That little bit of snow this week was a godsend for us backyard gardeners. The white stuff may be nasty to drive on, but it’s beautiful on a yard or garden bed. Here’s why. Snow is like aa natural mulch and helps to moderate temperature changes underground. It’s a natural blanket of insulation for your garden soil.  As with home insulation, the R value is determined by the depth of … [Read more...]

The days are gradually growing longer. With more daylight and sun, the ground begins to warm. In two more months, we can begin to plant early spring crops. The Garden Countdown has begun. I hated to see last year’s garden come to an end. I had a spectacular year with tomatoes and okra. I have already begun planning in my mind what to plant this year and where. My garden is small, and I try to … [Read more...]

  I have mowed by backyard leaves three times, and that’s enough. If more leaves fall, so be it. However, the leaves on the patio and in the garden beds were not mow-able. So, I sucked them up in my leaf grinder/shredder and spread them in my garden. I totally covered the garden soil with about 2-inches of the shredded leaves and - look out vegetables - it should be another great year … [Read more...]

It killed me last week to have to go out to my garden and pick unripe tomatoes from perfectly good vines. I did it because of a frost warning that night, and the weatherman was right. It was a helluva frost. The next morning, my vines were toast, but boy I had a great crop of tomatoes this year. To extend my fresh-eating of tomatoes, I put about 40 of the unripe tomatoes in a couple of brown … [Read more...]

  One perk of being a backyard gardener is that you never know what might pop up. Volunteer plants, for example. One year, I had a strange plant sprout and could not for the life of me figure out what it was. We let it grow to maturity, and finally pulled it up. It was a peanut vine compliments of my resident squirrels This summer, I have another unknown addition to my garden. I thought … [Read more...]

I have enjoyed an amazing tomato harvest this summer. I have four vines – two slicer tomato plants, one cherry tomato-type plant and a larger “Big Boy” type plant. Not only are they pumping out tomatoes on a regular basis (with many small fruits coming on and still some blossoms) but the tomatoes have been perfect – not a single blemish nor any end rot. This may all be pure, blind luck, but I have … [Read more...]