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Archive for the ‘Melon’ Category

May is more of April, plus Cantaloupes! Now you can plant all you did in March, if you did.  Santa Barbara night temps were so cool many of us waited.  And you can do more of the April heat lovers if you did them! Smart gardeners plant when the time is right, not just because [...]

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15 Super Tips for a Productive Summer Veggie Patch!

Whether you are tucking things into niches between ornamental landscape plants, planting a patio patch like in the image, setting up a first time summer garden patch, or replanning your annual garden, here are some great ideas to increase your production! 1. If you have space, and are creating a back, or front, yard food forest, always [...]

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Yummerlicous basket of summer veggies grown near Mahanandi, a peaceful temple town in India.  Indira and her Husband Vijay share the traditional recipes of their families.  Brinjals, btw, are eggplants! Each of your plants has special harvest needs and techniques to get continuing excellent returns!  Be gentle in closely planted areas.  Leaf damage opens your plant to diseases [...]

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Foliar plant care is so easy! Use a Dramm Can, the Perfect Foliar Machine! Worm Castings, Compost, Manure Tea, Fish Emulsion/Kelp for FEEDING – All in ONE! You can easily make this tea!  A handful of castings, a handful to a cup of compost, handful of manure, stir and let them soak overnight in a [...]

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I used to be a total mulcher, covered my whole veggie garden.  I’ve adjusted my coastal SoCal mulch* thinking to match the plant!  Same goes for composting in place.  That’s a good idea for some areas of your garden, other areas not at all! If you are coastal SoCal, in the marine layer zone, your mulch, or composting in place, may [...]

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Cucumber Flowers June is another grand month for planting, more heat, fast growth.  Plant in spots that have already finished; plant for succession, a continued harvest of your favorites!  If you couldn’t take advantage of April or May, step up to it now!  Seeds are good, transplants are faster if your summer palate is salivating!  [...]

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Healthy Summer Feeding, Watering, Disease & Pest Prevention!

Feeding.  It’s heating up, your plants are growing fast, they’re hungry and need more water!  Give your leaf crops like lettuce lots of Nitrogen.  Don’t overfeed beans, strawberries or tomatoes or you will get lots of leaf, no crop!  If you do, did, give your plants some seabird guano (bat guano is too hot sometimes).  Fertilizers [...]

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April 15, 2011 I had my first encounter with a huge male carpenter bee – see image! Awesome! They are all fuzzy and yellow (not all black like the females), sometimes called Teddy Bear Bees, and I could totally see why! They hover closely and look you right in the eye, buzz off and come [...]

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From the LA Examiner.com Pasta with fried zucchini, teardrop tomatoes and walnut pesto! Four of the highest yield summer plants per square foot are indeterminate tomatoes, pole beans, zucchinis, and chard!  Three of these crops can be grown up, on trellises, in cages, so your land need is small.  Chard is prolific, cut and come [...]

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APRIL is for Heat Lovers! Pull back your mulches, let soil heat up, PLANT!

Why not start with an AAS (All America Selections) 2011 Winner?! Pepper ‘Orange Blaze’ F1  Early ripening orange variety, very sweet flavor, multiple disease resistances! Get out last year’s garden notes if you made any, and review for varieties you liked, where you got ‘em, how much to plant! CORN! Plant in blocks, not rows, [...]

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