Potatoes

Interesting facts about the potato:

Potatoes are labeled as one of the world’s most important crops. Others include wheat, rice, and corn. The world’s largest potato to date has been recorded at 18 pounds, four ounces. Not only are they labeled as the most versatile vegetable but they are also visually appealing! The flowering potato plant was used as a clothing decoration for Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. Thomas Jefferson was the first person to serve them in the form of a French fry. !

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/green-living/7-interesting-facts-about-the-potato/923

Organic Gardening Tips

Many people wonder how organic farmers and gardeners keep their crops fertilized and protect their livestock and plants from pests and diseases. Organic farmers spend their careers by building a type of extremely healthy soil that keeps air circulating and water processing through the dirt. This soil is mostly made out of compost, and use gardening techniques such as crop rotation to effectively rid their area of weeds. Most of their protection from pests comes from barriers and traps, left to confuse birds and prevent bugs from damaging the plant life. Not only are these techniques easy and safe to use, they yield a healthier outcome for you and your plant life.

Pest Problems

I spent the day today with one of my friends who has her own garden growing on her front porch. She was having problems with birds getting to her tomato plants and destroying her fruits and vegetables before she got to them; so we lined her mini garden with something terrifying to birds: aluminum foil. If you're on a low budget, this is perfect for keeping birds and other unwanted visitors to the garden. Simply fold squares of foil and tie them to string-most birds are afraid of reflective surfaces, and will not venture near your plants upon seeing the foil. Another thing that is great to use for protecting your garden against larger animals such as deer is fishing line-deer cannot see a fence of fishing line, and they get scared upon feeling something they cannot see. Happy gardening!

Sweet Potato Pie

One of my favorite recipes for any time during the year is sweet potato pie. This treat, served primarily during Thanksgiving, can be homemade from sweet potatoes (which are not to be confused with yams), by mashing into a pudding texture and baked with brown sugar. Potatoes should be germinated indoors for the best care, and then transplanted outside for later growth. They are full grown at around nine inches, and can be harvested for food any time after they reach this length. Simply mash, sprinkle with brown sugar and milk, and bake for one hour for a delicious dessert!

Watermelon

Ready for some seed-spitting fun? Time to get started growing watermelon! These enormous fruits need plenty of sun in order to yield large plants with rewarding results. Watermelon usually need 80 to 100 days to reach maturity, and should be planted far apart due to their size. If you are sowing seeds outside, they should be eight to ten feet apart for the best results. If you are planning on going through the germination phase indoors, it is recommended that you plant the seeds in individual pots or containers. Have a great time with your watermelon parties!

Happy Fourth of July!

One of my favorite fourth of July treats are red ripe strawberries. Growing up as a kid, I always looked forward to the day that my family would drive down the old gravel road to the strawberry farm, so that me and my siblings could roam the several acres of land competing for the largest, ripest strawberry. Now you can grow your own! Strawberries can grow in a bed in several acres of land, or on a patio setting. A tip for the germination stage of strawberries is to cover their roots with fine soil or even sand-this helps them absorb the correct amount of water needed for growth. I hope you all have a fabulous holiday weekend, and enjoy your gardens!

Summer Squash

Looking for a perfect summer vegetable to grow? Try squash! Squash is a plant that grows best during the summer, and the great part about it is that it grows in just fifty days! Squash is ranked as one of the easiest plants to grow for beginner gardeners, and can be bought as a plant or in seed form. One of my favorite recipes is squash sauteed in garlic and butter. It's the perfect summer snack, and one that can make you and your friends satisfied and ready for the celebrations for the fourth of July!

Greens are a special treat...

Like many vegetables, spinach holds large amounts of vitamins and minerals. Rich in both vitamins A, C, and potassium, this leafy plant grows best in cool weather; and the darker the leaf the better. Spinach is a plant that is crossbred so that there are no longer defining lines of species for the plant. Baby spinach is a very fun plant to grow, and the best part is that this vegetable is that it tastes delicious no matter how you eat it; cooked or raw!

Corn

To grow corn organically, it is important that you plant your seeds separately and far apart from all other plants in your garden. Although many use the height of corn as a wind block for their other vegetables, they take up a fair amount of nutrients from soil and manure. Using green manure acts as a catalyst for the growing process in many plants, but especially corn. This vegetable is one of the few that should be rotated frequently because it depletes the soil in which it grows.

Potato Planting

Naturally grown organic potatoes have very large amounts of vitamin C, and they hold lots of nutritional calcium and minerals. Not only do they contain a considerable amount of water, but they are also a very high calorie food. Potatoes are a fairly versatile vegetable, and do not require a lot of fertilization to grow. They are environmentally pleasing, and do not destroy land when growing in a home garden-start planting when you can! They are the second most important crop in the United States, and you can enjoy them in many different dishes that are delicious and nutritious.

Pickling Vegetables

For those who are not interested in eating raw organic vegetables, one option for preserving healthy snacks is pickling them. This is one excellent way to savor those vegetables that you over-planted; and don't have time to eat all at once. You can pickle every single vegetable that will fit in a jar-string beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, onions, and many many more. Keep the pickling juice! It's extremely useful for keeping your vegetables from spoiling!

