Tomato growers are a passionate bunch. Some of us spend long hours combing over seed catalogs and nursery benches full of plants to select the perfect tomato varieties for our garden. We plant, tend, prune, fertilize, stake, and otherwise care for our tomato plants with a dedication rivaled only by our dedication to our human family. But, even with all that care and attention, sometimes a tomato plant disease strikes our garden. Today, let’s review some of the most common tomato plant diseases and discuss ways to prevent and manage them, without resorting to synthetic chemicals for control.
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Salt-tolerant plants that will survive in road-salt-laced soil
Each year, in late autumn, I’m awoken in the middle of the night by a giant thump, followed by shoveling noises. It’s the annual delivery of a giant yellow bin filled with road salt. I appreciate my municipality’s foresight and dedication, I do. I live on a hill, on the edge of a steep cul-de-sac and things get slick. In the absence of an alternative, it’s necessary. But inevitably, all that road salt gets washed into our storm drains and onto our properties. I have a garden right at the curb, so it gets a good dousing every time a plow goes by, scraping up what’s been spread onto the road. For this article, I’m going to share some salt-tolerant plants that will survive in gardens that are close to the side of a road (like mine) or sidewalk.
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Growing a salad garden: Tips for success and the best greens to grow
Growing a salad garden is easier than you think. Most salad greens are quick growing and ready to harvest just 4 to 6 weeks from seeding. They can be grown in garden beds or containers, with the majority thriving in the cooler temperatures of spring and fall, although there are also plenty of heat-tolerant greens for summer harvesting. And, there is no shortage of variety when it comes to leafy greens, with trendy mustards and mizuna as popular as the more traditional lettuce and spinach.
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The monarch butterfly host plant: Milkweeds and how to grow them from seed
Winter doesn’t necessarily seem like the best time to be starting seeds outdoors in most of North America, but for one very valuable group of plants – the milkweeds – winter is the perfect time to get planting. In case you aren’t familiar with this particular group of plants, milkweeds are in the genus Asclepias, and they are the sole monarch butterfly host plant. Before we dive into how to grow these wonderful plants from seed, let me introduce you to some of the very best milkweed species for monarchs.
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10 plants with showy blooms
Sassy, flashy, frilly, flouncy. I was trying to think of some good descriptors that connect all the flowers I’m about to talk about. I decided on showy, which means impressive and ostentatious. Because these plants are not meant to be wallflowers, gently fading into the rest of the garden. They are meant to stop you in your tracks to take a closer look. Don’t be shy, they’re brazen blooms, begging for attention, and maybe a photo or two.
7 of the Best Vegetable Gardening Books
I’m always on the lookout for the best vegetable gardening books, and each year, I add several new titles to my collection. At this point, I have dozens and dozens of books dedicated to food gardening. It’s true that there are a lot of fantastic books on vegetable gardening available at local bookshops as well as online, so by no means is this a complete list. Instead, it’s a list of the books that I tend to reach for so often that they stay on my desk, not my bookshelf. They’re dirt-smudged, well-thumbed, and much loved by me. Without further ado, here are seven of the best vegetable gardening books that belong on every gardener’s bookshelf.
