Make sure you buy these. They'll save you many curses, much time lost, and you won't throw your back out before you've done a single pass of the tilling clearing weeds et al from the tines. Trust me on this.My 81-year-old mother wants me to put together the Mantis tiller (see pic below) she bought last springand "help" her use it.
Okay, that looks cool... and given that the number and density of the weeds around here far outnumber the blades of grass, I think I'll spend the money to order them, just to save my own ass. Thanks, AA.
You should try growing your plants according to the stages of the moon. I know this sounds like complete nonsense but my grandad swore by it and his fruit and veg where the bees knees. Another tip, horse shit!
My ex-wife (#1 of 3) used to have me get a few hundred pounds of elephant manure every spring when the circus moved up from Sarasota to open in Tampa, and used it in all her gardening, but she didn't grow edibles, just flowers. They grew fantastically tall and strong and bloomed forever, especially the roses.
Maybe amend with compost, store bought or self-made? Self-made gives you almost as good a feeling as growing your own food.
Missed this the first time. Quite welcome.
You should try growing your plants according to the stages of the moon. I know this sounds like complete nonsense but my grandad swore by it and his fruit and veg where the bees knees. Another tip, horse shit!
I read over the linked page. Now my head hurts. That was way confusing. I think I'm going to have to print it out (good thing it has a b&w print option!) and review it a few times before I understand it. Then maybe I can get her to follow at least some of its suggestions. Me having anything to do with growing things other than roses is not a good idea. I seem to have a black thumb for just about anything but rose bushes, dunno why.
Angelica, would you care to expand on this just a bit? It sounds like you're saying that people using grow lights, which usually means fluourescent lights, should gradually increase the amount of (artificial) light that they give their seedlings. You're certainly right that plants started indoors need to be acclimated to sunlight (so do houseplants put outside for the summer), but new seedlings under fluourescent lights need those lights to be on 12 to 14 hours a day as soon as they germinate. Too little light will give you stretched plants that may very well produce poorly, unless they can be rehabilitated.
Actually i was speaking against the other end of the spectrum: anything more than 18 hours a day. i've heard oops stories from gardeners behind the power curve trying to catch up by putting their seedlings under grow lights 24/7. They didn't realize most plants need a dark respiration period as well. As for the time period and ramp up, i could have said start at 14 and ramp to 18, but that doesn't necessarily hold true for all plants.
Three quick answers:
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Chuckling. Technically, anything is a chemical, including the homemade remedies. Here's another link in the dark. BS prevention is the key phrase, although the species of those 30+ immigrants will greatly influence the results as well. i kinda liked the $4 of pennies in a quart of white vinegar suggestion for sheer amusement value, although shovel ran neck and neck.
- Rose Magazine's website lists some chemical-free gardening tips for control of black spot (but uses sulphur, which I always thought was a chemical
Fucking squirrels make growing things like cherry tomatoes impossible. They'll climb a 2-story deck, take one bite out of each piece of fruit, and discard the rest.
