Superthrive is the miracle drug that revives distressed or transplanted or newly planted plants! What do you do when your plants look sickly from transplant shock or are stressed from heat or other damage? The gardener in me wants to share the knowledge! Actually, drug is not the best description. Superthrive is more like a vitamin/mineral solution for sickly plants. Think of it as super-supplement on steroids for your garden plants. Except steroids are bad…and this isn’t. This planting season alone it has brought back to life a few things for me -my grown-from-seed Canterbury Vines, which were browning and not growing and are now green and luscious and climbing to the sky, and some coneflowers I purchased at a local nursery sale that I…
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Continue ReadingOklahoma food blogger Katie Johnstonbaugh shares how to grow tomatoes vertically using less space in small gardens
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Continue ReadingIt’s been awhile since I did a garden update. Because …well it’s been winter. After the holiday excitement passes by, it helps that I start getting seed catalogs. This stirs the inner spirit animal in me that is always missing my garden during the bare cold months of winter. I have tomato and pepper seeds going in the greenhouse and they are already pushing against their clear lids clamoring to get out! We use a small ceramic electric heater inside so we can get an early start on the seedlings around the first of February. Back in October we visited The Silos, Chip and Joanna Gaine’s place in Waco. It was during Silobration and we had so much fun experiencing the organic wonderful vendor fair…
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Continue ReadingHey friends! Wow! Spring has kicked in around here and we’ve done what we usually do, migrate outside at every possible chance and putter in the garden, greenhouse. Somehow I’ve still managed to cook, and even made this French Creamy Mustard Chicken recipe in between but let me show you what’s been up around the garden! The Sweet Williams, Amaryllis and Johnny Jump-Ups are ambitiously reaching for the sky. This is my first year planting Cardinal Climber (bottom left of that pic) vines and I am so in love with their brilliant almost fluorescent fuchsia color! I may never plant morning glories again! We have scads of spring produce coming up like Buttercrunch, Romaine, Mesclun Mix, Kale, Spinach, Radishes and more. Mr. Wonderful, has finally…
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Continue ReadingHave you ever planted zucchini and had scads of blooms but don’t seem to be getting any zucchini? I do all the time here in Oklahoma. Especially in the hot days of summer when the humidity keeps the pollen moist and it won’t drop like it it supposed to. Never fear! You can do it yourself very easily with an inexpensive little tool you may have already around the house. A small paint brush. You know like those inexpensive ones your kids used to paint watercolors when they were little? You could also use a cotton swab but I don’t think it works as well. You can also pick a male flower and peel off the leaves and just rub it inside the female…
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Continue ReadingPart #3 of our potato tower tutorial – Harvesting the potatoes!
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Continue ReadingAn update on the potatoes we are growing in towers!
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Continue ReadingEven the basic gardener can grow lettuce! Try these instructions to learn how to grow your own lettuce, even in small areas!
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Continue ReadingHow to build an arch support for winter squash and sugar pumpkins when space is limited.
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Some friends were throwing out an old gutter recently and Mr. Wonderful brought it home and made us the coolest strawberry planter. First, he screwed it onto our stockade fence securely. Next, he just bent the open end shut and filled it with good soil. The hope here is that we can trail the strawberries out over the gutter instead of them sitting in the soil and rotting like they can do. Plus they are at the perfect height for our sprinklers to still hit them. AND, they will be much easier to see and pick at this level. I want three or four more of these gutters filled with strawberries now. Because as far as I’m concerned, more strawberries are always better right?
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