Hello again,
The purpose of this post is to relay a few "quick hit" garden tips to you through the month of May. Some of these tips will be garden tasks I am doing myself (although I wish there were more of those. I am here at Skillin's so much, my own yard and garden falls quite behind this time of year!), some of these tips will be quick pieces of advice we are giving to customers, some will be quick links to good gardening advice we encounter on the internet.
Check back to this post often as we will update it often until we roll through May 2010!
Click here for our April Garden Talks 2010 as we covered some nice gardening ground!
*Tuesday, May 25--While doing some deliveries today, I noticed several lawns cut very very short. Folks it is dry out there and cutting lawns short is a solid way to scorch the lawn. Also lawns cut very short make for a better home for weeds. Grow your grass a little longer, shade out some weeds and keep that scorching sun away from the ground near the roots of your lawn!
*Monday, May 24--Good gardening tip by Sally Ashton at www.twitter.com/muddyfingernail. Do not add meat or dairy products to your compost heap. They do not decompose very readily. For kitchen scraps I definitely stick to coffee grounds, banana peels and other fruit and veggie waste, egg shells and the like.
*Sunday, May 23--what a fantastic weekend and it was great to see so many familiar faces. The prevailing question was certainly: can I plant my garden and my flowers? Our answer is YES--in most cases and most places, it is time for it! My only hesitation is our small cuke and squash plants but otherwise we should be fine. My other warning is for HIGH winds. Don't believe any are forecast but high warm or cold winds could knock back some greenhouse only plants.
*Friday, May 21--Red tomato plastic mulch is a great tool to use around your tomato plants. The mulch will keep the ground warm and weeds down. Later on the reflection from the red mulch does help to ripen tomatoes a little faster!
*Thursday, May 20--KCB was in today and wants to remind everyone that chives are a great plant to have in your garden for three reasons: 1) They look great (pretty purple flowers starting about now and continuing for a few weeks. 2) They are great with other foods 3)Deer do not like the scent of chives and thus chives serves as a natural deer repellent for the growing season.
*Wednesday, May 5--Spoke to a customer today who plants borage with her tomatoes. Borage is a big leafy herb and she claims it helps to deter the mean green Tomato Hornworm!. I have checked around other garden forums and some do refer to borage as a repellent. Interesting thought. Everyone agrees that borage helps to attract bees for pollinating with its blue flowers. These bees will pollinate tomatoes, cukes, zucchini and other vegetables meaning more production for sure! We do sell all natural Spinosad that is very effective against munching caterpillars and munching worms.
*Tuesday, May 4--It is time to plant some containers of red sails leaf lettuce--and soon we will be picking some. We loved our leaf lettuce last year but I will admit in later plantings we found that we preferred leaf lettuce planted in containers. Much less slugs and much less garden soil to wash out. We have busy schedules and we found this aspect of container grown lettuce to be a good fit for us. I will be using Bar Harbor Blend soil, Plant Booster Plus fertilizer by Organica (Garden Tone by Espoma also a great choice!
*Sunday, May 2--This week is a great time to sow carrots, beets, radishes, lettuce and dill directly into the garden. You can do this even if you already have some of these crops already started in your garden. A second sowing is a great way to extend your harvest--as are 3rd, 4th, 5th sowings as the season progresses. Skillin's Plug: We have a GREAT selection of lettuce and other greens as seedlings. They are the perfect size to plant and you will be able to harvest the leaf lettuces, mesclun mix and arugula seedlings that we have within the next few days! When I plant seeds or seedlings I always put a little bit of all natural Garden Tone by Espoma into the soil to help the roots grow a little faster and stronger!
Now is also the time to plant broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbages and cauliflower. Got those seedlings too! My broccoli is going into the ground tonight after work!
Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
May 25, 2010
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A note about composting meat. If you use the bokashi method, you can compost meat and fish. Bokashi contains a microorganism that basically pickles food scraps. And, it actually smells good.
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