Given the growing (haha) popularity of vegetable gardening over the last several years, which has gone into overdrive during the pandemic, more and more people are looking for innovative ways to grow in all kinds of spaces. Container vegetable gardening can be as simple as popping a tomato into a bucket, but there are lots … Continue reading Contain Yourself: Vegetable gardening in containers and small spaces
I attempted to clean up our little home greenhouse over the holiday break. There’s no good place to recycle pots around here, and I hate throwing them away…so I suffer from container build-up. Figured I’d sort through the haphazard pile in the corner of the greenhouse, wash and re-stack the useable ones, and finally ditch … Continue reading Re-using containers? A cautionary tale.
I’m just starting to think about getting my containers planted for the summer and happened to get an email on the topic from a blog reader. John was frustrated with a local columnist’s advice on using gravel in the bottom of the containers for drainage. When challenged, the columnist refuted John’s accurate comments with “logical … Continue reading Container planting: intuition vs. reality
A few days ago I got a question from Cynthia about “potting up.” For those of you for whom this is an unknown phrase (and no, it’s not a euphemism for a certain herbal activity), it refers to the practice of moving plants into ever larger containers. She was wondering if there was any “real … Continue reading Plant containers – does size really matter?
I enjoyed Jeff’s post on the RootTrapper and thought I’d share another interesting and [relatively] new development in the world of greenhouse growing containers. Take a tube full of growing media, wrap a paper sleeve around it, and voila – the Ellepot! It’s bottomless, root permeable, and degradable. Each Ellepot sits in its own cell … Continue reading Building a Better Container, Part Deux: The Ellepot
As most of you know, roots circling around a container isn’t considered a good thing. And so people try various things to control circling roots. One of the more creative horticultural minds out there, Carl Whitcomb, a guy why basically got sick of academia and went into private industry (and, as far as I can tell, … Continue reading Building a Better Container
I’ve written before about my time as a trial judge for the All-America Selections program, which I did during my seven years with Nebraska Extension. I happened upon the opportunity to be a judge by accident, but really came to relish my time and the work that the organization does. You see, All-America Selections started … Continue reading Trials and Triumphs: All-America Selections Judging and 2024 Winners
Like it or not, the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) has become a part of our daily lives. While you might not use AI directly (or you don’t know that you do) it is now a common part of society, especially in the online world. Many people, sites, can companies use it to create content. … Continue reading Shoveling the Artificial CRAP: Navigating Gardening Un-Intelligence in the age of AI
Fall is for planting they say when folks talk about shade trees. But is it? When is the best time to plant a tree? In this blog I will cover tree planting times and other particulars, the drawbacks and good points of these decisions. So is fall the best season to plant a tree? Of … Continue reading Fall is for planting?
In my last post, I talked about the factors leading to the development of plant diseases and some common signs and symptoms of fungal, bacterial, and viral diseases. In this installment of the series, I’m going to talk about some of the most common fungal plant diseases with some suggestions for treatment and prevention. This … Continue reading Plant Disease Primer-Part 2: Fungus Among Us
