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Category Archives: vegetables
The Black Aphid
Black aphids love nasturtiums. Love them to death, in my case. I’d never seen a black aphid before I planted nasturtiums last year. They didn’t appear to move beyond my nasturtiums, so I simply observed.
I have been using nasturtiums in the garden as a natural pest control. They “repel squash bugs and whiteflies and draw beneficial insects”, according to one of my books. What I couldn’t decide last year was if nasturtiums drew pests away from my other plants or if they drew pests to the garden more generally, serving as a jumping off point. Continue reading
Posted in beans, tomatillos
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Meet Cheddar
Cheddar is a cauliflower variety I purchased as seed this year from Territorial Seed. It was developed in Ontario, my patria, and is named, pretty obviously, for its colour. The orange is from beta-carotene, which is evident even in the plant stalk. Pretty cool.
My favourite thing about it was the beautiful fractal patterns, not well captured here. Guess I’ll have to grow it again next year. I have never grown cauliflower before. It wasn’t hard. Or maybe I was lucky. Time will tell! Continue reading
Posted in vegetables
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Control Plots for Ollas
They won’t be perfect. I planted the control plot of potatoes one month later than the olla plot. And the control cucumbers were inside the house for an extra week, where they got a head start on flowering. It won’t … Continue reading
Posted in cucumber, olla irrigation, potatoes
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Ants Continued
Mid-girdle above, full girdle below
It’s funny what people think they know about ants. I went to my local Farmer’s Market where there is a booth staffed by master gardeners. I wanted to see if they’d have suggestions Continue reading
Posted in kale, pest control
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