Grandpa’s Garden is a collection of hints and tips to help you get more enjoyment out of your garden. Grandpa in his native habitat - the garden. Suggested Grandpa's Garden Articles Adding Organic Material to Your Garden Being crumbly increases its water retention, allows microbes access to oxygen, and improves it's nutrient capacity. Adding a lot at once is detrimental to the plants because the nitrogen required to break it down becomes unavailable to their roots. I'm Learning To Garden With Abandon And Reverence That sounds contradictory but is not. Gardening with abandon has you trying new things and experimenting with different techniques regardless of your knowledge of the suspected outcome. If You Old Coots Want Some Excitement Bright orange crackling flames scorching your face, gray smoke billowing up into the sky, the roar of oxygen combusting. Whoo-hoo, you'll feel like a kid again. The Garlic and Onion Sets Are Already Coming Up I'll move my mini greenhouses over them when the weather turns cold and see if we can't have chard all winter again like last year. It's been such a warm November that all the cauliflower came to head and the two rows of transplanted Brussels sprouts are forming sprouts. It Have Forever Wondered Why The Honeydew I pulled out my box of seed packets and found that some honeydew have 110 day maturity dates. One time I read they had 85 day maturity and assumed it was true for all honeydew. Eating in the Garden in the Fall The zucchini has slowed from its maniacal pace to reasonableness. I'm going to close up the greenhouse to see if I can get the Malabar Spinach to continue. Garlic and Onions I usually relegate them to some patch of ground that I won't be needing in early spring but this year they got prime space in a 2'X10' raised bed. Spaced 3" apart in all directions they All sprouted, formed large bulbs, and cured without molding. Letting All The Volunteer Swiss Chard Grow I have swung back to a more formal preference, with defined borders. I would prefer the chard plants all in a row somewhere, but they are so deep rooted that transplanting them could be a disaster. Fall Planting Starts August 1st For Me The plot for them is getting preped now. The second planting of corn is getting harvested and that's a nice open space for them. Green, Tan, Gray And Brown, The Winter Colors Our gardens mimic nature, except we have many more shades of green. Many of our plants are non native so there is more diversity of color. Prep Dinner in the Garden I prep the beets by cutting into similar size chunks so that my wife just has to dump some into the cookware. A large, pure white, beautifully shaped cauliflower goes into the bag whole though because I'm a bit of a show off. I Tried A Product Called Sluggo It's an organic slug control method that relies on iron phosphate to stop them from eating your plants. It's safe for children and pets and is certified organic, so it won't hurt the soil organisms either. More Gardening Articles Gardening Gardening is a perfect hobby for automation. You can automate your watering, heating, fans, and temperature sensors. No Gardening Got Done On Christmas Day Once you get out of the house and start moving around lots of things will dispel your cabin fever. Being cold makes you want to go back in but a fire keeps you entertained. Grow More Greenhouse Review 2018 com](http://www. littlegreenhouse. Leggy Veggie Starts Sometimes I intentionally "test" one theory against another, and sometimes nature forces that test on me. My First Attempt At Gardening I had caught two toads and wanted to keep them as pets. I got some small potted plants, rocks, sticks and sand and created a mini jungle. Hydroponic Dutch Buckets I've never had as wonderful growth as I've had in dutch buckets. The results are simply amazing. Hydroponic Lettuce After discovering bus boxes from the restaurant industry I think I've found the best possible solution. They are food grade plastic and nice and deep. Hydroponic Pea Shoots Pea shoots are one of the best crops to grow in hydroponics. Gardening Resolutions Im'a gonna get more exercise. I think we Grampa gardeners could all get on that bandwagon. 2 Liter Bottle Hydroponics 2 liter bottles make excellent hydroponics containers and they're cheap. I've had excellent results growing lettuce in them, and you don't have to water very often at all.
