In depth gardening advice from an expert gardener
Gardening is hardly a straightforward practice, – goodness knows it takes skills, dedication, and more than a little luck to grow flowers and veggies. Here are some just plain fun, silly, or even mind-boggling facts.
Continue reading “VIDEO: 10 Surprising Things You Didn’t Know About Your Garden”
Historically, roses were handed down from one family member to the next by means of root cuttings. Here is a simple method for rooting.
Are you tired of throwing out flowers only days after buying? Taylor Patterson, founder of floral design studio Fox Fodder Farm, is showing three ways to help make your flowers last longer.
Continue reading “VIDEO: 3 DIY ways to make flowers last longer”
Watch gardening expert Kristin Schleiter’s tips on how to plant a mixed container, and then design your own pots with plants you love.
One way to eliminate insects and insect larvae is by having poultry in your yard. In the United Kingdom it is very popular to have fowl in the garden. One interesting structure for the garden is the chicken coop. Some of them are quite attractive. Google up English Chicken coops and hit the Images button to see some creative designs for chicken coops. Here in the US, gardeners who have a large enough space are now also adding chicken coops to their gardens. Not only do chickens eat ticks and other insects but they can really be another  interesting element in your garden. If you pet and play with the chicks from an early age, they can become like pets. A cousin in Maine had some chickens that their daughter always played with so they became friendly. These chickens laid Easter egg colored eggs. And because the chickens ate ticks, the property was free of the pests.
TheGardenLady was raised with fowl on her parents’ farm. I loved when we got the baby chicks each spring. Nothing is cuter than a baby chick. However I found that more friendly than chickens are ducks. Ducks do what is called imprinting on the person who plays with them. Ducks really make loyal pets. Read this to learn about what it means when ducks imprint. And watch this video to see how cute a duck can be.
I have always wanted to try planting potatoes in a black plastic bag. You can use any black bag as long as it is not transparent. For directions check out the YouTube video above. This is a fun project for kids to try.
If you want to be an even lazier gardener, you can buy a sack of gardening soil and cut out a hole and plant your tomato plant in it. You will need to use fertilizer in the garden soil you buy if it doesn’t have any added and a tomato cage for the tomato plant to grow and not topple upright. (see here) You don’t have to only grow tomatoes and potatoes in the bags, you can grow beans or peppers or experiment with other vegetables or flowers.
If you live in an apartment and only have a deck or patio that is in a sunny location, try “farming in a bag.” Â Or if you are limited in space, you can garden without doing any building of raised beds or buying fancy containers.
Have fun. And let the readers of TheGardenLady blog know how you succeeded with your bag garden.
Every gardener needs a few tools, and a few tricks to keep their plants and flowers growing and blooming. Here are the basics from gardening editor Kristin Schleiter on how to maintain your garden.
There are so very many great gardening websites to get gardening or plant advice, but here are 10 of TheGardenLady’s favorite free online sites. Let us hope they remain free.
In the US and Canada and some other world countries there are:
Each State’s agricultural extension has FREE gardening information. Type in your state followed by the words state agricultural extension. For example, if you live in Kansas, and type in Kansas agricultural extension you will get this. You can use any state’s extension but be sure the info can be used in your area. You cannot get better gardening information anywhere.
The state agricultural extension work hand in hand with the:
1. Master Gardeners of your county. Again you cannot get better advice. Example of how to locate them: If you live in Montgomery County, Md. Type in Master Gardeners of Montgomery County Md and you will get
General gardening sites:
4. Kitchen Gardeners International
6. Daves Garden
7. Videos on gardening YouTubeGardening
In the UK there are
8. this
and
9. this:
You can get advice to your gardening problems or concerns on these sites. These are TheGardenLady’s favorites; let us know the sites you recommend.
While everyone loves a good pasta, filling up on a ton of carbs isn’t what we’re always going for. Thankfully, there are a lot of healthy and tasty alternatives in the form of vegetables, and we’re here to show you how you can eat pasta without any guilt. And while the spiralizer is a great invention, it’s something most people don’t own, so we’re going to show a few different ways to achieve the same noodle with various kitchen appliances.
Continue reading “VIDEO: How to Make Vegetable Noodles (Without a Spiralizer)”
Want to know how to plant a terrarium? Here are the details and materials needed to get that gorgeous, lush terrarium on your bookshelf or coffee table!