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Harvesting Maize in Botswana

The following post is from my friend Pai (aka Lynne) who joined the Peace Corp and was sent to work in a town called Mmathethe.

I’m visiting the town of Kanye in Botswana today, so I’m taking this opportunity to send you these pics of what I saw on my walk the other night. It’s harvesting time for the maize, and unfortunately, people did not do well because of the lack of rains this year, but I thought this was really cool. These people are spending the next several days carving off every little piece of maize to sell to the other villagers. I tasted it last week at my host mom’s house, but it is not sweet like our corn. In fact, it tastes so very bland. But the people in Botswana enjoy it.

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Planting in Wind Swept Areas

Wind Swept by druss101

TheGardenLady received this question from Joyce.

I have a small garden bed at the front of my house. It gets the sun in the morning only, and it’s very opened to the wind.  Could you recommend any plants I could get to make it nice and colorful.

Wind swept areas are difficult planting areas. The wind not only batters many plants but windy areas will experience drier soil conditions. But for anyone to give you answers to what might grow in your garden, you really have to provide more information.

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FreshPaper – A Product that Might Keep Refrigerated Produce Fresh for Longer

Fridge (before) by pat+sarah

Yesterday when reading one of my favorite newspapers, I found out about a new product that I want my readers to know about.  The new product is manufactured by a company I do not know; nor do they know TheGardenLady when I tell you about this product. So this is NOT an advertisement.But let me digress.

I have to clean out the vegetable bins in my refrigerator. This is a job I hate doing. And one of the reasons I hate doing this job is that I feel sick to my stomach when food goes bad on me. Growing up poor, on a farm, we never wasted anything. So it is difficult for me to see waste. Yes, I compost any rotting food, so it is not a complete waste. However, I believe in the adage, ” Waste not, want not.”  But sometimes, when company is coming, I buy more produce than I can consume in a short time or sometimes the produce is sold in larger packages than I can use. So the produce in my refrigerator spoils waiting to be used. I understand that one quarter to one third of the world’s produce is wasted each year. “American and European consumers toss out between 210 to 250 pounds of food per person each year. A study at the University of Arizona at Tucson in 2004 estimated that household food waste in the United States alone adds up to $43 billion each year.” I feel guilty of wasting my share.

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How to Prevent Thrips From Distorting Rose Flowers

Teeming with life by elizabethdonoghue

My roses are in bloom already. It is amazing to see roses in bloom two to four weeks early. But since all the other flowers opened early, why shouldn’t the roses?

One dreams that insects wouldn’t enjoy the roses as much as I do; but unfortunately roses are one of the most beloved flowers for all sorts of nasty insects.  I had been lucky, except for Japanese beetles, I had not had many insect problems on my roses in past years. But all good things must come to an end.

It was such a warm winter where I live with so few hard frosts and so little deep snow, I worried that this year I might see more insect problems than I have had in the past. And this year my roses have proven that I did not worry in vain. I have an extraordinary amount of buds on the rose bushes and the leaves looked so beautiful and healthy: but in the last few days I have never seen so many chewed leaves and damaged flowers as they open. From the looks of the rose flowers, I suspect I have thrips in my roses.

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Kniphofia

Torch Lily in Early Spring by Abe K

A reader wanted TheGardenLady to identify a flower that she liked. It is an Kniphofia (the k is silent) and people seem to pronounce the name in a few different ways as you will hear when you watch this video.

It also has a number of common names including Tritoma, Red hot poker, Torch lily or Poker plant.  See here.

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International Compost Awareness Week

The finished compost bin by London Permaculture

I just learned that the first full week in May is International Compost Awareness Week or ICAW.  Since I know that all the readers of TheGardenLady blog are composting all their leaves and garbage (except for bones, meat, grease or carnivore feces, like dog and cat poop) I believe you are aware of composting every week of the year. But just in case some new reader does not know about composting, please start becoming aware of composting THIS week and continue doing it for the rest of your gardening lives.  (See here and here and here)

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Gardening with Health Issues

Gardening from a Wheelchair by mikecogh

Many people love to garden, but because of health issues they think they no longer are capable of working in the garden. “Nurturing something and watching it grow can be very therapeutic and rewarding,  helping people take their minds off their pain and lets them feel that they are accomplishing something worthwhile.”

Because gardening is such a healing activity  health providers are trying to find methods whereby people with pain can continue working in their gardens.

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Rare Find Nursery – A Great Nursery for Rhododendrons

Is there anyone who doesn’t love rhododendrons?  ThisGardenLady certainly finds them beautiful. The word “rhododendron”, which includes the azalea in the family, comes from the Greek meaning Rose Tree. It is the national flower of Nepal which must make the country look like Shangri-La when they are in bloom.

One of the breeders of rhododendrons was Hank Schannen. Mr. Schannen had been a recipient of the Gold Medal of the American Rhododendron Society and a former board member of the Rhododendron Species Foundation.  He started a nursery to showcase and sell his rhododendrons called Rare Find  Nursery in Jackson, NJ.   Though Hank Schannen had passed away a few years ago, we are fortunate that his partner and associates have kept the Rare Find Nursery going.  And though they sell excellent other plants, the rhododendron is still the star of the nursery.

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Gardeners Are Using Too Much Fertilizer

Mmmmmm fertilizer by jcarbaugh

TheGardenLady received this comment from Laura.

I just had to share this with you. Like you, I’m upset that Schultz discontinued their Bloom Plus fertilizer. I am hoping that they bring it back! Unlike you, I didn’t know till it was too late and now I can’t find it anywhere, not on ebay, not on amazon, nowhere. The smart people like you bought it up!  I’ll keep bugging the folks at Schultz and see if they might consider bringing it back : )

TheGardenLady did write a post that spoke glowingly about the fertilizer that helped produce more flowers because of its high phosphorus content. Besides the phosphorus in the fertilizer there is nitrogen and potassium. Fertilizer is used to boost the growth of plants.

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