If you're looking for a large, sturdy, insulated composter, the Aerobin 400 Composter fits the bill. It is 47 inches tall by 29 inches wide and can hold up to 113 gallons of compost! Why Compost? Composting kitchen scraps with leaves and other yard waste creates great mulch for your garden. Compost adds nutrients back into the soil and also helps the soil retain water. When you compost yard waste and kitchen scraps, it also reduces the amount … [Read more...]
What’s Eating My Jalapeños?
You'll never believe what I found eating my jalapeños. It's a hot pepper so you would think that it would be protected from hungry critters. But, that is not always the case. I planted my jalapeño peppers in containers this year. They were grown in part shade just along the edge of my driveway. I have four plants and they are growing 10-15 peppers each thus far. I picked my first batch of peppers this weekend to give to a friend. As I was … [Read more...]
Preparing for Fall Vegetable Gardening
Now is the time to plant your vegetables for your fall garden. I started some several weeks earlier, and already have the seedlings showing. It's not too late to plant, but with the hot and dry conditions of late August/early September, you'll have to take more care of your plants and be wary of garden pests. Soil Preparation Remove the weeds and old non-producing plants from your existing garden. Put old plants in the compost pile. Mix in any … [Read more...]
How To Grow Tomato Plants from Cuttings
It stays warm enough here in Mississippi that we sometimes get the chance to have a second crop of tomatoes and other vegetables. For those of us who love home-grown tomatoes, it is definitely worth replanting to try and get a second round. At this time of year, it's impossible to find any tomato plants in our local stores. So in lieu of purchasing plants, I decided to root some suckers for the new plants. How To Root Tomato Plants from … [Read more...]
How to Make Deer Exclosure for Raised Beds
Three young fawns and a doe have discovered my garden just recently. They ate all of the leaves off of the pepper plants, devoured the hostas, stripped the bean plants bare, and ate every single beet top. Now that they’ve found us, I’m sure they will continue to come back. I am starting to think about planting for a fall crop of vegetables, so I have to be creative in planting. Making a Deer Exclosure for Raised Beds The Terrazza Raised … [Read more...]
Green Bean, Ham, and Potato Soup Recipe
One of my grandmother's recipes for soup is my favorite way to use fresh green beans. It's simple to make and goes really well with homemade cornbread (my Southern twist on it). She lives in Pennsylvania, so I suspect it's an old Pennsylvania-Dutch recipe. Here's what you'll need a ham hock (use only half of it if you're making a smaller batch of soup) 4 potatoes, peeled and cubed 3 cups of beans, snapped 1 onion, chopped salt and … [Read more...]
How to Save Time Watering Your Garden
I can not tell you how much I appreciate having this sprinkler system installed in my vegetable beds. All I have to do is hook up a hose and set a timer. It has been quite the time-saver for me and due to its customizable shape, I am not wasting water on things I don’t mean to water. As much as I love having a large vegetable garden, I do not enjoy watering. Standing there with a hose or even setting up a sprinkler that I have to move around … [Read more...]
The Cayenne Pepper vs. Squirrel Experiment
I may have mentioned this before, but my yard has a LOT of squirrels. With several oak and pecan trees, there is plenty of food for them. The problem is, whenever I plant new seeds, the squirrels (and cats) dig up the soil. I end up with empty spots that never grow. I planted beets and carrots in my two raised self-watering beds. The soil in these containers is excellent, making it great for root vegetables. Usually the squirrels and cats … [Read more...]
Self-Watering Planter Box: Why I Love My Terrazza Planters
ORIGINAL POST: 4/22/13 In the hot dry conditions of a Mississippi summer, vegetables and flowers in a planter or raised bed will wilt and require you to water them every couple of days. With a garden the size of ours, that's a lot of time dragging a hose around. The solution I found was a self-watering raised bed. This content includes affiliate links. I get a small percentage of the sale for purchases made through links in this post. … [Read more...]
How To Grow Tomatoes
Tomatoes are some of the simplest vegetables to grow. Ok, technically it's a fruit, but let's just call it a vegetable for now. I recommend starting tomatoes from plants purchased from your local garden store. While you can start tomatoes from seeds, unless you have a good grow light system set up or a greenhouse, you'll get pretty wimpy looking seedlings. You'll get tomatoes from store plants faster than from plants grown from seeds anyway … [Read more...]