Comments on: Contest! Win Seeds and a Seed-Starting Kit!

By: And the lucky winner is… | DigginFood

And the lucky winner is… | DigginFood — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:31:02 +0000

[...] I announce last week’s contest winner, I want to send out a huge thank you, a big round of applause, and a hug to everyone who [...]

By: bb

bb — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:03:12 +0000

Use your winter cloche hoops and clips with trellis netting to keep your free ranging chickens out. Just pull the netting up when you are ready to change the bed over to another crop. They will clean up and till the soil in a raised bed easily in a day. Nothing like them doing yard work while you are at work.

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:19:35 +0000

My best advice is to start small! It’s fun to buy tons of seeds in the spring, but the work of taking care of a big garden in the summer can get overwhelming. So, pick your favorite 10 or fewer vegetables and plant only those. Keep notes on the ones you love so you know what to plan the next year.
My second piece of advice is to plant perennials! It’s great to plant things like asparagus, blueberries, strawberries, rhubard just once! Then you have great food for years to come.

By: Sasha

Sasha — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:49:36 +0000

As a new gardner (I'll be planting my first vegetable garden this year), I've been soaking up advice from many sources. My favorite piece of insight came from my dad- just get into the garden, start trying things, and watch what happens. I think he was diplomatically trying to tell me that gardening is something best learned by doing. .-= Sasha´s last blog ..Photographic Interlude: Two =-.

By: Linda Crowder

Linda Crowder — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:09:37 +0000

I live in TX and we have drought conditions during the summer, making watering hard to keep on an even scale. So I cut the bottom off a 2 liter soda plastic bottle and bury it upside down, leaving the narrow opening at the bottom and the bottom sticking out of the soil about 2". This way, I can fill the bottle with water when needed, avoid splashing on plants with sensitive leaves, and put just about the right amount of water to each plant. .-= Linda Crowder´s last blog ..What is the screening process for breast cancer? =-.

By: Becca

Becca — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:56:15 +0000

In college, I gardened for an elderly woman. She mentioned more than once that plants do best when grown in the right spot under the right conditions. When I graduated and was getting ready to move, she gave me one of her very own Christmas cactus’ as a gift with the parting advice, “Remember to grow this in the right spot: a real sunny window perhaps!” Well, for many years, I stuffed that poor cactus in any old corner and the poor thing never bloomed. A few years ago, I heard that she had passed away. With her in mind, I moved the cactus to a sunny window and it has since bloomed spectacularly and faithfully ever since!

By: Lorie

Lorie — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:43:47 +0000

I grew up in Olympia, we had a lot of slugs. Maybe this is because Olympia is near Elma and they have that slug festival. Lettuce was always surrounded by slug bait which is yucky and didn’t help much.

One year we took 4 pieces of plywood (5′ by 7″) and nailed them together into a square. We pushed the structure into the ground around the lettuce starts, about an inch in. I don’t know how, but it kept the slugs at bay. Maybe slugs have no sense of smell and miss the lovely greens inside, who knows but it works! I have never since planted lettuce without it. Willi, I saw you were going for iceberg lettuce and thought this might help. Good luck with the experiment!

By: Madeleine

Madeleine — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:43:20 +0000

From my grandmom: plant rhubarb so that you will always be able to make a pie!

By: Grace

Grace — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:20:23 +0000

My best gardening advice:

When seed starting, write the day you planted the seed on the front of the tag. Look at the ‘Days To Maturity’ on the seed packet and check your calendar for X number of days. Write that date on the back of the plant tag, so you don’t have to pull up that carrot (etc, etc) to check if it is ready yet.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:07:49 +0000

For vegetable gardening, my best advice is to make sure to plant things that you know will work. That way you will still be able to harvest, even if the weather doesn't cooperate, or you mess something up. For example, I always plant a lot of radishes, peas, lettuce, and pole beans. I have never had trouble with them. When my corn gets eaten my raccoons, my squash is covered with powdery mildew, my eggplants do nothing but sit there, my tomatoes don't ripen properly, I don't feel so bad because I'm harvesting all kinds of other stuff. .-= Kate´s last blog ..growing fruit trees in small spaces =-.