HOME GARDENING TIPS

Those little creepy, crawly insects mulitply quickly in vast numbers. I've made another lens that will show pictures of the actual bugs and some leaf damage they have done to our garden plants in spite of all our efforts to get rid of them.

Some garden varieties of green beans will vine as they grow, these are considerd 'pole beans'. Our family favorite is the white half runner beans. Although they are not necessarily in the catagory with a pole bean we treat them as such. For easier bean picking we use the 'cane pole' method. This process involves cane poles that are found on the river bank and constructed to form a "tee-pee" over the bean vines, then wrapping the vineing ends up the poles to get them started in an upward direction. If you can master this technique your back will thank you when it comes bean-picking time.

Clusters of green beans ripen on the vines. Since we use the 'cane pole' method, our beans will be kept off the ground thereby preserving them from rotting before picking time.

This year(2009) our green beans were grown from our saved seeds from last year. The gardener aka Howard wanted to eliminate the flat beans that always seemed to get mixed in with the white half runner bean seed he always purchased. So far it looks to be a very productive season and our harvest of green beans will not include the unwanted flat beans. If all goes according to planned we will continue each gardening season by 'recycling' some of our bean seeds for our future bean crop.

Before storing your freshly dug potatoes, be sure and let them 'air dry'. This means after you have dug up your potatoes, spread then out in a single layer on the ground so any soil still on the potatoes will be dry. This will prevent premature rotting of the potatoes once you store them in a cool, dry place for keeping.

We love our home grown potatoes fried, mashed, boiled, baked and in various recipes. We also share our harvest with our Mothers before and after we store the rest for the coming winter months.

By saving your own seeds from the previous years crops you can have seed for another seasonal garden without spending money every year to purchase more seed to be planted. To save the seeds, first thing, be sure they are not hybrid seeds you have already planted that you will be saving from. Secondly, take the seed (i.e., beans, corn, tomatoe, etc.) and dry them very well. Thirdly, place them in dry, airtight containers(i.e., glass jars) and place in a dry, dark place for storage till ready to use. Growing your own food can be lots of fun for you and your family to do together as you enjoy quality time spent in the outdoors. Watching what you have planted grow and produce right before your eyes is very rewarding. Preserving some of what you have grown is a great idea too. Not only will you be providing home grown food for your own family but you can also share with neighbors, friends. and the needy in your community too.

Here in Kentucky we have to keep a watch out for frost when it comes time to plant our gardens. Some veggies we won't plant till after all danger of frost are gone. We have learned over time the damage that a frost can do to our tender plants. There are differnt ways to protect the different plants. As I've already stated my hubby is the gardener so I depend on him to know the preventive measures to take when we need to jump into our security mode to save our young garden. Protect those young plants from the frost. Frost can kill your young plants before they even get a chance to grow. The plants that need to be covered from frost are tomato, beans,and corn, just to name a few.

One way to save your tender plants from frost damage is to spray them lightly with water before the sunrise. Once the sun hits the frosted plant it 'burns' the plant. Sometimes the plants will be completely destroyed and sometimes they will only be 'stunted'.

Another way to protect tender plants is to cover with some type of covering (see photo). In the photo my 'gardener' has covered our tomato plants with newspaper making sure to leave enough room at the bottom to let air circulate while the plant is covered. Using small sticks place around the plant then cover with the newspaper by allowing the sticks to poke through the paper then use some type of string to tie around the sticks to keep the wind from lifting the newspaper off the plants, thereby exposing your plant to the frost. There are other ways to cover your plants depending on the kind and size. I've only given one example here.

I'm not such a great gardener but I was smart enough to marry a man with a gigantic green thumb who loves to garden and knows how to produce a magnificent crop. Howard was raised in a rural area into a large family. Growing a garden was a means of survival to have enough food. Being mentored from a child to adulthood Howard has had many years of 'hands on' training to be the gardener he is today.

While tomatoes are still green they are delicious cooked.
*Ingredients you will need are:
1. sliced green tomatoes
2. milk
3. cornmeal
4. flour
5. salt/pepper to taste

Combine your cornmeal with flour, salt/pepper in a small dish. Dip your green tomato slice in the milk then into the dry mixture. Make sure it is coated all over. Then place the tomato slices into the deep fryer or stove top skillet of hot oil. Cooking until tomatoes are golden brown on each side. Remove from hot oil and drain on paper towels. Can be served with ranch dipping sauce or another of your choice.

My recipe is pretty much the same as in the following video.

Of course, there are other recipes you can try as well.

Lots of folks want to plant their own vegetables but don't have a backyard space to have a garden. The good news is there is an alternate method you can use that will satisfy the gardener in you. I've found this website, Vegetable Gardening in Containers ,to be a very good source of planting information, including charts, on container gardening. I would recommend it for the first time gardener who knows practically nothing about growing vegetables.