Your Questions About Gardening

GardenersCardiff answers:

Good Evening Jack Lapidus,

My first and most important tip would be: If you are going to be a gardener, than grow the best. What does that mean? Ninety (90%) per cent of the vegetables and fruits in the grocery stores are not the best as far as taste. Commercial farmers grow a variety of vegetables which can import and export better.

Examples: garlic. Most garlic is imported from China. The taste, smell and flavor is not the best, but it does export better than other varieties of garlic. Also, most people would not know the difference. They have nothing to compare. Cooking with good garlic is awesome.

There are many varieties of garlic. It is my favorite vegetable to grow. Try and get some garlic bulbs from Gilroy, California. They grow one of the best in the world. Their garlic festival each year draws people from all over the world. Hopefully, web site below can link you to a supplier.

Http://www.ksbw.com/garlicfestival/index.html

Corn is another vegetable which is grown commercially. The taste of grocery store corn is terrible. But the variety is easy to ship and export. I grow a Honey Corn. The corn ear is white, but every third kernel is yellow. It is the best tasting corn I know of.

I grow a purple green bean, because it has less insect problems and the taste is great.

I don’t grow strawberries, because I grow a Strawberry Guava Tree. The guavas off my tree taste better than a strawberry. Plus it bears twice a year. The fruit is very high in vitamin C. I eat ten a day (smile). I am sorry but I do not grow berries. I could advise you, but I only back what I grow.

I could go on but I hope you get my point. Some varieties are getting harder to find. But it is worth searching and hunting for.

Second tip: Soil. Buy a Ph soil test kit. Soil ph is very important to plants. Your plants are healtier. With good soil, you get twice the yields and less insects. Therefore test your soil. Most plants like a ph of 6.5. If your soil is too acidic add lime. If your soil is too alkaline add pine needles. Changing soil ph can take two years. Test your soil Ph every two or three years.

Third tip: Herbs. I grow a lot of dill, because we eat fish every week. Grow dill in your garden or in your flower garden around the house. The plant is too big for containers. My dill plants grow three feet tall. The wind can blow the plants over. Plant in three week intervals.

Rosemary is a good container plant, because you have to bring it inside in the winter.

I grow two diference varieties of Basil. Each variety has its own taste. Grow the plants right in the garden. Keep leaves cut, otherwise they turn to seed very fast.

Well Jack Lapidus, I hope you know about compost and fertilizers. I use chicken manure. It is the best. I mix the chicken manure in my home make compost bin.

I could go on but I put down twenty (20) bags of steer manure this morning on my lawns and my wife’s flowers. We are looking for rain tomorrow and all next week. I am a little tired, and I am not getting any (don’t smile) younger. Which reminds me. Start with a small garden. A garden is work. I hope these were the tips you needed.

You received these tips from a gardener with sixty (60) years experience. I started learning at the age of three (smile) from my uncle in the hills of Kentucky. I do not use pesticides or chemicals. I go out at night and hand pick the few insects. We do a lot of canning.

I have a 20×20 feet garden and nine (9) rare fruit trees. Each Christmas my friends and relatives receive a basket with a red and white checked table cloth. Inside, 1 quart jar of red and yellow tomatoes (with one clove of garlic and basil leaf), 1 quart jar plum jam, 1 quart jar of pickled green cherry tomatoes made with fresh dill seeds, 1 quart jar green bean, 1 quart jar bread & butter pickles, a bag of rudy red grapefruits, bag of lemons, bag of Mandarin Oranges, and a bag of dried figs. They love to see us coming, and we enjoy giving.

I hope this can be you in a year. I love to help other gardeners. You have a great day from Los Angeles.

GardenersCardiff answers:

I’d say taller plants and or bushes and trees. Some are fast growing and give you the added benefit of flowers through the growing season.

Could you get away with strategically placed arbors or panels that plants could climb on? Then you could add climbing roses, clematis, bittersweet (the birds love the berries!) and other plants. We’ve done that in certain areas; our neighbor is a doll but he’s messy and we hide his garage mess with a couple rose arbors made from 4′ x 8′ lattice panels and have climbing roses mixed in with some taller bushes and shrubs. We opted for the PVC lattice because it never needs painting and is easy to work with.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Good for you for wanting to start learning how to cook your own food! As far as expense goes, I think that you will find that just by switching to making your own food instead of buying pre-packaged, frozen dinners, you will save a lot of money. RecipeZaar and many other cooking sites (AOL’s cooking section is another one) have an option to select recipes that use only 5-ingredients or less, so, with a few basic items in your cabinet you can make a variety of meals. Here is the link to that site:

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/5-or-less-ingredients

Other tips: Prepare ahead! If you can make, say, enough rice for more than one meal, you have it pre-cooked and can eat it as a side, as fried-rice, use it in soup, etc. The same is true for things like pasta.

Try and use similar ingredients for a few different dishes- this will save you money and cut down on waste, as you rarely need, say, 4 chicken breast for one meal, especially if you are only feeding one person!

Have a good, easy cookbook handy. One I like that has really helped to build my confidence in cooking is called ‘Anyone Can Cook’. I think it is published by Better Homes and Gardens. It is super basic, but with some excellent, easy to follow recipes and a lot of extra reference guides. Here is a link to more info on this book from Amazon.com, but it is pretty easy to find at bookstores as well:

http://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Cook-Better-Homes-Gardens/dp/0696232936

Good luck!