garden

6 Ways to Prevent Garden Pests

Keeping a home vegetable garden pest free can be quite the task. Luckily there are ways to prevent garden pests that can make a gardener’s job so much easier. Natural garden pest control is a multi-step method of prevention and then the use of certain techniques or products if the bugs keep coming.

Why Prevent Garden Pests?

Eariler this year, I published an e-book all about natural garden pest control, and it is an in-depth look at ways to prevent garden pests (without chemicals!), identify them, and manage them during the growing season. You can check out Natural Pest Control for the Home Garden here. Natural pest control in the home garden isn’t just a one-step process. It involves prior planning and implementation for it to be effective, but I have you covered! Here’s where to start!

Healthy Plants and Soil

Having healthy soil is a key component to healthy plants. First have your soil tested by your local Cooperative Extension office. This is usually a free service that will give you valuable feedback about the PH of your soil, as well as its phosphorus and potassium levels. All of this information will help you to make amendments such as adding lime to raise PH or purchasing the specific type of fertilizer you need, instead of adding a general fertilizer that may actually be hurting your soil, instead of helping. Along with the soil test and amendments, use a good quality mulch, such as pine straw, to keep weeds at bay and also to foster a protected environment for earthworms and other champions of healthy soil. Not only will this save you time from weeding, but you’re keeping more moisture in the soil, which helps you to cut back on watering. (Need a DIY Potting Soil recipe? Check out mine!)

A healthy plant growing in a proper environment where it can thrive is the next step in keeping pests away. You can confidently do this by using those small tags that come on newly purchased plants. Does the plant like full sun? Put it in full sun. What about partial shade? Find a spot with occasional shade during the day. Purchasing plants online has also given gardeners the opportunity to try a wide variety of plants, but be sure you know your zone (See the US Zone Map), and choose plants that will thrive in whatever climate you live in. You’re setting yourself up for a pest and disease problem if you try to force a plant to acclimate to your climate when they would rather be in a cooler/warmer place.

If you’ve discovered that a plant is planted in an improper location, and it’s been struggling with pests and/or stress, then don’t be afraid to move it. Just be sure to practice good transplant practices to avoid damaging the roots, and place that plant where it will thrive!

Cover Crops

Though not specifically a pest prevention method, cover crops that are used in the “down season” or in between plantings are incredibly helpful for building up the health of your soil. Healthy soil grows healthy plants, and as mentioned above, this is the first step to preventing pests. Cover crops also help to suppress weeds, which makes gardening so much easier for you! There are many types of cover crops out there, and what’s best for your garden depends greatly on where you live, so reach out to your local cooperative extension for a list of recommended cover crops for your area.

Plant Choice

Another common means of pest prevention is to choose plants that are healthy. This may seem like a given, but take the time to inspect the plants you’re purchasing. In some cases there may already be pests, such as aphids, present, and you don’t want to bring a problem into your garden from the start. Also check for the overall health of the plant. Are the leaves yellowing or dying? Check under the leaves for any sign of pests or disease, as well as the stems, soil and roots.

The same applies for seeds. Purchase certified insect-free seeds if possible. (I love Baker Creek Seed and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.) And take care to keep seedlings healthy and pest-free if you’re starting your own at home. Starting out with healthy plants to go along with your healthy soil will go a long way to preventing pests.

Companion Planting

Along with healthy soil and proper placement in the garden space to help control pests, using certain flowers, herbs, and other plants can be a preventative measure. Using companion plants is a wonderful method of controlling pests without resorting to sprays or soaps. Many pests are deterred by strong scents, and many herbs are known for their heady fragrances, lucky for us! Check out my article on Companion Planting for more information. And find out how to grow garlic, which is a fantastic companion plant!

Crop Rotation

An age old practice made practical for the home garden. Crop rotation is exactly what it sounds like. If a certain plant or crop was grown in a location one year, move it to a different spot the next. This is especially true if your plant or crop suffered from a pest that overwinters underground. The pest will come back the next year and begin feeding right away if you haven’t practiced crop rotation. A good example of this is squash vine borers. They attack the stems of squash and other cucurbits, killing the plant as they eat their way through the plant. They then overwinter under the soil to come back the next year. Practicing crop rotation will keep them from having a ready-made meal the next year.

And when using crop rotation, be sure to not just rotate a particular crop, but others than may be closely related. For example, a squash and zucchini are very similar, so when you decide to rotate your squash to a new spot, don’t plant zucchini in its old place. They’re plant “cousins,” and will attract the same kinds of pests.

Interplanting

While this may sound very technical, it’s actually the practice of spreading out your crop so it isn’t all in one place. Why do this? You’re making it more difficult for pests to find their next meal. For example, in the fall, cabbage moths may abound, and if you have all of your brassicas (kale, broccoli, cabbage) planted together, the moths and the worms that follow will have a field day in your brassicas patch. Instead, plant other types of plants, such as flowers, herbs, and other vegetables, to confuse the pests. This simple practice can also make for a beautiful garden design, so have fun with interplanting!

All of these methods will help you to prevent pests in the home vegetable garden. Next week, I’ll share about pest control products that home gardeners can use when prevention methods haven’t solved the problem. I’d love to know what pest prevention methods you use in your garden!

Helpful Gardening Tips

Tips for Growing Mint

The Best Flowers for Vegetable Gardens

Companion Planting for Vegetables and Herbs

Fresh Dill Vegetable Dip

This classic vegetable dip is a great use for fresh dill from the garden. It's creamy taste and texture makes it a perfect companion for fresh, crunchy vegetables.

