Uses for fallen leaves

I live in the woods. My house is on a 2-acre clearing smack dab in the center of the woods. When your house is surrounded by acres of trees you have a lot of fallen leaves to pick up every year! I don't mean rake a little bit and that's it! Nope, we actually need machines for this! I like to joke that my husband vacuums the lawn, but well...he does! lol

At first you just rake them into the woods or burn them or even suck them all up with the lawn vacuum thing and dump them somewhere deep in the woods where they can't blow back out. After a while though you come up with ways to use said leaves, after all leaves could be very useful for a gardener!

There is one school of thought that leaves and dead plants should be left where they fall as certain insects will hide in them over winter and the leaves help them to survive. Unfortunately many common garden pests are on that list and allowing them a space to survive over winter is making more pest problems for yourself next year!

I'm pretty sure that's how my earwig problem got so bad the last 2 years! 

I also didn't till for 2 years because of a new fence, so that certainly didn't help. Tilling does help break up their little buggy homes and disrupts the lifecycle of many garden pests so I can't blame my earwig problem on 1 thing...but I'm sure the 2 changes worked together to make the garden particularly buggy this year. That won't happen again!

30 years gardening and still learning and trying different things. About the leaves though...

How to grow bush beans

I have been growing bush beans in my home garden for years! They are one of the easiest vegetables to grow and generally produce well from spring into fall. They are one of the easiest vegetables to grow and 1 plant will produce dozens of beans! Plus they don't take up a lot of space.

A few years back I started growing more than just the standard Blue Lake bush beans. I love the color of purple bush beans and have recently started growing some of the yellow bush bean varieties! It's crazy how many different types of bush beans are out there! So lets talk about growing them.

November gardening

November is a really awkward time for gardeners. It's not cold enough that you can't do anything, but the snow is coming soon and therefore you really can't do anything. However those warm days really get to you and make you want to get out there and spend some time in the garden, am I right?

Luckily there are a few garden tasks you can do and if you happen to live in a mild climate there are a few things you can actually plant. For instance, I've grown kale all the way up till mid January before even though we get snow. I've also overwintered carrots and picked them in March when the ground thawed.

Of course if you want to try to garden under snow you're going to have to cover everything. Whether you build a cold frame, buy a pre-made greenhouse or just toss some plastic over your plants ... you're going to have to protect them somehow.

You probably already did a lot of cleaning up when you started preparing your garden for winter. If you're like us the first real freeze killed most everything off anyway, so I cleaned that up right after. 

Make a winter compost bin

In summer, I use a large compost pile exclusively, and it works well. In winter though, I add a smaller compost bin near the house. There's far less yard material to be composted in winter, but there is still a lot of kitchen scraps. So a smaller bin near the house allows me easy access to the bin without having to trek through the cold or snow.

Composting in winter is a little trickier than in summer, but still very possible. You'll have the weather to deal with and obviously the compost getting cold will keep it from cooking as well as in summer. However, as many compost items (like some vegetables) get mushy once frozen and thawed, it actually does help them to break down.

The bigger the compost pile you have, the less likely it will stop cooking in winter. My pile is kind of short, and it definitely takes a break from processing during the coldest months. I do still try to turn it monthly when possible.

Preparing your garden for winter

Well, it's almost over. Garden season, that is. It always goes by so fast, doesn't it? Next thing you know that vegetables are no longer producing and the flowers are dying. It's time to clean up the garden plot and put it to bed for winter. I have a bunch of garden chores I do every fall. It's takes some time, but it's worth it when your garden is ready come spring.

There are a few of these tasks I look forward to in fall and one is the record keeping, actually. This is when I look back and decide what worked, what didn't and what changes I need to make for next year. I know lots of people do this during the cold days of winter but I prefer to do it now when it's all fresh in my mind and right in front of me.

Once I remove the plants and finish the other garden chores, well...I tend to start romanticizing the garden and looking through rose colored glasses for next year! lol Do you do this too?  

Now on to the fall garden chores! Most of what needs to be completed is a matter of cleaning up and covering up. This is how I like to prepare my garden for winter:

Have you grown ground cherries yet?

