May, 2009 Gardening Tips

(Submitted by Aletha)

Growing Lavender

Lavender is a long-lasting herb that likes well-drained soil and can withstand minor drought conditions. If you are growing lavender in humid conditions, avoid dark mulches as they encourage fungus growth. The soil should be between neutral to slightly alkaline and have a pH of 6.5 to 8.2. Testing the quality of your soil is easy with a pH kit from your local gardening store. Although there are many types of lavender, most can handle Zone 5 growing conditions.

Proper soil drainage; too much rain and humidity can lead to mildew or root-rot, which is a common reason why this otherwise resilient herb dies.

Making Seed Tapes

Have you ever made your own seed tapes? I have and it is easy and it does work, at least for me it has. You take some toilet paper, yes toilet paper; I use Organic toilet paper since I do organic gardening.

You take a strip and then you are going to mist it down with water, you are going to sprinkle or place the seeds on the toilet paper, make sure you have some spaces, then you are going to fold one third of that over mist it and then fold the other third over, mist it again and pat down lightly. Now when it starts to dry you fold it a bit to pick up and then go to where you want to plant this tape. You dig a small trench and place the toilet paper down, cover with soil lightly and then water, in a couple of days to 2 weeks your young seedlings will start to come up.

Another thing I do is I get paint sticks from the painters store and then with a permanent marker I write on there what seeds I planted; put that in the garden so when they come up I know what I have then when the flowers or vegetables are big enough to recognize, I remove the paint sticks and put them in the shed for the next time I need them.

Upside Down Tomatoes Growing With Flowers

Many of you may have seen upside down container grown tomatoes advertised on Television that produce large quantities of tomatoes. Well here is also another way you can do two things in one; you buy one of those wire baskets that you put the coconut grass in that you can find at garden centers.

What you need to do is fill the coconut grass that is in the basket with your soil and then plant the tomatoes from the bottom by poking a hole wide enough to push the tomato plant roots up along with some of the stem being careful that you do not break the stem.

Then on the top you take some flowers and plant them so when you water your flowers in the basket you are also watering the tomatoes and we know how tomatoes love water, so the tomatoes grow down and the flowers are growing up and then down and you have a beautiful container planter for the season.

Vegetables and Their Neighbors

Some of us grown vegetable gardens also and there are some plants that do not like to be near others and will not do well and some that do a wonderful job when they are near each other; here is a partial list of some of those that do well together.

~ Beets will grow well along side cauliflower, onions, cabbage, broccoli
~ Carrots will grow well alongside, tomatoes, turnips, peas and cucumbers
~ Corn will grow well with peas, beans, squash, and melon seeds

~ Squash and radishes will not grow well next to each other
~ Pole beans and Beets will not grow well next to each other
~ Peas and cauliflower will not grow well next to each other


NOTE: For an extensive list of Companion Plants click here to view.

         

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