by Greg Alder | May 5, 2023 | Vegetables |
Though they are pretty and bees love them, I’d rather my onions not make flowers. Why? Because the flower stalk ruins the core of the bulb. An onion that has flowered, sliced in half. Once the onion plant sends up a flower stalk there is nothing you can do...
by Greg Alder | Jan 13, 2023 | Vegetables |
In spring and summer, I tend to grow my lettuce and greens as individual plants, and I harvest them by picking individual outer leaves. But during the cooler times of the year I often switch to the cut-and-come-again method, where I sow the seeds densely and harvest...
by Greg Alder | Jan 6, 2023 | Vegetables |
I hate to see folks letting their vegetable gardens go dormant in the winter. The eggplants and tomatillos and cucumbers decline in the fall, and they don’t replace them with cool-season crops. They just wait to get started again in the spring, as if they live...
by Greg Alder | Dec 16, 2022 | Vegetables |
Is it best to grow vegetables in raised boxes? Best for the vegetables? Best for you? Even though I grow my vegetables in the ground in my current garden, growing in raised boxes might be right for you. I’ll go through the pros and cons of growing...
by Greg Alder | Nov 18, 2022 | Vegetables |
Yesterday, I picked a picture-perfect zucchini from a plant that I grew from seed way back on March 1. Have you ever known a zucchini plant to remain productive all through spring, through summer, and well into the fall? This is extraordinary. Let me briefly...
by Greg Alder | Nov 11, 2022 | Pests, Vegetables |
It had been a few years since I grew wheat so I sowed the ‘Pima Club’ variety with optimism last week. Then a flock of white-crowned sparrows arrived. I walked up to the bed as they fluttered off, and I found a fuzzy mess. It looked like they had scratched...
by Greg Alder | Oct 21, 2022 | Vegetables |
When I have a good tomato year and end up with more fruit than family and friends can eat, I freeze the extras. There are other ways to preserve tomatoes — drying, canning, etc. — but I choose freezing because of how fast and easy it is. Freezing tomatoes...
by Greg Alder | Oct 7, 2022 | Vegetables |
The question is, At what size should you put a vegetable seeding into the ground or a bigger pot? The answer is, At any size before the seedling is rootbound. Rootbound means the roots in the container are crowded and circling, especially at the bottom. Let me...
by Greg Alder | Sep 2, 2022 | Vegetables |
This is a short video of what I do to protect my tomatoes when the heat hits: Find shade cloth at a good nursery near you or online at Peaceful Valley (Grow Organic) or Johnny’s. All of my Yard Posts are listed HERE Learn HERE about how my Yard Posts are purely...
by Greg Alder | Aug 26, 2022 | Vegetables |
My kids were eating lunch but they weren’t eating the cucumbers on their plate. “It’s bitter,” one said. We were on the road and had bought two cucumbers at a farm stand. The first tasted great, but sure enough, the second was bitter —...
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