GardenSpotlight

  Unfortunately for many of us, winter is coming.   However, that doesn’t mean you have to harvest every single item out of your garden and worry about it spoiling before you can eat it all.   For those of you that have grown root vegetables, you can easily store your bounty in a root cellar.   What’s that, you don’t have a root cellar you say?   Fear not.   You can build your own outdoors, right in your garden if you like! I have researched several different types of root storage spaces and actually, there are many of them.   I tend to like one in particular as it seems a sure fire way to keep out rodents as well as water.   You will need to first know the amount of vegetables you will be storing as this will determine the amount of storage space you will need.   Find a location that is slightly uphill if you have one.   This will help water to drain away from your storage area.   You will need a clean garbage can with a lid, fr...

When I was a little girl, my mother kept a terrarium in our home.   It always intrigued me; seeing plants growing inside a glass tea kettle was really cool.   It was like a miniature rainforest!   Terrariums are a great way for those of us who are busy to have lush plants in our homes without having to remember to care for them so often.   As the plants in the terrarium transpire, the moisture collects on the sides of the terrarium (condensation) and flows back down to the soil. A terrarium is basically any enclosed or partially enclosed clear container which houses its own micro-ecosystem of plants, and sometimes animals too, such as small lizards or turtles.   For our purposes here, I will focus on plant terrariums.   You can use any clear container of plastic or glass, such as an aquarium or fish bowl, a hurricane jar, bottles or glassware.   Be creative and look around your home before you spend money.   Chances are you’ll find something. ...

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,...