Garden Wisdom Blog — category: Garden Resources
Bumble Bee Blend Wildflowers Ingredients
category: Articles and Instructions category: Flower Talk category: Garden Resources
This blend of annual and perennial wildflowers is selected to attract and feed a wide array of bumble bees. The Bumble Bee Blend Wildflowers are hardy to Zone 4, and are best grown in full sun. Different components of the mix will bloom at different times over summer, so the look will change as the season passes. This is a good blend for bee conservation — set aside an area for this mix to grow in wild from spring to fall, and leave it un-mowed over winter. Balsam 'Camelia Flowered Mix' Impatiens balsamina Catchfly Silene armeria Cosmos 'Sensation Mix' Cosmos...
How to Store Seeds
category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Seed Talk
One of the factors that most influences the germination rate of seeds is how they are stored. Like the plants that produce them, seeds come in all sorts of forms and sizes. They are also variable in their longevity. Since seed packets often contain more seeds than might be needed in one season, it’s important for gardeners to learn how to store seeds. Vegetable seeds that are considered “long-lived” include the Brassicas (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, kohlrabi…) the chicory group (endive, escarole, radicchio), cucumber, kale, lettuce, melons, mustards, peppers, radish, rutabaga, sunflower, tomato and turnips. Stored correctly, these...
Biodiversity Blend Wildflowers Ingredients
basil bees category: Articles and Instructions category: Flower Talk category: Garden Resources flowers pollinators wildflowers
The Biodiversity Blend provides the widest, most diverse combination of flower types in any of our wildflower blends. There are flowers to tempt every sort of pollinator, but particularly butterflies, wild bees, and hummingbirds. Several species are included that produce edible seeds, so they will continue to nourish songbirds and other critters long after their colour has faded. This mix of perennials and self-sowing annuals is intended to demonstrate one of the foundations of organic growing — that biodiversity begets biodiversity. In diverse systems, plants grow healthier and wildlife is enriched. Basil Ocimum basilicum Bishops Flower Ammi majus Blue Lupin...
All About Garlic
category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Vegetable Talk garden-wisdom garlic how-to-grow
Garlic has been used as both food and medicine since at least the 25th century BC, around the time that the pyramids were being constructed at Giza, Egypt. In his Ecologues, Virgil writes all about garlic being consumed by ancient Greek and Roman soldiers, and it is was grown in England by the mid-16th century. This is curious given the modern English attitude toward garlic. As late as 1997, Dr. D.G. Hessayon warned in his bestselling book, The Vegetable & Herb Expert: If you are a beginner with garlic, you must use it very sparingly or you will be put...
Seed Saving
category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Seed Talk
Harvesting seeds from your garden for planting in the future is a great idea for all kinds of reasons. Most obviously, it’s an economical way to keep your garden going from year to year without having to constantly purchase new seeds. Seed saving allows you to share (and trade!) with your friends and neighbours, and it keeps the gene pool of food plants alive and healthy. The actual process is not difficult, although there’s a little more to it than can be fully explored in this article. A number of excellent books on the subject exist, as noted below. While...