Get the Recipe

by Courtney Leave a Comment

DIY Brick Garden Edging

As a gardener, and someone who likes things to look pretty, I love the thought of edging. Garden edging, whether used to separate a flower bed from the lawn or the garden area from the lawn, is incredibly helpful. Not only does it serve a functional purpose, but garden edging can be beautiful.

Creating your own brick garden edging isn’t incredibly difficult, but it certainly will be a weekend project. Our project began last spring when we took up our old brick patio. The old patio was over 50 years old, and was making “waves.” So the brick came up, and we had a new concrete patio poured. In the process, we made our patio area larger and created a curve. I knew I wanted a flower bed along the curve for some gardenias, as well as perennial herbs. My problem arose though when the grass began creeping into my new flower bed, and the lack of definition on one side of the bed. You can see what I mean here:

Apparently, I like structure, and this bed seemed to be spilling out onto the lawn. Lucky for me, the old patio bricks had been stacked onto a pallet and were waiting to be used. Lucky me. The project of creating the brick garden edging took a weekend, but I wasn’t working full days. Here’s what you’ll need to complete the project.

DIY Brick Garden Edging Supplies

Bricks (how many depends on how long of an edge you’re creating)

Flat Head Shovel or a Square Garden Spade with a long handle

Sand

Level

Landscape fabric or newspaper (optional)

Garden Kneeler (for the the sake of your knees, ha!)

How to Install a Brick Garden Edge

First, determine where you want your edging to go, and using the corner of your shovel, create a line along the outermost edge of where the bricks will be placed. We initially marked our line with the shovel, and then went back over the line with the weed eater to make it even more prominent. This will allow you to get a good idea of the shape of your edging before you start digging and laying down the brick.
Once your line is completed, use your flat shovel or garden spade and begin digging a trench from the line you created and in toward your bed or garden. I knew I’d be using a brick lengthwise and then another brick widthwise for our brick garden border, so I measured the brick length and width and used this measurement to know how far in to dig. Only dig a few feet of edge at a time. This will give you a chance to work with and place the bricks and determine if you like how the edging is laying.
Once you have dug the trench and it is the appropriate depth and width for the bricks, place a thin layer of sand in the bottom of the trench. (You could also add newspaper or landscape fabric beneath the sand to prevent weeds and grass from popping up.)Then begin laying your bricks. We chose to have an inner edge of bricks on their side with bricks running lengthwise coming off of those. You could choose to have a single row of bricks to make things more simple. Have a small garden spade handy to ensure small pockets of soil aren’t causing your bricks to be uneven. A level is also a great way to ensure your bricks are even. With yards and soil, unevenness is to be expected to a degree, but it helps to get as close as you can.
Once your entire edge has been laid, go back and tweak any bricks that aren’t in line with the others. Then you’ll take the leftover sand, and begin filling in the cracks between the bricks. This will help to smother out any weeds/grass that will try to creep up between them. A paver sand or regular sand can be used. Once the cracks are filled with sand, use a broom to sweep away the excess.
Then stand back and enjoy your new brick garden edging! We went on to create a brick path from the patio to our garden area as well. There are so many uses for leftover brick! We have had the edging in place for over a year, and it has held up well. No bricks have fallen out of place, and this includes even when our kids walk along them.

Mortar or Not?

The option is always there to mortar the bricks in this particular brick garden edging, but we opted against this. First, I wasn’t sure how long I wanted to edging in place. Mortaring these bricks together would have made it much more permanent. Our neighbors have a similar brick edging in their front yard, and it is mortared together. It looks lovely, but it was much more work. Secondly, the brick patio (50 years old at least), hadn’t been mortared together and had managed to stay in place all those years. We went with the less labor intensive option, and we are very pleased with the results.

I’d love to know what you use to edge your garden and flower beds. Do you have any other ideas for using up extra brick? Comment below and let me know!

Have a great week and happy gardening!

10 Fun Gardening Activities for Kids

Getting kids outdoors and in the garden without complaining about the heat or bugs is a cinch with these fun gardening activities for kids! Once plants are in the ground (the fun part), how can you keep kids engaged and encouraged? I reached out to some other home and garden bloggers for some of their best activities for kids in the garden, and they delivered! Check out all the fun your kids can have in the garden this spring and summer!

Fun Garden Activities for Kids

Garden Seed Bombs by Conservamom. Grab some flower seeds and construction paper to make these bright and fun seed bombs! Easy to make and fun to grow, your kids or grandkids will be amazed at how they can grow these or gift them to friends.
Gardening Memory Game by Teach Me Mommy. This garden game is perfect for preschoolers and lower elementary! The printable game cards have pictures of common gardening tools and helps, which builds garden vocabulary. This game is perfect for a rainy day indoors or taken outside to play in the grass, and it can be enjoyed over and over!
Egg Carton Seed Starter– One of our most popular posts to get kids in the garden is this fun seed starter cups made from an egg carton. Skip the plastic trays at the hardware store and instead use what you’ve got to get those seeds started!
Garden Tic-Tac-Toe by ChickenScratchNY- Get the step-by-step instructions for creating this adorable outdoor tic-tac-toe set that can be used all year long. Get the kids or grandkids on board to help paint the rocks, and you’ll have a game set that can be treasured for years.
Seed Paper Cards by Craft Invaders- These handmade seed paper cards are the perfect gift for teachers, friends, or even wedding guests. And the process for making the seed paper simply includes paper towels, seeds, and glue! This amazingly simple idea is beautiful and functional.
How to Build a Fairy Garden with Kids by Finding Zest- Fairy Gardens are an incredibly fun to way to get kids using their imaginations and growing plants at the same time. These tiny gardens are the perfect size for tiny hands. And finding tiny items to go inside a fairy garden is like a treasure hunt. These great tutorial from Finding Zest will show you what you need to get your kids started on a fairy garden.
Yogurt Cup Planters by So Easy Being Green- Ever wish you had a purpose for those empty yogurt cups from your kids or grandkids? Well Lindsay at So Easy Being Green has a great way to reuse them… planters! Use those small plastic cups, just perfect for tiny hands, as a place to start seeds and watch them grow!
Upcycled Mason Bee House by Turning Back the Clock- I love any opportunity for my kids to understand the importance of insects in our environment, and this upcycled mason bee house does just that. Mason bees need a home and I’d rather that not be on the wood of their swing set. So we can happily provide them an abode with this fun project. Bamboo, string, and a recycled can will help you kiddos make their own Bee House!
Tin Can Lid Garden Markers by Creative Green Living- Garden markers are always a fun activity to get kids involved with, and Carissa uses upcycled tin can lids to create these fun hanging garden markers. Your kids and grandkids will be able to personalize the lids to their taste. They can use them to mark whatever they’re growing in the garden!
DIY Chalkboard Garden Markers– Another way to get kids involved in marking what they’re growing is this fun activity that uses old cutlery as garden markers. Use chalkboard paint to create the board surface, and then let the kids mark away!

