by Greg Alder | Aug 19, 2022 | Vegetables |
How’s your tomato year? Mine is 50/50. In part of my garden, I have grown varieties that don’t claim any disease resistance; they are open-pollinated varieties that are different shapes and colors. They are delicious, and the plants produced well for a...
by Greg Alder | Jul 22, 2022 | Vegetables |
We had spent the afternoon swimming in the Tsoaing river, which would swell with water after each summer rain, and we were hungry. Masopha led us to his family’s field nearby where they were growing corn with watermelon underneath. He picked a couple of...
by Greg Alder | Jun 17, 2022 | Pests, Vegetables |
Over the past few summers, some of my vegetables have performed worse and worse because of damage from root knot nematodes. What are root knot nematodes? They’re microscopic worm-like creatures that live in the dirt and bore into the roots of plants and...
by Greg Alder | May 27, 2022 | Vegetables, Watering |
My friend Erik recently planted a new vegetable garden at his new house, but now he’s off traveling. So right before he left I helped him install drip irrigation that will take care of his plants while he’s gone — and beyond. Here’s what his...
by Greg Alder | May 13, 2022 | Vegetables |
Even on a hot summer day, I can go into the yard and pick a cucumber and bite into it and feel cooled and refreshed. How does that work? There’s no other vegetable quite like a cuke. I need to have them in my garden. Here’s how I go about accomplishing that. Varieties...
by Greg Alder | Apr 1, 2022 | Vegetables |
Before doing this experiment, if you had asked me which mix to buy for starting vegetable seeds I would have recommended the most expensive you could find. You generally get what you pay for with potting and seed-starting mixes, was my view. My view has changed. The...
by Greg Alder | Mar 11, 2022 | Vegetables |
Occasionally, if I’m not producing certain vegetables in the garden, my wife buys them at the grocery store. She’ll buy some peppers in winter, for example, or cauliflower in summer. But never do we buy tomatoes. Tomatoes that aren’t home grown aren’t worth eating. If...
by Greg Alder | Jan 28, 2022 | Vegetables |
Upon reflection, if my vegetable seeds germinate fast and grow into strong seedlings, it’s because I’ve done things right in six specific areas. Here I note what to do and what not to do in these areas so that I don’t repeat mistakes, and so you never make them in the...
by Greg Alder | Dec 24, 2021 | Vegetables |
Which color is cauliflower? White. And . . . Cauliflower can also be orange, like the variety called ‘Cheddar’. ‘Cheddar’ cauliflower. ‘Cheddar’ is said to get its color from having extra beta-carotene, the same thing that makes carrots orange....
by Greg Alder | Nov 26, 2021 | Vegetables |
Because broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage plants become big once mature, they must be spaced far apart. But why waste the garden ground between them during their young days? Spacing At maturity, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage (BCC) plants can span four feet...
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