Mid-month snuck up on me, but a quick stroll with the camera through the gardens this morning produced some interesting sites to share on this July 2010 Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Connecticut has had August weather – hazy, hot, and humid – in July.
-It's been a few days since my last post, but with basil, zinnia, ageratum, petunia, and other seedlings still awaiting a permanent home, compost to screen, and weeds sprouting faster than my achy hands can pull them, my husband agreed to help out here with his point of view on living with a gardener - joene
You know how those moisture-retaining gels swell when placed in water? That's what I envision happens to brains of new gardeners as they soak up any and all available how-to gardening information – I was a novice gardener once long, long ago and did just that. It's important to seek learned, sound advise from gardening friends, trusted nursery staff, local agriculture extension departments, books, blogs, websites, and magazines. Unfortunately not all gardening information is as clear as it should be.
Yes, today is Monday and Newsy Notes usually runs on Friday … or at the latest Saturday … but better late than never.
New vegetable gardeners can gain a lot of information from seed packets, self-help books, a local nursery, and gardening contacts, but may not realize the importance of orienting planted rows of edibles relative to the sun. When researchers in Western Australia compared north-south or east-west orientation on yield of organically grown grain and other crops, they found grain yield improved with east-west orientation. Orientation did not seem to affect other broadleaf crops, such as canola and field peas likely, they say, because crops with large leaves shade out weeds that compete for soil nutrients. Still they suggest that latitudes up to 55 degrees benefit from north-south orientation in the summer and east-west orientation the rest of the year – good to know when considering early spring and fall crops. Don't know your latitude? Find it through Project Budburst – a fun and worthy program for anyone interested in plants.
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