It’s been a strange year for back yard gardeners. We have had weekly rains since April, so you think that would be good. But we have had almost weekly 90 degree sweltering days and that’s often not so good. My early garden was pretty good – lettuce, peas, and onions, but my summer garden has not been so great. I got a dozen cukes and several of the vines just died. I’ve picked a dozen … [Read more...]

  They are in my yard. Worse. They’re in my garden. Early this week, they snatched every single baby tomato off my vines. Let the Rat Wars begin! Apparently, rats are making their rounds all over Charlottesville. I subscribe to Next Door, a community web site, and several people have posted pictures asking, “What kind of squirrel is this?” Not squirrels. Rats. Common gray rats with … [Read more...]

    I’m not too concerned about global warming, it’s global wetting that bothers me more. Usually, this time of year, I send my lawn mower on a 4- to 6-week sabbatical while the grass in my yard lies dormant. Not this year. Global Wetting has me out there as often as twice a week cutting grass, and before I can recharge the battery on the mower, the grass is at it … [Read more...]

  I do it every year and I ought to know better. I either buy seeds or young plants and don’t read the fine print, or I’ll plant something, throw away the pack and then can’t remember what it is I planted. Then I don’t know what to buy or not to buy the next year. This happens with tomatoes a lot. Some varieties don’t produce well, and some do. Some have lots of flavor, some don’t. But … [Read more...]

Loyal CvilleBuzz reader, Chuck Strauss, read my piece on Tomato Blossom End Rot last week and offered this advice.   “Although I no longer have a veggie garden, I found that putting eggshells into the ground where and when we planted tomatoes helped prevent the rot—because the commercial stuff I had gotten did not work. I had started collecting the shells and kept them in plastic … [Read more...]

  Rats! It happens every year. The first few tomatoes look great on top but have a big black bottom. They call it blossom end rot. It’s like the tomato plants need a little practice to get it right. One cause of blossom end rot is a lack of calcium. Calcium is taken up into the plant through the roots, however, it settles in one part of the plant. This means that the rot can occur even … [Read more...]

  I have 500 square feet, or exactly .011 acres of garden space. That’s not a very big garden, but I spend a lot of time and money to keep it thriving. I have been successful at keeping out squirrels, deer, groundhogs, and rabbits. But one type of varmint remains. Chipmunks. This spring I planted 3 small rows of snow peas. They were one of the few things that would grow in the upper … [Read more...]

  My friend Janice Kaltenbach sent me a poster recently that read: Growing tomatoes is the best way to devote three months of your life in order to save $2.17. Unfortunately, how true it is! We grow tomatoes each year in our various gardens, along with some cukes, peppers, squash, lettuce, beans, peas and the like. But we spend a fortune at Lowe’s each spring on garden soils, seeds, … [Read more...]

  Sometimes you get lucky. This spring I bought two varieties of lettuce to plant in the upper part of my garden which doesn’t get as much sun, and very little grows there. Lettuce, spring onions and potatoes usually occupy that space. I know about Black Simpson leaf lettuce, that does well. So, I bought a package of those seeds, then saw a pack of red romaine lettuce. Why not? I … [Read more...]

    It was about to kill me, but I have patiently waited to plant my summer veggies in my small garden until the first week of May. One of my gardening buddies, Bill Hitt, says to wait until after the last possible frost date, May 15, but I am trusting that Mother Nature will protect my eagerness. Another friend, Ed Morris, said that one year he was unable for some reason to plant … [Read more...]