Posted on Jun 22, 2009 under In The Garden |
So how are those gardens going? Ours finally started to grow. Now we have tomatoes coming on, our Yukon Gold potatoes are doing great and we are picking a few green beans and cucumbers. All of our herbs have done well now that it has gotten hot. The peppers are starting to produce, but not read to pick yet……and the Weeds are terrible…..With all the rain, I am having trouble keeping them under control!
Some of you have the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planters. How are they doing? Ours is starting to produce tomatoes, but it certainly does NOT look like the pictures we see on the advertisements.
Tips for you Garden:
Make eco-safe repellents from pure essential oils. Add 2 drops of garlic oil and 5 drops of lavender oil to a water-filled quart trigger sprayer. Shake contents as you spray plants. Be sure you do this in the cool of the morning or the cool of the evening, NOT during the heat of the day.
Place wood ashes around cucumber, squash and cabbage plants to deter those vine bores and cabbage worms.
Dissolve nasty slugs by spraying them with a mix of one part ammonia to 2 parts water.
Prune spring-flowering shrubs and climbing roses right after they finish blooming.
Posted on Jun 04, 2009 under In The Garden |
The Flower Garden & Nature Society of Northwest Arkansas presents
Through the Garden Gate Party at the garden of Gail & Virgil Pianalto in Tontitown, 161 N. Barrington Road. This garden is full of whimsy, charm, and beauty.
June 6, 2009
9am to 12 noon
Ticket prices are: $3.00 General Public
$2.00 FSGS members and children 12 & under get in free
Purchase tickets early at Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, or morning of the tour at Fayetteville’ Farmers’ Market or at the Pianaltos’ garden. Ticket price includes chance on raffle items, homemade cookies, iced tea with fresh mint, and cold water with fresh orange and lemon slices. Garden related items will be available for purchase.
Directions: In Tontitown at intersection of Hwy. 412 & Barrington Road at traffic light, go north on Barrington. The Pianaltos’ home is first house on left, and parking is available in lot behind old St. Joseph Catholic Church building. The Pianaltos’ home faces this church parking lot.
This event will benefit both the Flower Garden & Nature Society and the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks.
Due to devastating ice storm in late January, the annual garden tour was canceled this year, and this casual garden party was subsiituted as a cheerful alternative!
Posted on May 29, 2009 under Gardening Tips |
I will be posting a few gardening tips each week. The tips this week are:
- Kill cutworms by sprinkling cornmeal around the plants that they are eating.
- Feed green-and-black-striped swallowtail butterfly caterpillars by including parsley in your gardens or flower beds.
- Repel plant eating pest, flies and mosquitoes by planting basil near tomatoes and in patio or deck containers.
- Put coffee grounds around your hostas to discourage slugs.
Posted on May 29, 2009 under In The Garden |
Many flowers and vegetables need something to grow up on. The great thing about supports is that they don’t have to be expensive. Mike and I use just plain bamboo stakes. I bought them from one of the gardening magazines. We are in the second year of using them and they are as good as they ever were…they don’t rot, just get more weathered and natural looking.
This year with all the extra limbs from the ice storm I have talked to several people that have built their own Trellis or supports from the twigs and limbs.
Giving plants a little extra prop helps the plants in many ways….such as better air circulation, which prevents diseases and fruit rot, easier pruning and harvesting.
Plants grown vertically tend to dry out faster, so they may require more frequent watering.
Mike is growing our tomatoes on twine hanging from a cross piece of bamboo. The picture above is our tomato plants.It is working great. You must keep all the little suckers pinched off. The way you tell a sucker from a blooming stem is the blooming stem has no leaves. As summer progresses we will post more pictures of how they are growing.
I have to share with you a funny story about our garden……Mike and I always plant Blue Lake pole beans. The designing of the garden is left up to Mike and I usually do the planting. Mike made a wonderful tee-pee made out of bamboo poles and twine for the pole beans to run up on. After work yesterday I went out to check the garden and looked at the bean plants and thinking “my they are looking good and healthy, but wonder why they are not running up the twine..they seem to be setting blooms….”well the thought occurred to me that maybe they were not the pole beans I thought. I pull the seed package of green beans and guess what…the plants are bush beans!!! After Mike got home from work I shared my discovery with him….we had a great laugh and Mike went outside and took down the tee-pee for the beans..I went out and planted more seeds between the bush beans that have come up. We now have a round circle that the bush beans will in instead of a straight line like most people would plant…
Posted on May 18, 2009 under Around the Yard |
The Baby Robins Have Flow Away….
