garden. Black or clear plastic sheeting is a simple and inexpensive way to warm the soil and get a jump on the growing season. You can also dig, loosen, and turn over the soil in
Candied orange peel (or any citrus peel) is a sweet and sour treat. You can serve it as a dessert or as a treat. It will keep for several months in the refrigerator. No more tossing out those brightly colored peels. Use organic, unsprayed citrus for this recipe—oranges, lemons, tangerines, grapefruits. Candied Orange Peel or
Here is a recipe for fresh vegetable lasagna—for all seasons. I am going to give you—in one recipe—the options to make this hearty and tasty dish in cool weather—using butternut squash or kale or spinach or a combination of these—or in warm weather—using bell peppers or eggplant or Swiss chard. As well, you likely will
Tomato sauce—basic, herbed, or with vegetables added—is easily made from tomatoes fresh from the garden or tomatoes frozen last harvest. Use tomato sauce on pastas, pizzas, vegetables, or soups. The key to flavorful tomato sauce is ripe, juicy tomatoes—the fresher the tomatoes the more flavorful the sauce, but that’s not to say you can’t make
Use a garden fork to prepare the soil for planting. The no-dig or light-dig garden preparation method calls for spreading soil amendments across planting beds and allowing rain, wind, and soil organisms to till or work the amendments and their nutrients into the soil. You do not have to dig or use a rototiller in
A bumper tomato crop comes with early season planning. Getting tomatoes off to a strong start will almost guarantee a great yield next summer. Here are 10 easy steps to an outstanding tomato harvest: 1. Seed Sowing Time. Tomato seedlings are tender and easily fall prey to disease, pests, and unpredictable changes in weather. Starting
