GardenSpotlight

There are many different methods for preserving fruits and vegetables.   As your gardens overflow and you wonder if you can eat all the bountiful harvest, home food preservation is a great way to capture it all for use later in the season.   It is also a fun activity for the entire family and everyone will be proud of their accomplishments!   There have been many methods used for preserving food over the years.    Many older methods have since been deemed to be unsafe and now, only several methods are recognized as safe.   They are the boiling water method, the pressure method, freezing and dehydrating.   The boiling water method is used to process high-acid foods at a temperature of 212 ° F for the period of time specified by the recipe used.   This method is used to destroy molds, yeasts, and certain bacteria as well as to de-activate enzymes which could spoil the food.   The boiling water method should not be used to process low acid fo...

Okra is a wonderful vegetable...now that I know how to cook it properly! :-)  My first experience with okra was as a college student...my roommate and I went grocery shopping.  Being one who likes to try new things, I purchased some frozen okra and followed the label directions, which stated it should be boiled.  I was astonished to find the okra inedible due to the severe ....sliminess...of the vegetable.  Yuck!  I vowed never again to eat it.  However, things change over the years and now that we grow it on the farm....lots of it....I have tried it in new recipes and now I absolutely love it! Okra has many nutritional benefits, including cleansing the body of toxins!  It is the mucilage in the okra that can be slimy, but this is the substance that cleanses the body, as well as acting as a thickening agent in soups and stews like gumbo and succotash.  The mucilage also binds cholesterol and the fiber in okra helps to regulate blood sugar levels....

Organic food.   When you hear those words, what do you think?   Do you think it must be good for you? Do you think it is good because it's free of chemicals and toxins?   I am not opposed to organic food.   What does trouble me is the fact that most people, not all, who seek out "organic" food think that all conventionally grown food is bad for you.   I believe this is because media and marketing have created many misconceptions.   Everyone loves to hear that “all natural” is good and that chemicals and synthetic compounds are bad. My goal with this article is to educate consumers, not to knock organic farming.   To evoke thought and make your own informed choices. Years ago, we were happy to have food, whether it had lumps and bumps or somehow was otherwise misshapen, it didn’t matter.   We still ate it and it was good.   These days, agriculture has had to conform to consumer desires.   Produce has to look perfect when displayed for s...

Because of the wet season we have had earlier this season, your vegetable gardens have been susceptible to many diseases for which you should be aware of.   Be on the lookout for the following: Septoria, early blight and late blight, which affect solanaceous plants such as tomatoes, eggplant and potatoes; Powdery and Downy Mildew, which affects vine crops such as cucumbers, zucchini and summer squash, winter squashes, pumpkins, etc., Alternaria and Downy Mildew (different species of mildew than the first) which affects cole crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and kale.   Septoria is a fungus which causes leaf spot on tomatoes (most commonly) but can also affect eggplant and potatoes.   It is found all over the world where tomatoes are grown and can occur at any stage of plant development.   The disease can occur on the stems and undersides of older leaves on plants ready to set fruit or can also occur on young seedlings.   The sy...

I thought it would be a good idea to go over some basic plant maintenance for this issue, being that many of you have your plants already planted and are in the process of maintaining them.   Fear not, if you haven’t planted yet, you still can.   It’s not too late and many growers still have great plants to choose from.   It’s sale time too….we don’t want to maintain spring plants in the greenhouses any longer than we have to and many growers are looking to get rid of them as quickly as possible. I cannot stress enough….and my husband tells me to mention it in every article….plants need to be fed on a regular basis for best performance in your gardens and pots.   There are many people that still do not realize that very important but simple concept.   Plants need their nutrients just like people do, especially if they are expending all that energy flowering or producing a quality crop to harvest.   I have mentioned before, during the heat of the summer,...

Good drainage is essential to planting a successful garden or landscape.   Plants’ roots (and this goes for ALL plants) need oxygen.   If plants are kept in an area that is continuously wet, the roots will be starved for oxygen and the plant(s) will eventually die.   There are many different ways to improve the drainage around your yard and gardens. If you have potted plants or container gardens, make sure you have several drainage holes in the bottom of your pots.   If you have ceramic pots, adding gravel or styrofoam peanuts in the bottom of the pot prior to adding planting mix will also help.   Prior to planting your garden, you should till the soil well.   This will loosen the soil and break up any large clods.   The soil will be better able to drain this way than if it were left hard and compacted.     Rototilling in between the rows of an already established garden not only removes weeds, but also increases drainage and encourage...

There seems to be confusion at times among some gardeners as to the definition of perennials and annuals.   For those of you that this applies to, this posting is for you! J The definition of “perennial,” simply put, is a plant that continues to grow in your garden year after year.   The simple definition of an “annual,” is a plant that needs to be planted each year.    Perennial plants can be perennial in some areas and also annual in other areas.   To know if a plant will be perennial in your area, you need to know what hardiness zone you live in. The USDA’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map helps us determine which zone we are in.   This hardiness map is based on winter temperatures and each zone has a span of ten degrees.   The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map was first introduced in 1960 with the last revision in 1990.    This map divides the U.S. and Canada into eleven separate zones.    The temperatures for each zone are based on ...