One day last week I went home from work and the babies were gone. They hadn’t gone too far as I heard them in some of the brush around the yard with their little chirps.
Hooray for the sunshine…maybe now our gardens will start to dry out and GROW. It certainly hasn’t been the perfect year for getting in a garden. The temperature last night was 42 degrees…that is just not right!
I would really like to see pictures of your gardens….e-mail them to thegardenlady@yahoo.com
It doesn’t matter if they are big elaborate gardens or just one or two tomatoes…It is all fun….
Posted on May 08, 2009 under Around the Yard |
Mike checked the nest this morning and we have 3 fuzzy baby robins in the nest on our front porch. I will get meal worms for her and the babies today.
Posted on May 08, 2009 under In The Garden |
Many of my herbs have sold, but I still have catnip. I didn’t realize that it repels mosquitoes. You can bet I will plant a big pot to put on our deck. Mike and I and our family spend many wonderful hours there during the summer and fall. The catnip plants are $2.00 each. If you mention you saw my blog about catnip, you may have a $1.00 off of any of the herbs that are left. The catnip is included in that offer. Hope to see you soon.
Posted on May 08, 2009 under In The Garden |
Although it drives cats wild, catnip appears to be a big turn-off for mosquitoes. In research conducted at Iowa State University, catnip was ten times more effective at repelling mosquitoes than the compound used in most commercial bug repellents. The finding was reported at the 222nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago.
Chris Peterson, US Forest Service, and Joel Coats, Iowa State University, studied the effect of nepetalactone on mosquitoes. Nepetalactone is an essential oil in catnip that gives the plant its odor. In past studies, the researchers had found that catnip oils could repel cockroaches.
The researchers placed groups of 20 mosquitoes in a glass tube treated on one side with a high dose of nepetalactone. After 10 minutes, an average of 80 percent of the mosquitoes had moved to the untreated side of the tube. In a low-dose test, an average of 75 percent moved to the untreated side.
The researchers conducted similar tests with DEET (diethyl-meta-toluamide), the compound used in many commercial repellents. In those tests, 55 to 60 percent of the insects moved away from the treated side.
In the laboratory, repellency is measured on a scale from 100 percent (all mosquitoes repelled) to -100 percent (all mosquitoes attracted). In the ISU tests, catnip ratings ranged from 49 to 59 percent at high doses, and 39 to 53 percent at low doses.
Peterson said it took about a tenth as much nepetalactone to have the same repellency as DEET. “In other words, nepetalactone is about 10 times more effective than DEET,” he said. “Most commercial insect repellents contain about 5 to 25 percent DEET. Presumably, much less catnip oil would be needed to achieve the same repellency as a DEET-based repellent.”
Why catnip repels mosquitoes remains a mystery. “It might simply be an irritant,” said Peterson, “or they just don’t like the smell.”
No animal or human tests are scheduled for nepetalactone, although Peterson is hopeful that will take place in the future. Iowa State has submitted a patent application for the use of catnip compounds as insect repellents. The project was funded by the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station.
Catnip is a perennial herb in the mint family and grows wild in most parts of the United States. It also is cultivated for commercial use. It’s primarily known for its stimulating effect on cats, although some people use the leaves in tea, as a meat tenderizer and as a folk treatment for fevers, colds, cramps and migraines. The plant also is used to make light yellow dye.
Source: Minnesota University
Posted on May 02, 2009 under Around the Yard |
The Robin’s nest and eggs are doing fine….I guess we should have 3 baby robins in another week or so. I think I will get some meal worms to put on the porch railing for her when the babies hatch. It will make her work so much easier….and fun for Mike and I to watch.
Posted on May 02, 2009 under In The Garden |
This is a picture of the start of our garden…Mike has made a tee-pee out of bamboo and twine for the green beans to grow up on. I did get the beans planted before all this rain hit. Now, if and when we get some sunshine the beans should come up. The tomatoes, and peppers are growing in spite of the weather and the cucumbers are just sitting there. Our broccoli plants are starting to set little heads….so it won’t be too long before they will be ready to harvest.
All of my plants at the Postal Center Plus need to find a home. They are crying out to get in the ground! Please come in…I have dropped the price….all plants are just $2.00 each. The plants I have left are, a few tomatoes, lots of banana peppers, a few ancho/plamano peppers, pimento peppers and lots of wonderful herbs.
Mother’s Day is May 10. A little planted herb garden would be a great gift for Mom. If you bring your container in, I will plant it for you for just $5. oo plus the price of the herbs bought from Lucile the Garden Lady. Pease don’t wait too long as I will have to bring it to my greenhouse to plant and that is at my house.
