with Teri Knight
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: What’s in a bulb?
What’s in a bulb? Is it really a bulb? Is it a rhizome? Is it a corm? Is it a tuberous root? And what’s the difference? Let’s start with what they have in common. They’re all underground storage units.
All the things they need to sprout and flower are stored in their fleshy structures underneath the soil.
Here’s another look from my friends in the U.K.!
Once their leaves are up and at … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: The Cut Flower garden
Walking into your home and there on the kitchen table is a lovely vase filled with flowers from the local nursery.
They’re wonderful, certainly, but have you thought about growing your own cut flower garden?
This is the garden where you don’t feel guilty cutting that flower to bring inside! It won’t ruin the “look” you’ve achieved in your landscape. This garden should be in full sun at the rear of your property, … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: GMOs vs hybrids
Hybridizing, genetically modified and genetically engineered. Hmm, is there a difference? Hooo, boy, this is a big topic and it won’t be answered here but there are distinctions on HOW plants are modified.
Modifications aka genetic mutations take place in every living thing naturally. When 2 people have a baby, there’s some mutation going on. Not sure that’s real romantic but, I hope, you catch my drift.
This tomato ‘Sungold’ was bred for disease … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Small space garden plants
A small space doesn’t mean you can’t have a garden! I have a raised bed for my vegetables but I also plant in pots.
I like cucumbers but I don’t like the space they take up in my raised bed.
Cucumber ‘Patio Snacker’ is the perfect size to plant in a 15 inch pot with a trellis for the 3 to 5 foot vines to grow on. It’s fruits are 6 to 8 inches … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Veggies in part shade? Yes
Most people believe you must have full sun (about 8 hours) to plant all veggies. And while I agree that full sun is optimal, it’s not necessary. So says Jeff Gillman (former U of M Hort Professor and currently Director of the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens in Charlotte North Carolina) in his book ‘Decoding Gardening Advice’.
I highly recommend this book!
Gillman says these vegetables/herbs need as little as 2 hours of … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Prepare to Prune
Gardeners! Prepare your pruners!
Cold temperatures provide the best time to prune because the plants are dormant, their sap flowing less freely and the insects are not a bother. With this warm up, that changes things. Never prune spring flowering shrubs now or you’ll lose any flowers. What you CAN prune are dead or diseased branches.
This is also a good time to really look over your plants for any pests.
To prepare your … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Self-watering systems
Asking family and friends to take care of your place when you’re on vacation is always one of those tasks you sort of dread.
Pick up the mail, stop by to see the cat, make sure it hasn’t shredded the curtains, flip the lights on and off and water the plants. Some of this can now be don remotely, but not so much the plants. Remember all those “As Seen On TV” ads for Aqua Globe? … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Re re re Repot!
reDuce, reUse, reCycle,….. NOW rePOT
Now’s a good time of year to repot those houseplants that have outgrown themselves. If their roots are coming out the bottom, or have circled around so many times they’ve formed their OWN pot, it’s time!
As you can see from the above picture some of those roots have circled around themselves and are of no benefit to the plant. They’re actually strangling it. There are plenty of healthy … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Growing avocados in the North
I had a listener ask me about growing avocados in Minnesota. He’d taken some pits and put them in water. One sprouted. After months and months of sitting in water, it’s started to sprout leaves along with those roots. The question from there was what to do with it!
A How-to guide on sprouting an avocado seed/pit at Inhabitat
I did some research and found that, based on the pictures and the information … [Continue reading]
Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Social network for the garden – 2018
What’s trending? Ever get tired of these new digital phrases? I do, but I’m a bit old school! That said, plants have been “social networking” for, well, just about forever.
They recognized early the importance of each other. Social networking is now a term for the garden as well. It’s a 2018 trend, according to landscape architect Thomas Rainer.
I’m always curious to give something a go! Instead of seeing your … [Continue reading]