Get Kids Growing in the Garden

I hope this list gives you some inspiration for getting your kids or grandkids outside and growing this season. There’s so much to learn about where are food comes from and all of the elements that go into making that happen: soil, seeds, sun, pollinators, harvest!

I’d love to know if there are any fun gardening activities that you’ve used in the past. Comment below and let us know!

by Courtney Leave a Comment

How to Plan a Gorgeous Cutting Garden

Flowers are nature’s jewelry. There’s no doubt about it, the bright blooms that pop up on a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and plants paint the world in color. I’m so thankful that fruit grows and seeds spread through the beautiful process of blooming. Can you imagine a world with no flowers blooming? Me either! And if you want to learn how to plan a cutting garden, then you clearly want all the benefits that come with growing flowers that can be cut. While the purpose of planting a flower garden is to derive enjoyment from the colorful (and often fragrant) blooms the garden will produce. You can double that enjoyment by planning and planting a flower cutting garden so your indoor space benefits as well.

The Benefits of a Cutting Garden

Knowing how to plan a cutting garden can reap many rewards for you (and your neighbors)! And recently an article was released in Southern Living Magazine stating Gardening is Just as Good as Going to the Gym. I’ll take it! But beyond these physical and emotional benefits, you can also add multi-purpose use to the list of benefits of having a cutting garden.

With careful planning and plant selection, you can enjoy blooms outdoors and indoors throughout the growing season. If your outdoor space is large enough, you may even have enough blooms to create a bouquet to share with someone else from your flower cutting garden. I have personally known people who have donated blooms from their yards to use in weddings, banquets, and other occasions where blooms are needed. It’s a wonderful feeling to grow beautiful blooms and to be able to bring them indoors and/or share them with others. Before I begin with the cutting garden planning, here’s a bouquet from my garden last summer. (If you look closely, you can even see some mint I added in for a pop of green.)

So what does it take to have beautiful blooms ready for cutting?

How to Plan a Cutting Garden

Location

I feel like I mention location a lot, but honestly, in gardening, it’s important! Most flowers that bear colorful blooms are sun-lovers, so start by selecting a location that receives at least 6 hours of sunlight each day. If you haven’t yet drawn a Sun Map of your house, I can’t recommend it enough. You create a sun map once and then you can reference it forever. And while flower beds are the likely place to grow flowers, don’t rule out containers, especially if the sunniest part of your yard is a porch or patio.

No flower garden space? A flower cutting garden can be included within your vegetable garden if space is limited. The blooms will attract beneficial pollinators, plus many flowers provide natural pest control for garden plants. Taller blooms, like zinnias and smaller varieties of sunflowers, can be place near shorter, wider plants, such as squash.

Soil Preparation

Prepare the soil for a flower cutting garden just like you would for a vegetable garden. Incorporate organic material, like compost (learn how to compost here!) or well-rotted cow manure, into the soil to improve drainage, aeration, and fertility prior to planting seeds or plants. If you’re planning to grow in containers, choose a good quality potting mix to get your plants started off on the right foot… or root.

Planning The Layout

Easy access to all plants is needed in a flower cutting garden since you will be inside the garden frequently to cut blooms. Wide rows with walkable paths in-between is ideal if you have a large area.

Plant groupings that will place plants with the same sun/water/food needs together is essential for healthy plants. Grouping plants together according to their needs will also make maintenance work easier for you during the growing season. Think about tulips and hyacinths, both which are grown from bulbs planted in the fall. Their care and needs are similar, so they would work well in the same area.

After grouping the plants together according to their needs, plan their planting location according to mature height. Place the tallest plants in back, medium height in the middle and shortest plants in front so all blooms can be seen in the garden.

Bloom sequence should be considered also when planning the layout of a flower cutting garden. Flowers have varying bloom times and can be grouped in early, mid and late season arrangements. For example, in our front flower bed, our daffodils always bloom first, so they’re planted up front, and the day lilies, which pop up soon after are behind them.

