How to Control Flea Beetles in your Home Vegetable Garden
When most people hear the word flea they readily think of the small insect that affects their dogs and cats. What a lot of people may not know is that there are a variety of insects labeled fleas for similar characteristics such as jumping. One such insect directly related to and affecting home vegetable gardening is the flea beetle.
The flea beetle, so named because they “jump away” just like a normal flea would, are usually brown or black in color and very small, about the size of a pinhead. Do not let their size fool you though. If left unattended, they can rip through the leaves of your vegetable plants in no time and because they jump around they can easily spread plant disease very quickly.
3 Tips for Great Peppers in your Home Vegetable Garden
Peppers are the number two most grown vegetables, behind tomatoes, in the home vegetable garden according to a recent study by the United States Department of Agriculture. Many home vegetable gardeners simply take a pepper seed, drop it in a hole, give it some water and hope for the best. However there are some great tips to increase the produce output of the pepper plants you grow.
After asking around on our vegetable gardening Facebook fan page, we came up with the top tips from fellow gardeners on producing the best results for peppers. Here are those results.
Top Four Mistakes a Home Vegetable Gardener Makes
It does not matter whether you have been vegetable gardening for twenty plus years or twenty plus minutes, you will invariably make some mistakes along the way that will lead to a less than hoped for production in your harvest. Here are the most common mistakes that I have seed many people make.
Wrong Seeds Sure I like to eat oranges, bananas and kiwi just as much as the next person, but lets face it, I have no chance of growing any of them here in New Jersey. Just like someone who lives in an area of the world where the temperatures are always hot, they will more than likely lack the ability to grow cool weather crops such as spinach or lettuce. Plant the seeds to the vegetables that are indigenous to your area. You will have a greater chance of success.
Home Vegetable Gardening: Growing Garden Cress
Herb gardening has swept the country. According the National Gardening Association over fifteen million people grow herbs.
An easy fast growing herb to add to your repertoire is garden cress. Garden cress is peppery tangy flavored herb that is easy to add to anyone's home garden.
Here are some steps that you can follow to ensure the success of the garden cress that you grow at home.
A lot of herbs are grown by themselves in a “herb garden”. But it doesn't have to be this way. Garden Cress makes a great companion plant to bush beans, beets, carrots, lettuce and spinach to name a few. So keep that in mind when planting. The seeds of garden cress are small, so when you plant them a light covering of dirt is all they will need. Garden Cress seeds will germinate in as soon as 2 days and as far out as 6, so as you can see they grow quickly.
Home Vegetable Gardening: Garlic
I was watching a rerun of an episode of the television show, Friends the other night and in the episode Phoebe accuses Monica of using way too much garlic when she cooks food at her restaurant. That led me to thinking is too much garlic a bad thing? Me personally, I don't think so.
Beyond warding away vampires in horror films, garlic is a great addition to a lot of wonderful recipes you can prepare right at home. To make those recipes even better you can user garlic grown right in your own backyard.
Home Vegetable Gardening: Growing Endive
Endive makes for a great vegetable to be planted in the early spring soon after the last frost occurs in your area. It is a great addition to a salad or garnishes for many other dishes. Here is how you can add great tasting endive to your home vegetable garden.
To make life easier for yourself and take advantage of gardening as soon as the frost season passes you by for the warmer spring months, start your endive seeds in doors. A portable small greenhouse, also known in some parts as a humidity dome, is available at your local home or garden center for less than five bucks. This will help speed up the germination process. If you do start your seeds in pots, make sure you give your endive eight weeks before moving them outdoors and do not plant the seed any deeper than 1/4″.
Home Vegetable Gardening: Treating Plants for Powdery Mildew
Powdery mildew affects such a wide range of plants but most notably those that are in the broadleaf category such as squash and different varieties of plants in the pea families.
If your plants currently have them, do not worry it is a very common occurrence and even better yet this pesky problem is easily treatable.
If left untreated by doing nothing however, your plants can become weak, look deformed and reduce yields of your harvest.
Here are some steps you can take today that could reduce and/or eliminate powdery mildew from your vegetable garden.
The first step is to avoid planting species of plants, such as phlox or bee balm, anywhere near your vegetable plants. This simply invites trouble into your garden, making it easier for it to infect and spread.
Home Vegetable Gardening: Taking Care of Blossom End Rot
Blossom end rot occurs because the soil in your home vegetable garden is deficient in calcium. It also occurs when the weather in your area has been considerably wet followed by an immediate dry period.
Blossom end rot most notably affects peppers, squash, tomatoes and watermelon. As you can see in the picture, it looks like a dark circle and spreads to the end fruit as the vegetable will then look like it is rotting.
If not taken care of it could spread to the remaining of the unaffected portion of your garden and also lead to additional or secondary rotting.
Here are steps you can take to control blossom end rot in your home vegetable garden.
Home Vegetable Gardening: Growing Cucumbers
Cucumbers are a great vegetable to grow in any garden. They are excellent for salads, or to simply dip in some ranch dressing (or your favorite flavor).
There are a variety of great dishes you can make with cucumbers and if you have time to learn it, the skill of “pickling” can take your cucumber even further.
More importantly though, is, all of that is for naught if your vegetable garden does not produce plenty of healthy cucumbers.
Here are some steps you can take to increase your chances of healthy and more abundant harvest in your home vegetable garden.
Home Vegetable Gardening: Growing Eggplant
There are many varieties of eggplants and they come in all shapes and sizes. The most common eggplant is called black beauty.
There are a number of great dishes you can make with eggplant including my favorite eggplant parmesan.
If eggplant is not part of your home vegetable garden you really should consider it. They are easy to grow with a little care and a couple of plants can produce all the of the eggplant you will need for an entire growing season.
If you plan on starting your eggplant from seed, as opposed to buying a plant from a local home or garden center, you should start them indoors about 6 to 8 weeks prior to the last frost of the season, in a portable planting greenhouse available at any garden center for less than $5.00.
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