Earlier this summer, you couldn’t afford to buy a head of lettuce. Adverse growing conditions caused the early shortage and the resulting sticker shock at the sky-high prices of the shriveled heads of lettuce. But now, we’re all afraid to buy lettuce because of the Cyclospora outbreak, which sent many on emergency trips to their toilets. Today, the lettuce situation in grocery stores across the … [Read more...]

A yard full of trees is a blessing – and a curse. In the early spring, trees are among the first to spring to life, first with tiny buds, then leaves. As summer approaches the leaves create a blanket of welcomed shade and the branches of the trees become homes for birds and highways for squirrels. So, what’s not to like about trees? For one, they get old and begin to die and that’s the … [Read more...]

This spring, I planted a couple hills of squash. The plants blossomed and thrived, growing to tropical sized vines. But no squash.I kept looking for the tell-tale hint of yellow beneath the vines. I would get blossoms, but no squash. Last week, I was in the garden to pick a few tomatoes and happened to see a long green object beneath the squash vines. It was a huge zucchini squash – a foot and a … [Read more...]

This spring, Nancy bought two large bags of garden soil and 2 red seed potatoes at the Crossroads Nursery. “This should be interesting,” I thought. Beside our carport, she placed one bag on top of the other after cutting the top from the lower bag and the bottom from the upper bag. Then, she cut 4 small holes in the top bag and put a couple slices of her seed potatoes – each with eyes – in … [Read more...]

Last summer, my small garden overwhelmed us with tomatoes, and almost every one was perfect. This year? Not so much. All but a few tomatoes I have picked this year have had black-end rot where the blossom end of the tomato turns black and leathery. According to the Garden Gnomes, this is caused by a lack of calcium, but in my case, it’s not a lack of calcium in the soil, it’s a lack of water … [Read more...]

Many backyard gardeners have simply given up. Why go to all the expense and trouble to plant a garden only to have a few deer wipe out and entire planting in one night. All deer repellants ultimately fail as the deer do what they do best - eat stuff. There are two ways to overcome the deer invasions. One involves a 30.06 cartridge, which is frowned upon in most subdivisions and the other is a … [Read more...]

It should be a National Holiday, a day of celebration knowing that after 6 months of eating tasteless Roma and Big Boy tomatoes from the grocery store, the first tomato from your garden has turned red-ripe enough to pick. It’s the First ‘Mater Day, and for the Brewer’s it was celebrated on Tuesday of this week. Nancy’s above-ground garden came through with a beautiful tomato. It was perfect, … [Read more...]

A head of Iceberg lettuce in most grocery stores continues to be over $2 a head. Usually less than a dollar, lettuce is now higher than the cost of a dozen eggs. Why? First, the weather. California and Arizona – two key lettuce producers – have endured extreme weather this year.  Heavy rains, flooding and unseasonally high early temperatures have weakened harvests and there is not as … [Read more...]

Last fall, Nancy found a small volunteer tomato vine that had sprouted in the same pot as a mature vine she was about to pull up. Rather than pulling up the young plant, she repotted it and brought it inside. Throughout the winter, she trimmed it back so it wouldn’t get so spindly and she watered and nourished it. I thought she was crazy. You can’t carry over a tomato vine from one year to the … [Read more...]

We take rain for granted and often we are disappointed when it comes and rains out our golf match or family picnic. But when we don’t get rain for a while, that’s when we know how much we need it. Last year it rained a bunch and our yards and gardens prospered. This year, however, we had like one inch of rain during the entire month of April. Gardens and lawns suffered. Last year I was mowing … [Read more...]