Annuals and Perennials

Both annuals and perennials can be a part of a cutting garden. As the annuals begin to fade, dig them up, replenish the soil with more organic material, then re-plant the space with another round of annuals or fall flowers. Annuals give you a chance to play around with different types of blooms each year. Some of my favorite annuals for cutting are:

Ageratum (Red Sea variety)
Prairie Sun Rudbeckia (Black Eyed Susan)
Larkspur
Sunflowers (small varieties)
Zinnias (State Fair mix is my favorite)

You want something in bloom at all times so you’re never without ready-to-cut blooms, so be sure to check each package for how long the seeds will take to germinate, and then reach maturity. For perennial blooms, I love to choose flowering shrubs that provide big blooms with very little effort. I know my time is limited, so fussy plants are out and low maintenance is in. Here are my picks for perennials blooms:

Hydrangea (particularly Dear Dolores and Limelight)
Camellia (these late winter/ early spring blooms are easy to bring indoors)
Gardenia (the fragrance is indescribable… amazing!)
Peony
Bearded Iris
Daisies

Flower Choices- Long Stems

While many flowers can be cut and used in bud vases, if you’re looking for full bouquets, you’ll need blooms with longer stems. Flowers with long stems are ideal for planting in a flower cutting garden because of their versatility of use and ease of cutting. Long stemmed varieties perfect for bouquets are

Gladiolus
dahlias
zinnia
tulip
daffodil
delphinium
allium
sweet pea
cosmos
snap dragons
Mexican sunflower
ageratum

With all of the choices for a cutting garden, I know it will be difficult to decide. My husband thinks I’m going to slowly turn our yard into a jungle of blooms, and he may be right. I’d love to know what your favorite varieties of flowers are for cutting gardens. Do you have any that you wish you’d stayed away from? Let me know in the comments below.

Have a great week and happy flower gardening!

by Courtney Leave a Comment

Tips for Growing Rosemary

Herb gardens can be as small or large as you can imagine. Mason jars indoors or a large space in your backyard can both be effective methods of growing some of the most popular herbs. And rosemary definitely falls into the category of popular herbs to grow at home. This woody and resilient herb is a favorite in the kitchen and in home decor, and growing rosemary is actually quite simple. So let’s get down to some tips to help you know how to grow rosemary at home!

Tips for Growing Rosemary

This perennial, evergreen herb is at home in a roast chicken dish or growing on top of a rock wall. It’s a versatile and fragrant herb that can be grown for both beauty, seasoning, herbal remedies, and frankly, a large shrub in some zones.

Rosemary can be grown indoors in a pot on a sunny windowsill, or in most any sunny outdoor location. But growing rosemary isn’t as easy as sticking it in the ground (or a pot) and leaving it. Follow these tips for growing rosemary so you’ll have a successful rosemary plant in your home or garden (or both!).

Location

It’s not just for where to buy a home. Location is incredibly important when it comes to choosing a home for any plant. For growing rosemary, select a location that will receive at least 6 hours of direct sunlight each day. (Creating a sun map of your yard will help you know where to plant most everything.) No shady corners of the yard for this woody herb. And because of rosemary’s desire to be in the sun, when growing rosemary indoors, keep the plant away from drafts and don’t allow the plant leaves to touch the window pane.

Rosemary plants will not survive the winter when left outdoors in most zones. However, if you live in zone 7(ish) and above, rosemary that is grown close to the house (and therefore protected from harsh winter conditions and frost) can survive. This will result in a large rosemary shrub growing for years on end. Our rosemary plant was nestled next to our brick house, and the brick, which retains some heat from the day’s sun, and the deep eaves of our house, kept it growing year-round in our zone 8 climate. See the picture below of our rosemary and cucumber plants.

An indoor grown container of rosemary will last indefinitely, but may not reach the size of a plant grown out of doors. (Which may be for the best!)

Seeds or Plants

Start your rosemary from seed or buy a plant at your local store? The choice is yours! Seeds can be sown and grown in pots indoors year around. If planning to grow rosemary outdoors, start seeds in a container 6 weeks prior to the last frost date in your area. Transplant your rosemary seedling outdoors when soil warms to above 70 degrees.

Plants can be purchased if you prefer not to start growing rosemary from seed. Or if you have a friend who has a mature rosemary plant, grab a cutting of new growth and root it. The process is similar to rooting basil, but I’ll share all the details in a post later this week.

Mature Size

Mature rosemary plants can reach a mature size of 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Keep this size in mind when selecting a container or planting outdoors. This doesn’t mean you should start your rosemary in a large container indoors, especially if your plant is small. You can step up your indoor rosemary in to larger containers as it grows.

Rosemary can be kept pruned to a smaller size if desired, but it won’t produce blooms if severely pruned. Pruning can not only help manage the size of your rosemary plant, but you can also prune your plant into creative shapes. I love a Christmas tree shaped rosemary plant during the holidays!

Plant Care

Rosemary enjoys consistent moisture and regular feedings. Use a water soluble plant food mixed at one-half the recommended rate once a week, and water with plain water when the top of soil is dry. This will keep plant well fed and hydrated.

Harvest the youngest stems and leaves for the best flavor. Up to one-third of the plant can be harvested at one time, but allow the plant to recover and produce new growth before harvesting anymore of the herb.

Rosemary, although a hardy and woody herb, can see be susceptible to disease and problems. Powdery mildew and cottony soft rot are two the more likely fungal conditions to negatively affect rosemary plants. These can be avoided by being sure to get your rosemary from healthy stock (go ahead and be picky when you’re at the store), and by avoiding getting water on the leaves when you’re watering.

Use It!

Finally, it’s all well and good to grow rosemary because you like the way it looks and smells, but go ahead and use it. This is something I’ve struggled with myself when it comes to garden herbs. If you’re going to take the time to grow it, plan on using those fresh herbs. It literally takes one minute to walk outside and snip fresh rosemary for your roast or chicken, and nothing compares to the fresh taste of home-grown herbs.

