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 Old Seeds I keep them in their original envelope with the top folded down a couple of times in a gallon size zip lock bag with 5 or 6 other seed packs, and they have remained viable. I know that dormant seeds respire and having more than one packet in the bag probably helps keep the moisture content up so they don't dry out. Watering My Seed Rows And Transplants As soon as the seed sprouts get tall enough to fall over I drag a furrow along both sides of them so I can walk along and fill it with water that doesn't run off away from the plants. I get to do this every day for awhile. When The Sun Comes Out Photons are our friends, warming our aches and arthritic bones. I got two inches of compost covering the asparagus bed today, and with hay mulch surrounding it, it really looks like a bed. I Rigged Up My Shade Cloth Yesterday I got a lot of weeding done under it. It was actually fun for the first three quarters of it because the slightest movement of air would hit my sweaty body and cool me off. Three Of My Tomato Plants Have Fruit I'm considering cutting back on the water already because I'm tired of not getting ripe tomatoes until August. Putting plastic around them makes me feel like I've cut the water back already so I may wait until I see some wilt before I water under it. All I want for Christmas is Straw So far all I've found is madrone leaves and pine needles. Last year I put a 4" layer of them on some Creeping Jenny that I was trying to eliminate and the mulch was gone before I knew it. I Used A Machete To Clear One of my Pathways I traditionally clip the vines and branches off by hand but the results are the same. Hacking away at the plants you've spent so long nurturing makes you feel like a beast, but it's so much less time consuming. I Got To Pick a Handful Artichokes are called heavy feeders and mine get fish emulsion every three weeks. A granulated time release all natural fertilizer would be easier, but I always have fish emulsion on hand so that's what they get. Weeping Wand-o-Water Pending). I can't seem to turn it off. You Know You're A Gardening Geek If I strap mine on first thing, no matter what I'm planning to do, because I will inevitably kneel on a rock, sharp stick, thorn or wet spot. There is always something close to the ground that needs inspection. I Cannot Believe That My Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach What it does have are jagged leaves from birds eating it. Either the birds are keeping the fly's that lay the eggs away, or they are eating the maggots that emerge. I Started Harvesting Garlic Today They say the bulbs are done when the first four outer leaves are brown. Only my tips were brown so I dug some up to see if they were done. More Gardening Articles
