GrandpaâÂÂs 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 Aspirin Water Coffee and Shade These are a few of my favorite things. Shade is especially welcome this time of year and I feel guilty for enjoying all were getting from the wild fire smoke. The Blackberries Are Growing Profusely This Spring My entire garden is now surrounded by them. The solitude and privacy of an enclosed garden is well worth having to cut them back from time to time. I Have A Row Of Beets That Just Too Pretty to Pick Their cranberry colored stems and dark green leaves with cranberry colored veins are in contrast with all the other assorted shades of green in the garden. They are uniformly tall and evenly spaced and I hate to ruin the symmetry by picking some. It's Time To Make Up Your Christmas List The stems that came out from your main plants, touched down on the ground and rooted, are called daughters. You can cut the stems and dig up the plants, replant the daughters, and double your strawberry patch. Eleven Corn Came Up In the Second Planting Yesterday I found an old box fan in the barn loft, and blew air across the garden, so I didn't have to cover everything up. Moving air can help keep frost from damaging plants. I Had To Put My Mini Greenhouses Over the Swiss Chard I Had To Put My Mini Greenhouses Over the Swiss Chard The Third Planting of Cauliflower Are Ripening They actually look better than the lettuce leaves because they are larger and make a more uniform cover. I'm getting picky with my mulch aesthetics now because the garden is getting crowded. The Wando Peas Are Done Almost all of my mounds are surrounded by garden waste on the outside perimeter of the straw mulch and it looks great. It dries to a tan color that compliments the shades of green and gives the garden a tucked in feeling. Cherry Tomatoes Overripening Every morning I pick the red ones and put them on the kitchen windowsill and the next morning half of them are overripe. Weird. Garden Chair I move it from sun to shade and do most of my prioritizing from it. From this throne I can see when the corn leaves are starting to turn dull, or the zucchini leaves wilt and know it's time to water. Stress Your Tomatoes The four foot tall tomato plant and tower leaned away from me and I heard roots snapping. The next day the plant was a little wilted so I knew I had stressed it some. Use a Machete To Harvest in the Fall Stand facing what you want to cut and swing the machete in X's in front of you. It slices the stems instead of hitting them head on and makes twice as many cuts as my old way. More Gardening Articles