You can also use fresh rosemary to infuse vinegar or oil. Drying rosemary to give to friends or to save for use in winter months (if growing outdoors in a colder climate) are all great ways to use your rosemary, and this way you’re naturally pruning the plant as you use snips here and there.

I’d love to know your favorite way to use rosemary. I love to make a small bundle and place it inside a chicken before roasting, along with half a lemon. I love the subtle flavor that’s infused in the chicken and knowing exactly where my rosemary came from is an invigorating feeling! Let me know your favorite use in the comments below!

Have a great week and happy gardening!

by Courtney Leave a Comment

How to Attract Pollinators to the Garden

Do you remember the days of being afraid of bees (you may still be if you’re allergic) or thinking they were inconvenient pests? Whether you’ve just started gardening or have been digging in the dirt for years, then you probably understand the importance of those buzzing bees and other pollinators. Pollinators are incredibly important for any garden, no matter if you’re growing vegetables, flowers, fruits, or herbs. These powerful insects and birds can make or break your harvest, so what’s a gardener to do to attract pollinators to the garden?

Pollinators are vital to the production of foods and flowers. Without bees, birds and other insects visiting plant blooms and spreading pollen among the plants, our food sources would severely dwindle. And while hand pollination is certainly an option for some fruits and veggies, attracting pollinators to the garden is the easiest (and most beautiful) way to see nature produce its best.

Attracting pollinators to your vegetable garden is an easy way to keep plants producing and the pollinator community thriving. It’s definitely a mutually beneficial relationship! All you need to do is plant a few specific plants that pollinators can’t resist. For me, this would be chocolate, but for pollinators, think beautiful blooms and berries!

How to Attract Pollinators to the Garden

Bring on the bees of all varieties, birds, and butterflies, too. These hard working garden helpers will be drawn to your garden space if you help to provide them with valuable food sources. This looks different at different times of year, so let’s dive into food for pollinators.

Year Around Food Source

Pollinators need to eat year around, so by having an attractive meal growing in your garden year-round the bees and birds will come.

An available year-round food source will also encourage pollinators to stay in your area and have families of their own. What food sources would be considered year-round? Part of this depends on the zone you’re gardening in. While cut flowers and blooms usually have a season and then they’re spent, consider a hedgerow of native plants that produce food for your pollinators. This may include berry producing shrubs or low trees that bloom at varying times. Not only will a hedgerow with food for pollinators serve as a food source, but some varieties of birds may even take up residence. If you’re a bird-watcher, then this is a win-win. Check out the American Horticulture Society’s information on creating a hedgerow for your local pollinators. You can also reach out to your local cooperative extension office to help develop a plan for bushes and shrubs that will feed your local garden pollinators year-round.

Spring Food Sources for Pollinators

Crocus are one of the first food sources to show up in the spring and can provide a nectar-rich meal while snow is still on the ground. Plant crocus, snowdrop, and forsythia to attract pollinators to your landscape, and give you a break from a bleak winter landscape. Once pollinators arrive, they will hang around and see what else is on the menu. Have other bulbs planted in succession to provide an ongoing spring feast. Think of daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips as well.

All fruit trees that bloom in the spring are an irresistible attraction for pollinators. Plant a couple apple, pear, peach or plum trees in your garden to increase food production, landscape beauty and feed the pollinators. Smaller fruit bushes, such as blueberry are also perfect for feeding your pollinators. Our blueberry bush, which is currently blooming (it’s late March here), has a constant buzz around it from all of the bees getting to work on pollinating. I love that sound!

Summer Food Sources for Pollinators

It’s summer, and that means vegetable gardening! Attract pollinators to your vegetable garden by growing plants that have yellow blooms. This seems to be the favorite bloom color of bees and many other pollinators. You’ll probably notice that you’re also drawn to the bright yellow blooms when you look at your garden.

Tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and melons all produce nectar-rich yellow blooms and will attract various pollinators that will dart in and out of each bloom.

Increase the yellow bloom color by planting marigolds in the vegetable garden. These fragrant flowers attract pollinators to the garden while repelling harmful garden pests such as nematodes. Zinnias also come in a variety of colors and are a favorite of butterflies in our garden. And since they offer blooms with height, they’re a great vertical addition to your garden space.

Fall Food Sources for Pollinators

Nectar producing plants are winding down as fall begins, and the pollinator’s food source is dwindling. Allow some of the basil you planted during the summer to go to seed and produce nectar-rich blooms to keep pollinators in your garden. While the flavor of basil after it blooms isn’t quite as good, I still find that I can dry many of the leaves later in the fall and use them in the winter months.

white flowers on a basil plant — Flowering basil plant

Sweet alyssum is a flower that produces white blooms in the fall and will provide a good meal for hungry pollinators. Pineapple sage will also produce beautiful red blooms in the fall that could give you quite a few hummingbird visitors, and if you have some space in your yard for goldenrod, then this incredible yellow blooms will draw the pollinators in. (It’s the yellow color, right?)

Winter Food Sources for Pollinators

Grow a few plants in your garden that will be a winter food source for pollinators in your area. By attracting pollinators to your garden in winter with a free meal, they will stay around until spring and help your garden grow. The plants will also enhance the appearance of your winter landscape.

These winter food sources for pollinators may include Japanese camellias, winter jasmine, or Chinese witch hazel to provide a fresh meal for birds and bees. Seed heads from summer flowers are also a good winter food source for pollinating birds. So don’t worry about cleaning up all of your spent plants from the summer and fall. Leave some for your neighborhood pollinators, and your yard and garden will reap the benefits of a pollinator-friendly environment.

