Show Date: 29 Jan 10
Orchids have to be one of the most romantic plants! They’re delicate flowers just ooze words of love! 
One of the easiest orchids to grow is the Phalaenopsis. Keep it OUT of direct sunlight and let it sit on top of a tray of gravel and water.
Orchid
Show Date: 28 Jan 10
Although the temperatures have felt a bit like a heat wave for us, our windows are still closed up which means stale air!
Houseplants are the “greenest” method of freshening our indoor breathing spaces. I LOVE my ficus.
Ficus
Keeping the leaves clean will help absorb more polluted air sending it down to the roots where microbes will munch down the pollutants.
You don’t need fancy cleaners. Just a drop of dish soap in a quart of water and you can keep those leaves clean.
Tired of a sea of green lawn? How about a little ‘Burgundy Glow’?
Ajuga Reptans 'Burgundy Glow'
Sedum 'Fulda Glow'
Plants, plants, plants. That’s all we seem to talk about!
Let’s dish about soil… it is the foundation that sustains all those wonderful plants and needs a little attention sometimes.
Fluffy soil garners great plants. The best amendment to mix into the top 8 or so inches of your garden bed is compost, however, aged horse manure will do a great job as well. Do NOT use fresh manure!
The idea of fluffing your soil is create great drainage and aeration making it easier for those roots to scoot through the ground and get the nutrients they need.
Worms are great aerators. I chose this picture just because I think real earthworms are kinda ugly and I just had some gummi bears! Yum!
Gummi worms
Show Date: 22 Jan 10
There are many ways to ruin your garden but here are three that I’ve done!
Veggies!
1. invasive plants – these are those plants labeled “easy spreader” or “fills in rapidly”. They will take over your garden.
2. adding wood ash to your garden because grandma told you it’s good for the soil. Nope, not here in Minnesota. It has too much potassium with a pH of 10 to 12 which burns earthworms. We like earthworms, don’t want to fry those guys.
3. Working a wet soil. NO NO NO. I’ve heard people say that they were told the soil was softer when it’s wet so it’s easier to work. What will happen is you’ll turn your soil into dirt clods. Hard as a rock. If it’s moist, that’s okay but ideally you’ll work the soil when it’s dry.
Show Date: 21 Jan 10
We just talked about the Minnesota growing season! Well if you’d like to stretch that growing season there’s a cheap way to do it.
Black plastic will warm up your soil so you can plant earlier. Secure black plastic over your garden bed several weeks before the last frost date, then pull the plastic up and plant.
Raised beds also warm up faster. You can take the soil’s temperature! For tomatoes it should be 50 degrees before planting.
Show Date: 20 Jan 10
Oof, this question is a bit convoluted. The short answer for zone 4 is approximately 150 days and for zone 3 it’s about 120 days.
Garden Veggies
The biggest factor to change that is WEATHER!! If we have a cold Spring, drought, early frost that changes everything!
Let those AVERAGE numbers above guide you when you’re looking at the ‘days to harvest’ listed on seed packets.
Show Date: 19 Jan 10
After you’ve perused your plant catalogs from page to page then go googling or yahooing or binging… the point being to surf the net and look up those plants you want.
Victory Garden poster
You may find that some catalogs “stretch” the truth of what zone they’ll grow in or how much sun/shade they like. Doing a little research now may save you some grief later.
Of course, ALWAYS feel free to email me and ask my opinion of certain plants. And I will go agoogling!
Tenderfoot according to an online dictionary is defined as a newcomer not yet hardened to rough outdoor life; a greenhorn.
With that in mind, here are a few terms that you’ll find in those glorious catalogs that might not make sense to you.
‘Slow to bolt’ is a good thing to see when buying lettuce seed. This variety will not flower as early and that means the lettuce won’t turn bitter as early.
Indeterminate and determinate are two words you’ll see with tomatoes. Indeterminate plants continue to grow while determinate plants get to a specific height and stop growing. Those work well for small spaces.
And ‘bareroot’ plants are shipped with no soil around them. These should be planted ASAP or kept in a cooler, dark area for just a few days till you can get to them.
I recently read an article about how much bacteria is on those bags and it was frightening. We use them for all kinds of things and then don't always think to wash them.
It's easy to just toss them in with a load of clothes or, if they're the more plastic type, hand wash them.
