Pull every weed in one bed in 15 minutes this weekend, while the soil is still soft from winter rain. That is the whole decision behind should you start weeding now for spring. Start in late winter, around August, while…
Bacterial pustule on edamame starts as tiny pale spots with raised centers, and it ends, in a bad wet season, with ragged leaves, sunscalded pods, and a harvest that is not worth picking. The 7 strategies below prevent it in…
Purple-bordered leaf spot on maple looks alarming and mostly is not. The spots carry purple margins, tan centers, and tiny black dots, and the tree behind them usually keeps growing as if nothing happened. The 7 strategies below confirm the…
St. Augustine decline has no cure. A lawn that shows the first pale mottling on its blades can thin to bare soil within about 3 years. The 9 strategies below do two jobs: they separate this viral disease from take-all…
Walk your sweet corn rows from the lowest leaves up. Southern corn leaf blight starts low as small tan spots, and the 9 strategies below keep it from climbing the plant and cutting into the harvest. Southern corn leaf blight…
Soilborne wheat mosaic virus has no cure. The 6 strategies below protect home-grown wheat, starting with the resistant seed that stops the disease before it starts. The signature is a blotchy mosaic of green islands on pale yellow leaves, plus…
Rose rosette disease has no cure. A rose that shows its signature symptoms will decline over 2 to 4 seasons, and the only move that protects the rest of the bed is removing the whole plant, roots included. That verdict…
Steep 2 scoops of finished compost in a bucket of rainwater for 3 days. Compost tea is the brown liquid you get when you soak compost in water and strain it out. Compost tea is compost made pourable, so it…
Charge 2 buckets of black crumbs in compost tea overnight before you dig them in. Biochar is charcoal made for soil: plant material burned with little oxygen until only a black, porous skeleton stays. Biochar is a lasting home for…
Dig 2 spadefuls from a bed that has eaten compost for 5 seasons. Humus is the dark, stable matter left when soil microbes finish breaking down leaves, roots, and manure. Humus is dead plants turned into the sponge that holds…
Feed 2 times, and feed the second time beside the row. Side dress is fertilizer placed in a band beside growing plants, halfway through the season, when the first feeding runs out. Side dress is a mid-season top-up, and never…
Sow 2 rows of crimson clover in the empty bed after the last harvest. Green manure is a crop you grow to feed the soil, and you dig it in while it is still green. Green manure is plants grown…
Read 3 numbers on the fertilizer bag before you buy it. N-P-K is the guaranteed analysis printed on every bag: nitrogen first, phosphorus second, potassium third, always in that order. N-P-K is three percentages by weight that tell you what…
Squeeze 2 handfuls of damp soil into a ball, then poke the ball. Loam holds its shape for a second, then crumbles into crumbs when you poke it. Loam is soil with sand, silt, and clay in balance, draining fast…
Dip 2 strips of litmus paper in a jar of soil and water, and read the color against the chart. Soil pH is the number that decides whether roots can absorb the nutrients already in the bed. pH is a…
Pour 2 cups of vinegar on a spoonful of dry bed soil and watch it fizz. Alkaline soil reads above pH 7.0, and it locks iron, manganese, and zinc into forms roots cannot absorb even when the bed holds plenty…
Test 6 spots in one bed before you blame the seed packet. Acidic soil reads below pH 7.0, and it starves plants by locking phosphorus and calcium away from roots even when the bed holds plenty of both. Acidic soil…
A bael tree will outlive you. The seedling you plant this June in your Indian backyard will still be dropping hard-shelled fruit when your grandchildren argue over who owns the house. Bael (Aegle marmelos, the monotypic genus Aegle’s only member),…
11 ways to preserve tomatoes turn a summer glut into jars, freezer bags, and dried stores. Pick the method by the tomato in front of you. Preserve means keeping tomatoes safe to eat later. Bottling means heat-processing tomatoes in sealed…
A tomato glut means more tomatoes than you can eat fresh before they soften. 15 use-it-now ideas clear it. Eat the ripe ones today, cook the soft ones tonight, and hand the rest to neighbours or a food bank before…
