I’ve been working with homemade garden remedies in one context or another for about 10 years now. As someone who has spent days searching for odd cures to garden problems I consider myself qualified to say that, of all of the remedies I’ve seen, vinegar seems to be the product with the most (supposed) uses. … Continue reading Vinegar: A Garden Miracle!
Just when you thought you got the hang of growing houseplants in potting soil (or if you’re a doting plant parent, a special homemade mix someone on the internet told you to use) comes a new trend – hydroponic houseplants! Or, “semi-hydroponic” to use the more technical term that is used when describing the trend. … Continue reading Holy Hydroponic Houseplants, Batman!: Can you grow houseplants without soil? Yes!
If you do any searching for gardening (or even think about the color green), you’re likely bombarded with adds on social media and search engines about all stuff gardening. One of the recent trends is microgreen production. There’s all kinds of fancy little systems and gizmos that will help you grow microgreens for a price. … Continue reading Tiny plants that pack a flavor and nutrition punch: getting in on the microgreen trend
Scrolling through social media in September and October and you may see those basic signs of the season: scarves, pumpkin spice lattes, sweaters, and Halloween ideas galore. One of those Halloween ideas is to extend the life of your pumpkins, carved or otherwise, by giving them a treatment with household bleach. Keep scrolling and you … Continue reading Smashing Pumpkin Myths: Bleaching to extend shelf (and porch) life
Dear Consumer Reports, A good friend of mine, Linda Chalker-Scott, recently reviewed some of your recommendations on weed control and found them wanting. I concur with Linda’s assessments, but I feel the need to take her critiques a bit further because: #1 The article that Linda reviewed made a recommendation which is not only questionable … Continue reading An Open Letter to Consumer Reports
It’s more than a little bit intimidating to be a part of the Garden Professors team, since I have no advanced degrees, and my undergraduate degree is in Mathematics, with no formal training in Botany, Horticulture or Plant Science at all. I am, however, an avid and active hobby gardener; I read a lot; and … Continue reading Nature’s Poisons
For years I subscribed to Consumer Reports. I appreciated their objective approach to product testing and lack of advertising. In their own words, their policy is to “maintain our independence and impartiality… [so that] CU has no agenda other than the interests of consumers.” But recently they’ve veered off the science-based trail – at least … Continue reading Spec errors mount
I’m sure you haven’t been wondering where I’ve been for the past five months or so, but just in case you have, I’ve been reshuffling my life and relocating. Where am I now? The family and I have moved to Charlotte, North Carolina where I now work at Central Piedmont Community College. Why? Because we … Continue reading Hello Charlotte!
I performed a little demonstration the last few weeks which I thought you might be interested in seeing. So here it is: I took a little weedy spot of land out in the nursery and divided it into four sections. Three weeks ago I applied Round-up to one of the sections and vinegar to another. … Continue reading A Tale of Two Herbicides
So much good stuff to read back through. The Garden Professors really bring the straight poop on so many topics! July Post: Podcasts are here! by Linda. Complete with a pleasant musical intro and background, Linda’s info-packed and professionally-produced podcast “The Informed Gardener” made the rest of us look under-achieving. Take some time this winter … Continue reading A selection of GP posts from 2011 (part 2)
