Gardening

Everything to do about seed potatoes. Where to buy and how much to buy.

What is an invasive plant? How can you manage perennials?

A list of the bee balm plant varieties that LP Farm Store sells.

I tried various methods to make my garden plan/map for the previous post. I tried drawing, but I realized quite quickly I don't have the skills to make an eye pleasing map. Next I tried MS Paint and realized I need gridlines. My plants were doing the wave in the rows. Next up I tried this program and quickly realized it wasn't up to snuff, but trudged on. This garden plan/map is not up to scale so the measurements might be a wee bit off. I quickly realized designing and

Are you a beginner gardener and it seems a bit daunting? In this post I'll go through everything you need to do to have a successful garden. This post I'll be writing about inground gardening. In later posts I'll go into container gardening and raised bed gardening. Step 1 is finding the perfect spot to have the garden, if you have the perfect spot all ready to go skip down to the other steps. You want to make sure your garden gets a lot of sunlight, at least 6 or more h

Having a plan either in life or in the garden makes things easier. It gets you from point a to point b or point z much easier. It can also minimize surprises, like planting 10 zucchini plants and almost filling your bathroom with zucchinis (for my market garden I only plant 10-15 plants and it's plenty for my markets). So what should you consider when making a garden? Where are you going to plant? Containers, raised beds, or in the ground. Soil. I will go into more deta

How to start seeds indoors. How can you be successful in starting seeds inside.

Some seeds need to be started indoors and some can be direct seeded in the garden. If you don't have an indoor plant room or don't care to start seeds indoors LP Farm Store sells a wide range of plants . Direct seed, these seeds go straight into the garden: Beans Beets Carrots Sweet Corn Kohlrabi Parsnips Peas Dill Cilantro Radish Rutabaga Peas Potatoes Swiss Chard Start indoors or buy plants: Sweet and hot peppers Broccoli/Cauliflower Cabbage Celery Eggplant Onions Tomatoe

Some seed packets have a wealth of information on them and some seed packets are bare bones. What does all the wording and numbers on the seed package mean? The year is when the seeds were packaged. 2020 means it was packaged last year. The yellow box contains information on planting. A tip for planting seeds is to plant two times the width, or diameter, of the seed. For super fine seeds like oregano and thyme I cover with just a dusting of soil. Days to maturity is when

Growing most herbs is quite easy and my favorite blog on herbs is the Herb Gardener and a general gardening site Gardening Know How. It provides information on how to grow herbs and lots of interesting recipes. Basil : it likes full sun and the soil consistently needs to be wet. One way to know if a plant needs water or not is to put your finger in the soil, if the soil feels dry give it a drink of water. Also the leaves can give a lot of information: droopy leaves me

Gardening is very rewarding and with a little research very doable. Gardening can be done in containers, raised beds, or gardens. To have the most success you need to know whether you direct seed the veggie seed or need to start the veggie seed inside. Now not everyone has a grow/plant room set up so buying plants would be the route to go. Some veggies are direct seed or start inside, it's a choice. I start my pumpkin seeds in my greenhouse because of critter pressure (m

Imagine you are sitting in a toasty hot tub and the outside temperature is 0 Celsius or 32 Fahrenheit. What happens when you get out of the hot tub? You're freezing and want to get some place warm. When you buy plants/seedlings from a greenhouse they are used to a tropical and almost perfect environment. They're not used to the cold, direct sunlight or to the wind so you need to gradually introduce them to the these conditions. Somethings to keep in mind: Peppers and toma

Step 1 . Scout out where you want to grow. Do you want to grow on a balcony, raised beds, or right in the ground? What kind of light does the area get? It is very important to note what kind of light the area gets in the morning and afternoon. Vegetable plants generally want full sun. I have grown vegetables on an east facing balcony successful so if you're willing to take a gamble vegetables can be grown without full sun. Step 2 . If growing in containers you need to c

How to grow lavender.

Bees are super important to a garden. There most important role is to help pollinate flowers. Some plants have female and male flowers and these plants rely on bees transferring the pollen. This is a really interesting article on male and female flowers. This is an interesting article on what would happen if all the bees would die off. There are certain flowers that bees, butterflies, and humming birds prefer. Plants such as Milkweed, Bee Balm, Yarrow, and Lavender.

What is the difference between heirloom, hybrid, and GMO seeds? Can you even buy GMO seeds? Which seeds are the best ones to buy?

What growing zone are you in? What are frost dates? Knowing this information can save you money!

One of the most confusing thing with growing plants is where to plant them so that they will actually thrive, grow, and produce. If you look at plant tags most will state if the plant likes full sun, part sun, part shade, or shade. It is important to know what kind of light requirements your yard, balcony, or deck has and what kind of light it gets in spring vs summer vs fall. Putting a shade loving plant in an area where it will receive 14+ hours of sun will doom the plan

Most plants love growing in full sun, but some plants can be grown in part shade or full shade.

This is a list of websites that I find incredibly useful.