I’d love to know what you grow to encourage pollinators to visit your yard and garden. I know these suggestions will vary by zone, but I find that we gardeners can learn so much from each other, so please share by commenting below. Have a great week and happy gardening!

by Courtney Leave a Comment

How to Grow Potatoes at Home

Potatoes, taters, spuds, tots… well, maybe not that last one. Knowing how to grow potatoes in your backyard garden is one of the first lessons I learned as a gardener. I was a brand new homeowner, my hubs had just tilled up a garden plot, and I grew at least seven hills of potatoes. The potato beetle did its best to ruin my harvest, but I won out thanks to some advice from an old-time gardener and fellow teacher. I ended up with a pretty large harvest of red potatoes! Now, storage is a different story. There are no cool root cellars in my area of North Carolina. It’s too damp and too warm… so those potatoes were a good lesson in planting what we (and our neighbors) can eat before they go bad.

How to Grow Potatoes

Potatoes are easy to grow in a home garden and one plant will produce a multitude of potatoes. (Take it from me, I know.) All varieties of spuds are easy to grow and can be grown in containers or raised beds. Here are some tips to help you know how to grow potatoes. Follow these and you’re almost guaranteed an abundant harvest this year!

Location

This isn’t just for realtors, y’all. While the actual potatoes grow beneath the soil, there is a green plant (a vine for sweet potatoes) that grows above the soil which needs plenty of sunlight. Select a location that is in full sun (6+ hours per day) for best results. Not sure which areas of your yard get the best sun? Try making a Sun Map of your yard, and you’ll always know the best place to grow full sun, low sun, and shade loving plants.

Growing Container

Potatoes can be successfully grown in traditional in-ground gardens, in buckets, stacks of tires (though I have reservations about what’s in those tires), special grow bags, barrels, raised beds, or any type of container that can hold soil and is at least 1 foot deep. Get creative when you consider how to grow potatoes. For the past several years, I have grown mine in containers instead of directly in my raised beds. This saves me space in the raised beds for plants that don’t do as well in containers. In fact, there are special bags just for growing potatoes, so they can be harvested as the plant grows. Amazing! I haven’t tried them yet, but my neighbor has enjoyed using grow bags for her tomato plants. If you’ve used them, comment below and let me know what you thought about them.

Getting Started

Seed Potatoes

The type of potatoes you use for planting are called seed potatoes. While I have had some friends who have had success using potatoes from their grocery store bagged variety, I like to head to our downtown hardware store and see the different varieties available there. Some varieties purchased at your local grocery store have been treated with growth retardant to prevent them from sprouting. (If you want to try those from the grocery store, stick with an organic variety, since they shouldn’t have been treated.) For your other seed potatoes, start with organic, certified disease-free seed potatoes purchased from a garden supply center or seed catalog. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange is one of my favorite places to purchase seeds, and they have a great variety!

Cut and Cure

Seed potatoes need to be cut and dried prior to planting. When you pick out your seed potatoes, choose the ones that have the most eyes. Eyes equal plants. Cut large tubers into 3-4 pieces, making sure each piece has at least 1 ‘eye’ (sprout). Any tubers that are smaller than a golf ball can be left whole.

Place cut pieces in a single layer in the sun so they can cure. Or if the weather isn’t cooperating, leave cut potatoes on a paper towel on your kitchen counter for a few days. The cut sides develop a hard covering called a ‘callous’ during the curing process and will prevent the seed tuber from rotting after planting. This is important. Nobody has time for rotting tubers in the ground, am I right?

Planting

Soil Preparation

Potatoes grow best in loose, well-draining soil. A mixture of 50 percent soil and 50 percent compost is ideal to provide drainage, nutrition, and prevent soil compaction for growing spuds. My DIY Potting soil is perfect for in-ground gardens, raised beds, or any type of container you may be using. The potatoes need the loose soil for growing those new spuds!

Planting

Plant potatoes 3 weeks prior to last predicted frost date for your area. Potatoes need a bit of cool weather to grow well, since they don’t produce as well in the sweltering days of summer. To plant your potatoes, dig a hole 6 inches deep and place 1 seed potato cut side down (eyes facing upward) into hole. Gently cover tuber and water well. Space planting holes 2 feet apart. If you’re working with a container, don’t fill it all the way up. Instead make sure your container has 6-8 inches of space at the top after the tuber has been planted. This will give you room to “hill” your potato plant as it grows. You can also make potato towers, like Garden Know How, for a larger harvest.

Hilling

Developing spuds must be protected from sunlight and ‘hilling’ accomplishes this and promotes a larger harvest. When the plant is 8 inches tall, create a 4 inch hill around it by raking loose soil around it. You can also top that off with 2 inches of straw or leaves. It’s important to hill to protect those topmost potatoes from being exposed to sunlight. If you’ve ever seen green potatoes, then those are spuds that broke through and were exposed to sunlight too soon. Don’t eat green potatoes.

Repeat the hilling process again when plant grows another 8 inches.

Harvest Time

Small, new potatoes can be harvested when the plant flowers. To dig up the plant and potatoes in one large harvest, wait until plants die for large, mature potatoes. Harvesting new potatoes is a great way to enjoy some of your labor while the plant is still growing. My grandmother would always do this so we could have some new potatoes in with a pot of fresh green beans. Delicious!

Common Pests

The Colorado potato beetle is one of the most common pests that likes to destroy your potato plants. They arrive in the summer and lay yellow eggs on the underside of leaves of your potato plants. The striped backs of adults give them a very distinctive look, so be on the look out.

