When To Plant Crocosmia

Like the other biennial vegetables listed below, carrots bloom at a time in late spring when nectar plants are in short supply, usually after spring-flowering trees and shrubs, but before summer annuals.

Quell the Uprising The adage ‘one year's seeding makes seven years' weeding' is very true! Prolific weeds such as dandelion quickly spread if they're allowed to produce seeds, so always aim to remove weeds before they get a chance to flower and set...

It could be worth investing in a small shredder. Once added to the soil, leafmold becomes incorporated relatively quickly and needs topped up regularly. If leaves have been gathered from roadsides or anywhere else where they're likely to affected by pollutants,...

An ideal design is comprised of beds sized to fit the hillside in ways that make them easy to plant and maintain. Raised Beds for a Sloping Vegetable Garden Building a terraced vegetable garden is basically making raised beds on a slope, and it's important...

The remains of reseeding flowers and herbs can be given their own space in the garden 4. Cool-season Cover Crops Parts of the garden that won't be planted until late spring are prime spots for growing cool-season cover crops , also known as green manures...

Just keep picking and the others will surely follow! How to Ripen Squashes and Pumpkins Winter squashes and pumpkins naturally color up as they mature towards the end of the growing season.

They are a whitish colour, with a wooly surface and purplish-brown underside. Silver leaf and bacterial canker can weaken or even kill plum trees. The first thing to do is identify and remove the 3Ds – dead, diseased and dying wood.

Earlier in the year I shared some top tips for growing super-spicy peppers . You can use your dried chilies as needed, or infuse whole fruits in sterilized bottles filled with olive oil to make chilli oil.

Allow plants to soak up the water they need to avoid wastage Use a Timer An automatic irrigation system, connected to a timer, will take the strain out of watering. They'll all save you time while ensuring your plants stay in the best condition possible.

Plant some seed potatoes in late summer and you could be enjoying a bonanza of earthy nuggets from late autumn right through to Christmas. Keep containers well watered because the compost can dry out quickly, even in wet weather.

We need to thin them to just one or two fruits per cluster. Plums are notorious for over-producing – with often-disastrous results. Selectively removing young fruits is called thinning.

Sticky traps help monitor greenhouse whitefly populations, and are easy to make at home 4. As well as tomatoes and cabbage family crops, particular whitefly favorites include peppers, eggplant, strawberries, cucumbers, pumpkin, okra and sweet potato.

How do you keep your pickings coming? Feeding plants costs money but does mean more fruits of better quality, so the investment is well worth it. Keep Plants Warm to Extend the Harvest into Fall Later on in the season stragglers can be encouraged to keep...

What's your favorite earth-friendly way to protect your garden from pests? Despite my tongue-in-cheek warfare references, it's important to remember that we're not really in a war against pests.

Spring cabbages are sown from the second half of summer to harvest the following year. A bed improved with compost or well-rotted manure is ideal for these hungry feeders, who will appreciate a further boost in the form of an organic general-purpose fertilizer...

They contribute to light pollution and diminish our ability to admire nature's light show, the stars. Easy DIY Drinks Cooler On hot summer days don't forget to quench your thirst with all manner of smoothies, cordials and lemonades made from garden-grown...

There is some truth here, in that a review of studies from around the world concluded that compounds in daikon radishes may help prevent diabetes, cancer and disorders of the digestive system.

Some gardeners even dry produce in the oven, setting it at its lowest temperature and propping the door fractionally open to further moderate the temperate, though I imagine this method can waste quite a lot of energy.

Pests tend to leave rutabagas alone when more tender cabbage or kale are present, in part because rutabaga leaves are studded with prickly hairs. Rutabaga growth slows as the days become short, and the oldest leaves often shrivel and may be cut away.

As with any vegetable, it's important to choose the very best plants to collect seed from. But if you need the space, you can hurry things along by cutting the heads a little earlier.

'Lucifer' with its rich, red blooms survives to -20 degrees F, while 'Emily McKenzie,' sporting clear orange blooms, can take temperatures down to -10. Crocosmia (Iridaceae) delight with masses of small lily-like flowers at the top of arching stems in...

At maturity, the flower stalks grow to heights of 2 to 3 feet. A granular, slow-release, 10-10-10 fertilizer at a rate of 1 tablespoon per 3 square feet is sufficient. After that time, crocosmia requires no supplemental irrigation until growth emerges...

This technique is also known as scarification.Which seeds need to be nicked? In fact, some seeds need to be nicked in order to germinate. Nicking seeds before planting helps the seeds absorb water, which signals the plant embryo inside to begin the germination...

Seeds can deteriorate very fast in such wet and damp conditions. Open the pods over a kitchen towel. If the seeds are precious, you can take the trouble of growing the seedlings in auntil the weather is right for them to be planted outside.– If the...

If this happens, it's important to know how to handle the situation.Now that you know what types of plants to allow to set seed and self-sow, you need to know how to manage self-seeders to prevent having them get out of hand, or in the case of veggies,...

You can smear some honey directly on your cutting or, if you want, mix up a tea of 1 tbsp. These can be bought in the store, but if you want to stay away from chemicals or simply save some money, there are plenty of organic ways of making your own rooting...

These containers will allow you to reduce the use of plastic and/or clay materials in your garden.Plantable containers can be used for starting plants. There are pros and cons with each pot; read this guide to help select the type of plantable pot that...