BEST TIME TO PLANT
- Start by seeding a little bit late here in California, but rest of country is okay.
- Start by seeding when temperatures reach between a consistent 60 to 70 degrees. - If it's too late to plant by seed, consider transplanting already matured plants.
EASIEST VEGGIES TO GROW FOR BEGINNERS
- Radish
- Carrots - Lettuce - Kale - Potato - Squash
PREPPING RAISED GARDEN BEDS
- Prepare for soil when it's cold out.
- If you're not actively gardening, take out old veggies and annuals. - Consider cover crops, you till into soil for compost. - Grow a cover crop. It won't eat. Allow to grow a few months before veggies. Till the cover crop into your soil to keep the nutrients.
PESKY PESTS (AND PETS!)
- Light netting or chicken wire to keep animals out.
- You need a physical barrier to keep them out. - Pests can be your own pets, too!
TRICKING TOMATOES
- Horn worms eat your tomatoes, so you need beneficial insects to eat the horn worms, such as hornets.
- Also, stress your tomatos as they're blooming by cutting back on nutrients and water (when tomatoes start to bloom, cut back on the amount of water you're giving to the plant, which will trick them into putting their energy into producing). - Start with best soil, nitrogen, start with multivitamins. - Watering has to be phased out.
BENEFICIAL CRITTERS
- Ladybugs eat aphids and other harmful flies.
- Wait until sundown to release ladybugs. - Water plant first, then release as you want them to bed down for the night. - A natural pesticide!
Get more tips from Edible Garden Designer Shirley Bovshow at Foodiegardener.com.
Check out David Walrod's Urban Dirt Urbandirt.tv.
