| The Blackberry Lane Gardens |
| News From Blackberry Lane Gardens This spring weather has presented some challenges for everyone. But despite the wind and sunless, rainy days our garden is great! We are harvesting asparagus, broccoli, onions, radishes, lettuce, Swiss chard, and spinach. One of the most satisfying moments in my day is gathering an armload of vegetables, taking them into the kitchen and preparing supper with my harvest. Our favorite vegetable this year is Swiss chard. It can be eaten raw or cooked, tastes similar to spinach, and is HEAT TOLERANT. One planting lasts from spring into the fall. It is definitely worth a try. Gardening doesn't need to be expensive. Every spring, I watch people loading their carts with compost, fertilizers, insecticides, etc., paying a premium price for these items. Here are a few practices we use in our gardening which will really cut your gardening costs. Let's talk dirt. The more organic matter you can add to it the better. One of the best sources of organic matter is compost. Our compost pile consists of refuse from the greenhouse, leaves, grass clippings, kitchen waste, chicken litter, etc. It is quite large and Mike turns it a couple times a year with the tractor blade. We don't have a method to this compost madness, but it does work and it is free! Bob Hayes has a much more respectable looking compost pile. He seems to use the correct proportions of yard and kitchen refuse for compost to break down more rapidly than ours does. If you are interested in this free source of enrichment for your garden, I'm sure he would share his method with you. Fertilizers, organic or chemical can be very expensive. One of the best sources of nitrogen is grass clippings. Just a couple of inches used as a mulch will supply all the nitrogen your garden needs for the entire growing season. A word of caution. Do not use more than an inch or two at a time as the clippings can hold moisture and compact and be a source of plant disease if too much is applied at once. My hydrangeas, and azaleas which are acid loving plants receive my coffee grounds. This provides enough acid to give me blue flowers on the hydrangeas and keeps the azaleas happy without purchasing specialty fertilizers. Now let's talk plants, free plants. Many plants can be easily propagated. Impatiens, for example, can be rooted by taking a small cutting of the plant and putting it in moist soil, out of direct sun. In a few days the cutting will develop roots and you have two plants for the price of one. In general, plants with soft stems can be rooted this way. Some of the easiest ones to root are coleus, jews, swedish ivy, fibrous begonia, verbena, moss rose, etc. A great way of getting more for your buck when growing tomatoes is to root the suckers that you remove from the stems. Stick them in a pot, keep them moist and use them for your second tomato planting. Happy Gardening, Paula Sherwood, Blackberry Lane Gardens |
| Newsletter May 25th, 2009 |
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| Blackberry Lane Gardens Crane, Mo. 65633 1-417-723-8272 1-417-723-8271 fax Regarding the contents of this page please contact us at :admin@blackberrylanegardens.com |