How to handle potato beetles:

For small gardens, seek and destroy is the best option. If you see a beetle, pick it up and put it in a jar of soapy water. Use a wet cloth to wipe the eggs off of the backs of leaves.
Be sure to check the backs of all leaves. A female can lay an enormous amount of eggs in her lifetime… who has time for that?!
Use Bacillus thuringiensis var. tenebrionis (BT), a naturally occurring bacterial disease. This will only be effective for the young larvae, not adult bugs. It’s the same spray I use to keep cabbage worms from destroying my brassicas.

And that’s it! All you need to know from start to harvest on how to grow potatoes. I can’t wait to see what kind of harvest you will yield and what type of potatoes are your favorites! Share below and tips you have and happy gardening!

by Courtney Leave a Comment

How to Make a Sun Map

If you’re new to the idea of how to make a sun map, no worries! Until last year, I had never made one myself. But now that I know how to make a sun map, it has revolutionized how I view the growing space in my yard. It’s become so important to me, and my garden coach clients, that I included it as part of my Complete Garden Planner. It’s a must for garden planning whether you have a full veggie garden, container garden, or edible landscaping. (And see the video at the bottom of this post for an example of my sun map.)

What is a Sun Map?

Despite what it sounds like, sun mapping is not making a map of the Sun. I feel like a large ball burning gas would be hard to map. A sun map though is a map of the sun’s presence in your yard. Simply put, you observe and map to assess how many hours of sun each area of your yard receives in a given day.

Why make a Sun Map?

If you’re interested in growing anything in your yard, then knowing how to make a sun map is essential. A sun map will help you to see what areas you can use for plants that require full sun, partial sun, and low sun. It can also help you map out the best areas for growing a vegetable garden, putting a compost pile, or placing a chicken coop. I guess the last option is for those who really want to go urban homestead and have farm animals in your yard. We currently do not have chickens after the fox/dog incident of 2017, but I’m hoping to add some back this year.

A sun map can help you know exactly where to put each of the things listed above. This is important in planning the landscape around your home and taking advantage of all that your yard has to offer. For those who live on small lots in town, you may be surprised to find how much full-sun and part-sun growing space you really do have available.

How to make a sun map

No permaculture degree is required to make a sun map of your yard, but I do recommend not doing a your map in the dead of winter. Late winter or early spring work if you’re trying to make a map for your spring garden would be just fine. But I notice areas of our yard get less sun during the winter months due to shorter days. Just take this into consideration if you are trying to make a sun map in late December. Now, onto the steps:

1. Grab a blank piece of paper (standard printer paper is fine), a pencil, and a ruler. Imagine the blank space is your property. Draw your home approximately where it sits on your land/yard. Don’t forget to include driveways and walkways, as well as hedges and trees.

2. Grab 3 colored pencils (I use yellow, red, and blue). Any colors will do; just make sure they’re different.

3. Shade in yellow the areas of your yard that receive more than six hours of sunlight per day.

4. Shade in orange the areas that receive 4-6 hours of sun per day.

5. Shade in blue the areas that receive less than 4 hours of sun per day.

6. Use your map to plan where you will plant your garden, shrubs, fruit trees, and bushes so that they receive the proper amount of sunlight for optimal growth.

The Results

Learning to make a sun map isn’t difficult, but it does require a bit of observation. I first learned about creating sun maps in Amy Stross’s book The Suburban Micro-Farm. Amy blogs at the Tenth-Acre farm, and even though she no longer lives on a suburban micro-farm, she has fantastic articles and resources for using every square inch of space your yard provides. Her more in-depth instructions for a sun map also delve into where water runs off into your yard, or where it tends to pool. This is important, since there certainly are many plants out there that do not like wet feet. (Kind of like me!)

So, as you jump into making your sun map, use the video below as a help, and imagine all that you could grow in the space you have right now. I can’t think of a better use for flower beds and open yard area than for growing fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and even grains. Check out Amy’s site and her book if you’re interested in learning more about using your yard productively!

by Courtney Leave a Comment

How to Winterize the Garden

Life in the southeastern U.S. sometimes feels like summer is endless, but the fact is winter eventually does find us. And now is the time to start thinking about winterizing your garden area. Thankfully, the process of winterizing the garden to get it ready for the spring growing season is relatively easy. No matter if you use a traditional row garden or have a raised bed garden, winterization is essential. While there are a few different methods for winterizing, it’s good to know why this is a necessary step.

The Benefits of Winterizing your Garden

First, winterizing a garden after a full spring and summer of producing delicious vegetables and herbs helps to give the garden a well-deserved break. The soil that worked so hard to feed the plants in your garden space, needs to be re-energized with nutrients.

The second benefit of winterizing, is that you, the gardener, may need a rest yourself. If you aren’t planning to grow a fall or winter garden, then chances are you just need a bit of a rest. And that’s perfectly fine! Taking a break from the garden for the winter will give you the chance to get recharged and reinvigorated to grow an even better spring garden. This is especially true if you also go through the tasks of canning and preserving a lot of your summer garden goods. This is why I am so thankful that the process of winterizing is easy. Even the most worn out gardener can quickly put their garden to rest, recharging their soil and themselves at the same time.

Before Starting Winterization

Before you select the best method of winterizing, be sure to clean out any dead or dying plants from your garden space. Amy Stross, the author of The Suburban Micro-Farm, recommends taking out completely, roots and all, any plants that may have been diseased. Plants that were healthy can be cut off at the base. The top of the plant can be composted, and the roots are left in the ground for organisms living there.

