By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

The other day I was watching a movie about a coal miner and it made me think how life mimics the natural world.

This coal miner was trying to control an environment that he did not understand.

He felt that following the same path that his father had followed would lead him to a different conclusion.

We all know how that ends and the same applies to gardening.

When we see a pest, we seem to fall to the same habit that has caused so many problems.

This habit, one may ask, is chemical application. While this technique works quickly in the short term, it never works out in the long run. Which is where the movie comes into play along with the simple leaf miner.

The adult leaf miner attacks tomato plants by Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Every year I seem to get the odd looking caterpillar called the tomato hornworm on my tomatoes.

These little beasts always seem to appear over night with devastating affects.

Stripped stems poke upward and before I know it my tomatoes are stripped of all vegetation but is the organic gardener to do.

The first step is to recognize the pest. Some individuals feel it is deer damage or some other grazing type of animal consuming their crop.

But a telltale sign that it is a tomato hornworm is the fact that the vegetation will be missing from the top of the plant and will move downward. Also, this damage will start around midsummer and continue until the end of the growing season.

Next, the most obvious sign that Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

The other day I had a friend call me and ask me if I had seen the new addition to the garden store.

I said no, but really did not have time to explore the new addition right at that moment.

A few days passed and my friend again inquired about the new addition at the Feed and Seed.

What could have you so excited, I asked. She replied, my prayers have been answered. Again, I was perplexed about the new addition to the local Feed and Seed so I went to see for myself.

It was not a chicken laying a golden egg nor was it a rabbit that pooped jelly beans, but instead a tomato tree. I thought to myself a Read the rest of this entry »

By Reggie Solomon

• Julie Ann at Jewells in Seattle laments this year’s cool season which is impacting her tomatoes.

• Moonwolf at Guerrilla Gardeners: Now Public captures photos of sunflowers growing under a city sidewalk grate proving gardening can happen in the unlikeliest of places.

• Fern at Life on the Balcony shares advice on how to keep cats from eating plants in your garden.

• Adam at Gardener’s World shares tips on how to build a water feature in a pot for your urban garden.

By Cindy Naas

A small garden can be challenging in terms of the mount of veggies you can reasonably expect to produce.

However, with just a few good choices you can provide your family and even friends with some good fresh produce weekly.

Here is a list of veggies which will give you the most for the smallest amount of space.

1. Cucumbers - that’s right, I listed a vigourous vine as my first choice. My cucumber plants never take up more space on the ground than the size of the plant, because I grow mine up a trellis. By allowing the vines to climb and then tying the vines in places, the cucumbers can be supported and will do really well.

2. Lettuce – you can grow lettuce all Read the rest of this entry »