Articles and Tips September, 2009
How to Stop Your Dog from Digging Up Your Garden
Let’s face it. If your lovable little furry friend is creating craters in your yard, he’s only doing what comes naturally. Digging is a natural part of puppy hood and some adult dogs dig because it is part of their genetic make up.
So Is It The Dog or The Garden?
If your furry friend is digging his way to China it is possible you will never stop his digging completely. But many people have dogs and …
Who Decides what’s Pretty?
I’m back from the Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh, NC. It was, as per usual, a great time! This year, in particular, I talked with a wider cross-section of garden professionals including writers, lecturers, photographers, illustrators, retail owners, plant breeders, tv personalities, publishers, and so on and so forth.
Here’s Where I Play Eye Doctor
I went to the eye doctor a few weeks ago so that I could order some surfing sunglasses. (If you want to …
Book Review: The Omnivore’s Dilemma
I’ve been reading and reading and reading this summer, into fall. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Food Matters, by Mark Bittman. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I finally got to the big one: …
Plant Spotlight: Ornamental Kale
Kale is both a great ornamental annual and a tasty, healthy vegetable. As part of the Cole family (along with cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts), Kale is one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat. Kale can be grown in the late fall or late spring. Now is a perfect time to …
Using Corn Gluten as a Pre-Emergence Herbicide in the Fall
Using a pre-emergence herbicide in the fall can drastically cut down your weed problems in the spring. Luckily, organic gardeners practicing natural lawn care techniques do have a commercially available pre-emergence herbicide at their disposal: corn gluten.
You can’t just go to the grocery and buy corn gluten. As with other garden remedies, corn gluten is commercially available from garden supply companies. It can still be a little tricky to find these …
Garden Tasks for Late Fall
September and October are the months to prepare your garden for the winter. In warmer areas, the fall is the time to plant cool-season vegetables. In colder climates, gardeners need to “put the garden to bed.” Here are the main fall gardening chores for the fall, including warmer and cooler climates.
Cool Climates (Pennsylvania and north)
Remove dead flower stalks (example: daylily flower stalks), dead leaves, flowers and debris, but wait until perennials are …
Harvesting Your Apples: and Anyone Else’s for that Matter
As September gets into full swing, so does apple season. This is an exciting time of year as apples become abundant, and harvesting your apples from your own orchard (or someone else’s), brings pies, cobblers, and crisps to your table on a regular basis. It is a bittersweet time of year as well, because it signals the end of summer and the abundance of all of the crops that you have been able to grow …
Create a Backyard Habitat-Make a Haven For Feathered and Furry Friends
If you live in a city or suburban area, the idea of creating a backyard habitat for birds and other wildlife is a responsible thing to do. As residential areas grow, and woodlands are lost, there are fewer places for birds and animals to take up residence, forage for food, and to retreat to in response to dangerous predators. It is not a difficult task, does not use many resources that you do not already …
Raised Garden Beds-An Indispensible Method in the Organic Garden
While it would be wonderful to have garden soil with the perfect balance of clay and sand resulting in a wonderful loam that all plants enjoy, there are not very many people who can boast that this is the condition of their soil, even after years of building and conditioning. Raised garden beds are a great way to make up for this deficit in the organic garden.
Building raised beds may seem a daunting task at …