The Plant Detective

One way that plants can be harmed comes in the form of powdery mildew. Formed on the upper surface of leaves, this powder or black dots on leaves are spread by wind, and can infect brand new plants as well as old. The harm that is brought upon these plants causes them to ripen prematurely and have poor flavor.
To control mildews:
1.  prune or stake plants to improve air circulation.
2.  dispose of infected plants.
3.  apply bicarbonate sprays to prevent the spread of infection.
Sprays that contain potassium bicarbonate and sodium bicarbonate prevent fungal spores from establishing themselves on plants. start spraying when your plants look great, before anything appears!
To create an effective spray, dissolve 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 drop liquid soap in 2 quarts water, mix well, and spray on plants. If the spray is too concentrated it may burn the plant foliage.

Work Cited: Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (2009).

Why buy organic flowers?

When people stop to shop for flowers and they see signs on a florist's table marked “Organic,” they stop to ponder why they should bother paying a little extra for organic flowers. After all, people don't live off of flowers, they smell great, and look fabulous-if they're not going to be eating them, what's the use of purchasing something that's organic when it's not consumed? When looking into detailed reports, flowers that are grown with toxins are most often shipped to the United States because the chemicals used on flowers would not be allowed to cross the U.S. Borders. Even though planting flowers with chemicals provides a lot of jobs for people living in poverty, they unknowingly expose themselves to such harmful poisons to help pay their own bills. Is this worth it? Growing flowers organically would also provide work, even if a little more labor intensive-and their flowers would truly be fresh and grown with the best care available. It's time to think critically about why organically grown plants are overall a better choice, not only for the places we live, but also for the planet outside of our familiar towns.

Organic Corn

Growing organic corn should be done in a warm area with lots of open space. Because corn is a wind-pollinated plant, it should be placed in a fairly breezy place with lots of wide rows and columns. Corn does extremely well in hot temperatures, and it is important to make sure that during its germination phase that temperatures remain around 70 degrees. If you are looking for a delicious summer or fall vegetable, corn is a sure bet for a dinner complement. Happy gardening!

Gardening Tips

If you are just starting your garden this summer, the plants that you can start to sow directly into your garden at this point are as follows: beets, carrots, collards, corn, mustard greens, soybeans, New Zealand spinach, beans, rutabagas, zucchini and squash. Cosmos flowers and dill are all right to start germinating inside your home, and your lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes and flowers are safe to transplant. Gardening tip-most vegetables prefer 6-7 hours of sunlight a day, and planting them in open areas will yield the best growth results.

"Chocolate is a vegetable: Chocolate is derived from cocoa beans.
Beans = vegetable."

Compost

If you are living in a suburb or rural area, one of the easiest ways to provide rich soil for your garden is to use your garbage for compost. This form of recycling is easily overlooked, which is a shame because so much of our daily waste can be transformed into treasures for our plants. However, it should be noted that some meat, dairy, and poultry products can attract vermin when turned into compost, so the best kind of recycled fertilizer should be the remains of previous plants. Simply mix your daily waste in with a layer of soil followed by leaves and hay, and you've got your very own compost for your garden!

“One man's trash is another man's treasure.” --English Proverb

Shaded Gardening

Are you thinking that you'll never be able to garden because you have a location that is kept primarily in the shade? Nonsense! There are plenty of vegetables that can grow with minimum sunlight, and will produce almost the same amount of nutrients as those that were raised in the sun. Here is a slight list of vegetables that will grow in highly wooded or shaded areas:
1)Salad and leafy greens, such as spinach and kale
2)Broccoli and cauliflower
3)Brussels sprouts
4)Beans
5)Peas
6)Radishes
7)Beets
Happy Gardening!

“Though the sun is gone, I have a light.” --Kurt Cobain

Ladybug Summer

As I was taking a walk this morning, a ladybug that had been flying around me for a while landed on my arm. After taking a moment to admire this unique looking bug, I made a wish and sent her on her merry way. As the weather become increasingly hotter, ladybugs will undoubtedly become more populous. Contrary to what many may think, ladybugs are not harmful; but rather beneficial to plants. Ladybugs are helpful insects that eat aphids, which in turn ARE harmful to plants, taking the rich nutrients away from their leaves. Ladybugs also eat soft bodied insects and plant mites, which are most commonly found on diverse species of flowers. So, the next time you see a ladybug in your garden, you should thank her for her services instead of shooing her away—it's never too late to turn over a new leaf and start helping your plants thrive in the summer sun!

“Two little Ladybugs flew around a flower, then crawled beneath a leaf to nap for half an hour!” -Anonymous

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend with friends and family-this was the perfect opportunity to spend time with your loved ones, kick up the grill and slice fresh tomatoes on your barbecued hamburgers (or in my case, fish). Today was exceptionally interesting because I was lucky enough to try fresh tomatoes all the way from Florida on my salad! They were so juicy, and went perfectly well when complimented by french goat cheese, topped with garlic seasoning. My two friends drove all the way up from their vacation home down South to bring these tomatoes straight to my stomach. Ultimately, they made my Memorial Day memorable by accenting my meal with their ripe juicy fruits!

"A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins." - Laurie Colwin

Planting your Tomatoes

It's warm enough in NJ to have all your tomato seedlings nicely planted in your garden.
These beautiful fruiting plants need 6-8 hours of sun, please plant them in thhe sunniest spot of your garden (or in large pots on your sunny patio).

Botanically speaking, tomatoes are a FRUIT. In 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a tomato is a VEGETABLE because it is served alongside the main course at meals :)