Every time I buy blue hydrangeas, they produce pink flowers the following year. The nurseryman says it is due to the soil but is this really so? Yes, fortunately, changing the color of hydrangeas is possible.
The location of your compost pile should be a prime consideration in your composting scheme. Ideally, it should be situated in an area that’s both convenient and unobtrusive. While these two needs are often at cross-purposes, it’s usually possible to find a satisfactory spot in most backyards. In many cases, the size of your yard …
What a pleasure growing Swiss Chard is! A veritable nutritional powerhouse full of Vitamins, Minerals and Fibre but with negligible calories and lots of lovely ways to serve it raw or cooked. At the same time, my personal favourites, the colourful varietals, such as ‘Neon Lights’, live up to their alternative name of ‘Rainbow Chard’ …
Easy to grow almost all year-round in most climates, beetroot is a good choice for even the most novice of gardeners. Jars of shop-bought pickled beetroot certainly have their place at Sunday afternoon tea with cold meat leftover from the Sunday Roast, but fresh from the garden they take on a whole new dimension of …
People ask about growing butter beans vs lima beans, but scientifically they are one and the same, although they come in two different sizes and colours. The two different gene pools were originally ‘domesticated’ into important crops in ancient Peru and Mesoamerica but their popularity diminished until more recent times when they became and still …
Phaseolus vulgaris P. multiflorus Even if you only have a relatively small area, pole beans are an excellent choice because not only are they a tasty and nutritious vegetable but they can also be very ornamental. Cultivars range from those with beautiful scarlet flowers to those with big bunches of stunning long purple pods. In …
Even if you don’t have a designated vegetable patch, you really should try growing green beans. Not only is it relatively easy to get a satisfyingly good crop, but they can also be trained to grow up a variety of different decorative structures providing a lovely centrepiece for even the most bijoux of courtyard spaces. …
Even if you are a relative new-comer to growing your own vegetables, growing Fava beans would be a good starter project because they are so easy and rewarding to grow, even If you live in a cool climate, because they actually thrive best between 40 and 70- deg F. They can take up a bit …
Growing Fava Beans (AKA Broad Beans) The Bean With 2 Names! Read More »
There’s no two ways about it, you need to be pretty committed to embark on the process of learning how to grow asparagus, you also need a bit of space, both of which, I suppose, go towards explaining why it is so expensive to buy in the shops! However, the sheer delight and satisfaction in …
Until relatively recently, it seemed the only time one saw artichokes were; the Globe variety on a market stall in the South of France, the Jerusalem variety in American history books, where it is recorded as an important food source for Native Americans, or the Chinese variety on takeaway menus. The three are very different; …
Growing Artichokes – 3 Different Types of Artichokes Read More »