I talk a lot about growing vegetables and herbs but did you know that I grow quite a bit of fruit too? One of my favorite things to grow every year is the ground cherry! It's basically a small yellow cherry with a tropical flavor that grows on a low bush. Oh, and it grows inside a paper lantern!

The first time I heard of ground cherries I was intrigued. They are related to the tomato (another fruit) and have tiny seeds inside, not a pit like regular cherries. They have a mild almost tropical fruit flavor and they are wrapped in a papery husk that needs peeled back before eating. As mentioned above, they look a lot like paper lanterns.

I first started growing ground cherry (Physalis) because they are so darn cool looking. I still grow them because not only are they delicious, but each plant provides baskets upon baskets of them...and they bear fruit for months on end! They are an annual but will bear fruit all the way up till the first frost.

They're one of the fruits I grew to sneak some extra fruits and vegetables into my family's diet. It worked! They absolutely love ground cherries!

There are several different varieties but I like to grow one called Aunt Molly's ground cherry.

Easy ways to make money from your garden

If you're anything like me you probably over planted your garden and as the harvest starts coming in, now you're wondering what to do with everything! Most gardeners love giving away their home grown produce to family and friends. Sometimes that isn't enough and I'm still overrun with more vegetables than we can eat and preserve!

Bartering is one of my favorite things to do with extra produce and eggs from my little homestead. I have traded my homegrown items for many different things over the years, but my favorite is when I bartered guinea keets for chimney sweeping services. That turned out great for both of us!

Of course sometimes the other person really doesn't have anything to trade in which case there's always good old money. Lol There are lots of ways to make money from your garden besides selling fresh produce including herbs, seeds, transplants and more. So let's talk about how you can make money on your backyard garden.

How to control weeds in the garden

Weeds. It's the one thing that makes gardening more chore than enjoyable pastime some days. Keeping the weeds in your garden under control can make the difference between having an amazing harvest, and barely gathering enough to make the garden worthwhile! After all, weeds take up the sun, water and nutrients the plants need so usually the more weeds you grow, the less produce you can harvest.

So how do you maintain a weed free garden?

A few years ago I would have said "Lots of work" but I've adopted a method that makes it pretty easy to control the weeds. I probably spend about 10 minutes a day on it, which isn't all that much in my 23' x 25' garden. The 2 main tricks to make it easier are weeding often and deep mulch.

How to harden off seedlings (don't skip this!)

If you've been growing your seedlings indoors for the past few months like I have, then I'm sure you're also anxiously counting the days until you can plant them outside. I've been hardening off my seedlings for about two weeks now, which is an important step before they can go into the garden. Transplanting them without first hardening off can result in damaged and struggling plants.

To harden off seedlings is to gradually expose them to the environment they will be living in. Even though you may have your seedlings growing under bright grow lights inside your house, they are nowhere near ready for a full sun garden! They are also probably weaker than they should be.

Why harden off seedlings?

Lets face it, the climate inside your house isn't too exciting for a plant. No sudden winds, no rain, no temperature fluctuations and no burning sun. Outside though, well that's another story entirely...and that is exactly what we need to get these plants ready for.

8 Flowers you need in your vegetable garden

Many people plant flowers in their vegetable garden. There are lots of reasons to do this from companion planting, attracting pollinators to them just being pretty! I've been doing it for as long as I've gardened. Honestly, I never liked marigolds all that much, but my Pappap said you had to plant them in the garden so I have for the last 30 years. He was right!

Many gardeners find that they can discourage harmful pests, without losing the beneficial allies by just adding flowers. Flowers also add visual interest because vegetable plants are mostly green. There is honestly not a lot of color in cucumber, bean, pea or broccoli plants! (just to name a few) 

Planting flowers amid the tomatoes is a good way to dip your toes into the pool of companion planting.

Companion planting is placing different plants close together that enhance each other's growth, discourage pests and diseases, or have some other beneficial effect. Companion planting can be an important part of an integrated pest management system.

Vegetables that grow in under 60 days

Every year I get asked "which vegetables will be ready for harvest earliest?" by new gardeners. I get it. Gardening is a waiting game and it's nice to see results quickly, especially when you're just starting. Many vegetables take 3 months or more and it can be frustrating! I have compiled a list of vegetables and fruits that will be ready to harvest in under two months.

