Keeping plants alive during a drought can be difficult, but keeping tender plants alive during cold weather can be tricky, too. Here experts share their best tips to protect plants. Outdoors The first step to protecting outdoor plants from winter damage is to identify which ones need the…
My wife gave me a great Christmas present this year, a book entitled “Organic Soil Conditioning” by Dr. William Jackson (958 pages), full of facts that are beneficial to agriculture. This information may help farmers cope with higher fertilizer prices.Mother Nature hates to waste soil nutrients so she…
Plant is a periwinkle cultivar What is this plant? How do I care for and propagate it? Ang Siew Eng Your plant is a cultivar of the Periwinkle (Catharanthus cultivar). It should be grown in a sunny location as it needs direct sunlight and well-draining soil to thrive. Avoid…
Published 12:31 am Friday, December 31, 2021 By John Green Texas Master Gardener, Orange County Master Gardeners Hello fellow gardeners! 2021 is rapidly coming to an end and the new year is almost here. There are many gardening tasks which we can complete outside while we have good…
Watering in new transplants (all photos courtesy C. Maffey.) Hemp is one of the oldest crops farmed by man. It’s been grown since 8,000 BCE, the very beginning of human agriculture. Archeologists found traces of hemp in what is now Taiwan and China. As for hemp history in…
To sample for the “End-of-Season Stalk N Test”, collect stalk segments at 6 and 14 inches above the ground (all photos courtesy J. Heckman.) Sweet corn is a heavy feeder on soil nitrogen (N). A full-season sweet corn variety may uptake about 125 lbs. N per acre in…
James Johnson has witnessed the wrath of industrial agriculture. For decades, he and his family used fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide to achieve optimal yields on their 3,100-acre farm in New Mexico. And it all finally caught up with them. “It was like we had 40, 50 years of…
It all started with a few too many beers. One late night, good friends Sean Hackmann and Scott Mertz percolated an idea: growing and selling hemp.Initially they thought about medical marijuana, but they soon realized hemp was easier to get started. That same night, they came up with…
You may be considering giving up booze or turning vegan as you ring in the New Year – but with climate change and sustainability in the spotlight, it’s time to turn over a new leaf with some eco-friendly gardening resolutions too.Thankfully, there are plenty of easy ways to…
Resolve to: Dig in! Studies have shown that gardening benefits both mental and physical health. With December 25, 2021, lingering as a pleasant memory, but soon to drift into the category of Christmas Past, it is time to set our thoughts on the New Year. One of the…
