Take a white carnation, cosmos or other simple composite flower. Cut the stem, split it up from the cut, lengthwise, about 3 inches. Take a vial of red food coloring and one of blue. Insert each half stem into the vials. Stabilize for a few hours. Within a few hours you’ll have salute-worthy red, white and blue flowers.
Archive for June, 2010
Patriotic Plants
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010Hose Hassles?
Friday, June 18th, 2010Use stakes at the corners of your garden beds as hose guides so you can drag your hose through the garden with ease. Drive a sturdy stake into the ground and put a short piece of slightly larger diameter pipe on top of it and you’ll have roller guides.
Shake the Stake
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010When your tomato plants start to flower, it’s a good idea to give them a brisk shake once a week. This will send the pollen flying and increase fruiting. With honeybees in decline, tomatoes will need more help than ever.
Got Beans?
Saturday, June 5th, 2010
Instead of planting the same old green beans, try some beans in Technicolor. There are beans in white, red, purple, yellow and mottled pods. Plant a variety! Nothing looks cooler then a yellow bean plant next to a red bean plant next to a purple next to a white. After you pick and clean them, steam them very briefly, cut them diagonally, toss them with perhaps some onions and oregano, and apply a vinaigrette dressing. Bon Apetit!
Sticks and Salts
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010There’s and easy way to jump phosphorus levels for your tomatoes — toss in a couple books’ worth of match heads into the soil around the seedling when you plant. Growing tomato plants are hungry for magnesium, too. Water them once or twice a season with two tablespoons of Epsom salt dissolved into a gallon of water to provide it.