These dates are calculated from the day they sprout from seed, or in the case of strawberries, break dormancy. If you have a garden center or nursery near by and decide to buy your plants already started, you'll be slightly ahead of the timeline...usually by at least 2 weeks. 

Unfortunately most people I've talked to aren't expecting to plant till mid April though, so you'll be on almost the same timeline if you start seeds right now.

You're going to have to read tags or seed packages when choosing the different seeds to buy, as each one can have a different time frame. If you're new to home gardening varieties simply means the group of plants within a species that has one or more distinguishing characteristics. 

While looking for a type of tomato or carrot, one might be looking for a variety that has a certain texture, flavor or grow time. In this case, you'll be looking at grow time when selecting your seeds.

For instance Early Girl tomatoes only take about 50 days for the first fruits to be ready. Brandywine tomatoes take 90 days. As you can see that leaves a large margin for error if you just grab a pack of tomato seeds without reading it! 

Generally that is nothing more than a little annoying, you just wait a few more weeks for those plants to produce. 

20+ Unexpected things you can compost

Good compost can make or break your garden. You can either make the richest, most natural fertilizer to nourish your plants. Or you can spread a bunch of problems like disease and weeds. If you know what to compost and in what amounts though, your compost will come out perfectly from your own compost bins.

You probably know the basics of composting, adding brown and green materials in the right proportions. All the details of proper composting are at the end of this post if you don't though, but  I want to talk about things you didn't realize that you could compost. Everything from toothpicks and used matches (they're made of wood or cardboard) to Kleenex, balloons and latex gloves! 

There are a lot of things you can't add to your compost like meat, oils, plastics, anything not biodegradable etc. There are a lot of things you can add to your compost pile though, that you never thought about. 

Find your first predicted frost date

Garden season is almost over and as we're still trying to squeeze the last few bits of produce out of the garden, now we have to worry about frost! Seriously, these nights are getting cold! While many plants like peas and kale do perfectly well in cooler temps, others will die off at the first frost. Knowing your first expected frost date is important when harvesting your garden produce.

Frost tolerant vegetable plants like: broccoli, peppers, pumpkin, squash, beans and many others will be perfectly fine through a few frosts. Unfortunately the tomatoes are going to need harvested because they probably won't make it. 

That's why it's important to know your first expected frost date. To find out that date you'll need to know what growing zone you're in.

Luckily the are really easy to find out. I'll show you how.

One bin, always ready compost method

Having an ample supply of good rich compost is a garden necessity. Compost has many uses, and all of those uses will result in nicer plants. It can be expensive to buy though and making your own free compost can be time consuming and hard work. 

I'm pretty busy in the summer, so spending hours and hours turning compost piles isn't exactly the best use of my time. Plus I just don't have it in me to manage several different compost piles. Instead I use a one bin, 10 minutes every week, easy method of composting, and it works perfectly!

I didn't want to mess with a bunch of bins or have a huge unsightly compost pile. I did need my own compost though. Compost is necessary for a healthy garden, especially an organic garden. Instead of the traditional high and wide wooden bins I went with concrete block and a bin that was much shorter and longer. It works out well for me. Here's how to build one...

Quick and easy low tunnel to protect seedlings against a late frost

This is the crazy time of year when you just don't know what the weather is doing. It feels an awful lot like spring but I know that it any second the weather might turn cold and we might get a sprout killing frost. However, I'm impatient and I already have some seeds in the ground, so how do I protect my seedlings from a late frost? 

I have a very quick and easy way to protect them that costs only a few dollars and can be thrown together in minutes. You only need plastic, some braces and something to hold the plastic down on the edges so it doesn't get blown off. The best part is, you can buy almost all your supplies at the dollar store! How's that for frugal gardening?

11 garden mistakes that will cost you $$$

It's almost time to plant the garden! Can you tell I'm excited? I love this time of year when I'm deciding what to plant this time and looking back on my past harvests. Unfortunately I've made some gardening mistakes over the years, and it's cost me some serious cash. I did learn from my mistakes though so that's what I want to talk about today.

First though, I need to tell you the story of the Summer of Kohlrabi. I bring this up now because it was a costly mistake, and because I mention it in my post on deciding what you should plant in your garden. That's a pretty popular post this time of year and is getting read a lot. 