The next thing you want to do is submit soil samples to your local Cooperative Extension office. Why do you need to do this? Well, it’s a fantastic service that most counties provides for very little cost to you. By simply grabbing the small cardboard boxes that your extension office provides, you are able to take multiple samples of soil from your garden and send them off to be analyzed. These soil samples help tell you exactly what your soil needs in the winter months in order to be ready for the spring. Are your nitrogen levels low? Should you be adding lime to your garden soil? Would you benefit from using a cover crop as your winterization technique? All of these questions can be answered with a soil analysis.

Methods of Winterizing the Garden

The Feed and Rest Method. This is my go-to method of winterizing my raised garden beds. Several years ago, I transitioned from a traditional row garden to using the square-foot gardening method in raised beds. (If you are not familiar with square foot gardening, I highly recommend Mel Bartholomew’s book Square Foot Gardening.) However, the Feed and Rest winterization method could easily be used in a traditional row garden as well.

This method involves feeding the soil with good quality compost, and then covering the garden beds with mulch or leaf matter. The compost feeds the soil, re-energizing it with nutrients. And the thick layer of leaves or mulch help keep weeds from taking over and also provide a nice insulating layer for your soil. This is the easiest method of winterizing. Come the spring, simply rake away the layer of mulch or leaves, add it to your compost pile or flower beds, and get to planting. Comfrey leaves, a perennial herb, can also be used as a mulch for winterizing, and then turned into the soil come spring. I do not recommend turning wood mulch into the garden soil in the spring.

Cover Cropping

The second winterizing method I recommend is cover cropping. This can be especially helpful if your soil analysis comes back with news your soil is greatly lacking in one nutrient or another. Cover cropping simply means to grow a certain crop that covers the garden bed and offers the soil some kind of benefit. The results of your soil analysis will clue you in to the best cover crop for your garden. Popular cover crops include clover and legumes as these help fix nitrogen in the soil. Mustard greens are a good cover crop and delicious too.

If using a raised bed for gardening, don’t use a cover crop that would need to be tilled in the spring. Raised beds should have loose soil and should not require tilling. Want to see what winterizing a raised bed looks like? Check out my Youtube video:

So, regardless of which method of winterization you choose, your soil will reap the benefits of having a much-needed rest. It will recharge through nutrient-rich compost or a cover crop that provides the soil with exactly what it needs. So before you hang up your garden trowel for the year, take just a little time to ensure that you have a great start to next year’s growing season.

This article first appeared in the winter 2018 edition of My Lenoir magazine.

by Courtney 2 Comments

Benefits of Gardening for Children

Gardening is a long-time favorite hobby for many who enjoy being surrounded by nature and creating something beautiful from nothing. It’s also a fantastic adventure and learning experience for children who often spend too much time indoors. But hours being spent inside on screens doesn’t have to be the norm. Involving children in gardening is a great way to get kids outside and to engage them in a fun and fruitful activity. Pun intended.

So, what are some of the many benefits of gardening for children? And how can you cultivate their passion for growing things?

Promotes Balance

Cheap bulk candies and video games are often on the top of a kid’s to-do list. While these things are fine in moderation, it’s up to parents to promote balance. One of the main benefit of gardening for children is a form of physical activity that gets them moving and helps burn off the excess energy they acquire while sitting still.

In addition to providing a form of physical exercise, gardening can also help children develop healthy eating habits. Encourage your children to choose and plant a few vegetables during their gardening efforts. The novelty of eating something they’ve grown themselves may outweigh any arguments they might have about eating their veggies. And teaching them where food comes from helps give them an appreciation for farmers and other community members who help grow food.

Appreciation for Living Things

Another benefit of gardening for children is it can help develop mindfulness. As you work with your kids to grow things, discuss the hard work that farmers do every day to put food on your table. Talk about the bugs that you find in the dirt and how they all play a role in the natural world. (Boys will especially love this!) Teach your children about how the plants grow, and the differences between annuals and perennials. Examine the different leaf shapes from the different types of plants. The discussion possibilities are endless.

Not only will these practices help your child develop an appreciation for the living world, but it will also provide great learning opportunities and promote discussion and curiosity.

Develop Responsibility

Taking care of a garden is a great way to develop a sense of responsibility in children. Whereas the consequences for not cleaning one’s room might be a punishment, failure to take care of a garden means that the plants die.

Helping take care of a garden is a simple way to start setting a foundation for chores and responsibility for one’s actions or inactions. It can also be easily scaled to suit different age groups. A younger child might be responsible for watering the plants each day, whereas an older child might have to help with weeding. Giving your child a spot of the garden (or a few pots if you’re container gardening) will give them the freedom and responsibility to care for something on their own. This is one of the natural benefits of gardening for children, and it can come from taking care of any living thing.

Health Benefits

In addition to being more active, gardening has other health benefits that often go overlooked. For example, exposure to the sun can increase levels of vitamin D and have positive mood-boosting effects. Fresh air improves circulation, lowers blood pressure, and reduces stress. And while these may not seem like health issues that children struggle with now, learning to garden gives them a lifetime skill that they can carry throughout their entire life.

Gardening can help improve a child’s self-esteem as they look upon a plant that they’ve helped to grow. The sense of accomplishment and pride will flourish in both you and your child, as they look at their garden and you look at them. And the benefits of growing their own fruits and veggies are pretty tasty too!

Life Skills

The lifetime skill of being able to grow and care for plants and living things is something we all need. By teaching children early where their food comes from and how to grow it, we are setting our children up for success later in life. Being able to grow your own food saves money, promotes healthy eating (there are no Butterfinger trees), and gives them something to rely on if times get hard (Victory gardens were a very real thing.).

So encourage your kids and/or grandkids to get growing. Give them a bit of freedom in what they grow, but help to teach and guide them about how to garden well. You may reap the tasty benefits soon thereafter!

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