Compost pile in wire cage and compost bin Compost is the decomposed remains of organic materials-including leaves, kitchen scraps, and plant remains. Compost contains essentially all the major and minor nutrients plants need to thrive and improves soil structure—the home where plants live. You cannot add too much compost to your vegetable garden—all of the
Consider a raised bed if you live in an area where the soil is rocky or mostly sand or mostly clay. Adding organic matter to your soil is always a good idea and will always help make poor soil better. But sometimes a raised bed is the best solution. You can choose the soil in
Lemons are used to flavor both sweet and savory dishes. They are too tart to be eaten alone. Lemons are rarely eaten raw because they are too tart for out of hand eating. Use lemons to flavor everything from salads to fruit desserts. Lemon is used to enhance the flavor of fish, shellfish, and meat
Sweet oranges are great for eating out of hand, but oranges can also be cooked. Here’s a guide to cooking oranges: Bake. Remove the orange peel and all white membrane then cut the orange in half crosswise. Glaze and bake until hot (15 to 25 minutes depending on size of fruit). Grill. Cut the orange
Potatoes can be round, oval, and smooth. They can have rough skins or smooth skins, white skins, brown skins, red skins or blue skins. There are more than 3,000 varieties of potatoes. But when it comes to cooking, there are only three kinds of potatoes: high starch, medium starch, and low starch. When you are
Battered and baked turnips Turnips can be boiled, steamed, and stir-fried. Cook turnips until they are just tender-crunchy–less than seven minutes or so for a young turnip. The flavor will be mildly sweet and crisp. Steamed and boiled. Toss steamed small turnips with butter and parsley and serve. Boiled turnips can be mashed with butter
Add pansies and violas to salads Salad greens, sweet root crops, and peas are cool-weather vegetables for fall and spring harvest. These edibles want to get their start in warm soil—either in the mid- or late-summer garden for autumn harvest or indoors or undercover for spring harvest; they eant to come out of the garden
Corn earworm The corn earworm—which is also known as the tomato fruitworm and the cotton bollworm—is a caterpillar that eats the fruit and leaves of corn, tomatoes, beans, peppers, squash, lettuce, peas, potatoes, and other crops. Corn earworms follow corn silks into the tips of husks and chew their way through the kernels. As tomato
How do you like your corn? The answer probably says a lot about where you are from. If you prefer mixed yellow and white kernels in each ear, you are probably from New England. Your favorite varieties are likely ‘Bi-Colored’ or ‘Butter and Sugar.’ If you prefer all white kernels in each ear, you are
Mâche–also called corn salad and lamb’s lettuce–is a mild-flavored salad green. Mâche (say ‘mah-sh’) can also be steamed and served as a vegetable. Mâche has a sweet, slightly nutty taste. Its flavor is so subtle that it can easily be overpowered by other leafy vegetables or dressings. It is often served alone or as a counterpoint