A few different people have asked me about this story recently, so here it is: Skip down to the bold type if you want to just get to the garden mistakes! 

Sun mapping your garden

My garden is in the absolute wrong spot! In my defense I didn't put it there, but that does not change the fact that it doesn't get nearly as much sun as it should. You see, the sun travels across the sky on roughly the same path every day. Where my garden is, some of it doesn't get full sun until after noon. This means that many of my full sun plants don't get nearly as much sun and part of my garden is practically useless. 

Not knowing my sun pattern was an expensive gardening mistake. I could have avoided this if I had made a sun map of my garden way back in the beginning. 

Had I made a sun map of my property and then chosen a spot for my garden based on that, I'd have much better harvests from my garden because I'd be able to plant more efficiently! 

Even if you already have a garden plot that your sticking with, a sun map can help you plan your garden so it makes more sense. 

It's super easy to make a sun map and once you have one it makes garden planning much simpler.

Winter: What to do in the garden

For those of us under snowfall, winter is a boring time to be a gardener! There isn't much to do in the garden in December and it's pretty darn depressing to look at. I have found a few garden chores to keep busy though. One of my favorite gardening chores for winter is my assessment of the past years garden.

I like to think I learn from everything that I plant. Sometimes new things work out and other times they don't. For instance, this year I learned that the Lollipop lilies I had planted by the house were actually being eaten by rabbits and not deer! No wonder all my tricks for keeping deer away from the garden weren't working.  

I also learned just how hard raspberries are to contain once they take root in a spot they like! It was a constant battle to keep them where they belong as they kept sending up shoots further and further into my garden. 

For all the trouble they gave me you'd think they would have rooted where I moved them. Nope. Even though it had the exact same type of location, sun etc none took. Unfortunately, they're still popping up in the garden. *sigh*

Crops you can plant in August

My garden just didn't meet my expectations this year. I tried to get everything planted on time but life got in the way and I literally only got half done. Now it's August and what I planted is doing great...but I didn't plant as much as last year! That's ok, that just means I have enough space to plant a fall garden!

I don't usually plant very much in fall, in fact I'm normally quite burned out by now, so planting the whole garden in August is a brand new adventure for me! I live in zone 5. Actually I'm considered zone 5B. 

Everything I'm planting in my garden is suitable for zones 5 & 6. Most of these will do well in zones 4 & 7 too, though it gets a little iffy if you get too far away from here!

When deciding what to plant in August, the first thing you'll want to do is determine your first frost date. This post can help you figure out your date. It's based off the history of the average first frost date for your zone.

Since I'm smack dab in the middle of Pittsburgh and Erie, I'll need to guess. My first frost should be somewhere between Oct 17 & 29. That gives me at least 60 days.

Obviously I want to plant things that will mature around 60 days or less, can tolerate cooler temperatures and maybe even some crops that are frost resistant once established. Many of these can be planted in containers which would be convenient if they needed to be brought in on a frosty night!

13 uses for peroxide in the garden (and on houseplants!)

Hydrogen peroxide has long been a bathroom staple, known for its cleansing and disinfecting properties. Those same  properties though, are the reason why peroxide has so many amazing uses in the garden. Not only can hydrogen peroxide be used to clean and disinfect tools, but it can also destroy fungus and even pests like aphids.

Hydrogen peroxide is very similar to water except it has one more oxygen atom. So while the H20 we drink has 2 hydrogen and 1 oxygen, hydrogen peroxide is H2O2 which is 2 hydrogen 2 peroxide. (I promise this ends the science lesson for today!) 

When you add that extra oxygen atom to the plant, it can do a lot of really great things....and one horrible one!

Hydrogen peroxide comes in various concentrations but the most common one is 3%. That's the one in the brown bottle at the grocery or drug store. It'll say on the back  of the bottle though, so flip it around just to make sure. 

3% hydrogen peroxide is the strength I use, and I wanted to point this out because that is what I have experimented with and when I mention how I mix the peroxide to use it, it's with the 3% strength. 

If you happen to have a different strength of peroxide, then you'll have to adjust for the difference or the solution will be too strong and can cause problems.