Comments on: April Showers Bring May Flowers

By: Lisa P

Lisa P — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:31:00 +0000

oooh I wish we had rain, its already 100+ here and I hope my veggies survize, my watermelon that I planted last week is already dead! I need to find my receipts and for once actually take a dead plant back to home depot!

By: bj

bj — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:49:00 +0000

Marigolds will also keep away some bugs. I border my entire garden with Marigolds and green onions (bugs don't like the onions either). Just buy them at the grocery store. Use the tops in the kitchen and plant the bottoms. You will be surprised how much they grow in a week. Clip them back weekly and just freeze until you need it.

Vinegar does work to kill some weeds. I also use an organic bug killer made from orange oil (can't remember the name but I get it at Home Depot).

Try growing the tomatoes in upside down pots.They grow twice as fast! Make your own out of five gallon buckets. Just google the instructions. I planted five in the ground and five in pots. All five in the upside pots are MORE than twice as big already!

Good luck!

By: Pam

Pam — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:55:00 +0000

Wow, it sounds like you have a huge garden! You're growing a lot of things I've never tried. Of course, this year is only our 2nd garden. Last my lettuce was eaten up by earwigs. It was head lettuce. I'm thinking of trying leaf lettuce this year. You may want to go online to Jerry Baker's website or go check out some of his gardening books from the library. He is a master gardener with a WEALTH of knowledge about natural (and cheap) bug and weed remedies.

I have a couple of questions for you regarding the homemade bread and pizza recipes you listed. 1) What is vital wheat gluten? I looked for it at the supermarket and didn't see it. I was looking around the flour and baking soda area. Is is a powder like flour, cornstarch...? I may have to go to a big chain, but I'd like to know what I'm actually looking for.
2) Do you use regular or rapid rise yeast in your recipes?

Thanks for the help.
Pam

By: Stephanie @ Faithful Follower Of Christ

Stephanie @ Faithful Follower Of Christ — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:18:00 +0000

Wow you rock! Maybe someday when I own my own home I’ll have a garden too. I’m sure I’ll be checking your blog often then! LOL!

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:15:00 +0000

i prefer the rain to the pollen. rain keeps the pollen from floating around. then i dont die of sneezes.

By: momstheword

momstheword — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:20:00 +0000

I use something organic but can't remember the name of it. I'll go out and look for it later. Even the people that worked at Lowe's hadn't heard of it but they sell it (or they did anyway).

But it won't kill the weeds like Roundup does, it just prevents them from coming back, so do you still want to know?

BTW, I apologize for the weather. Apparently we got your sun and you got our rain. So sorry, my bad!

By: newlyweds

newlyweds — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:16:00 +0000

Wow you certainly do have a huge garden coming along. How fun. Hopefully the weather permits for you to plant and have an amazing garden. Would love to see pics.

By: 5intow

5intow — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:41:00 +0000

I've never done potatoes, but am so interested to try.

Gardening organically is a bit more work, and I have learned to tolerate a certain level of weeds for the first half of the summer until we finally seem to get ahead of them. I have learned that raking or hoeing once or twice a week (careful not to disrupt the plants you do want to grow) helps cut down on the amount of time spent weeding on my hands and knees.

Also, for bugs and other pests we plant marigold plants that help keep rabbits away (not as good as a fence) and we used Neem Oil (look at a garden/home improvement store). It is an organic-approved oil that you spare on plants to keep harmful bugs away. We had a fair amount of success with it last year.

One more rabbit recipe, we used a mixture of vinegar, hot sauce, and raw egg and sprayed it around plants (like corn and broccoli) that I could not keep the rabbits away from. A lot of it is trial and error because what works in one yard doesn't always work in another.

Good luck with your garden, and staking your claim to the harvest despite the other creatures trying to "help."
~Erin

By: April

April — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:46:00 +0000

we didn’t get our yard prepared like we wanted to(husband was in florida from december until last week) so we got some things going in containers. We have tomatoes, bell peppers,carrots, cucumbers, zuchinni, basil, lavender, and pumpkins. We also have a peach tree we purchased last year that looks like it’s getting some fruit.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:34:00 +0000

wow! that's a lot. You must have a huge yard. Im still working on digging out the patches on mine. It's been so cold and rainy this year. Not to mention the fact we have so much shade there is only 4 to 6 hours of sun in any one spot during the day. So I found 2 where I think they'll get at least 6 hours and then I'm going to plant some in containers.

I found a children's garden plan at bhg .. pumpkins, radishes, strawberries, tomato, marigolds, sunflowers, and morning glories... basically half veggie half flower. It will be pretty The other one will be a pizza garden. I still need to plant seeds but my seedlings that I bought are doing well. I just need to spray something on them because of the bugs. I think a chili pepper recipe of some sort.

I love these gardening posts