Jacky

I didn’t even know what a root weevil was for all the years I was gardening at my last place which is in a mostly rural setting. But then, 18 months ago I had to move on short notice. So I packed up, picked up and dragged my mature 12 year old garden in the … Read more

Perlite and vermiculite are two minerals that expand greatly when heated. They are commonly combined with bark or peat moss in potting mixes. They’re often used as the growth medium in hydroponics systems. They’re also used in combination together. They are both clean, sterile, odorless and non-toxic. Neither will rot or turn moldy. When mixed … Read more

Gardening without a lot of sun can be a challenge, but it’s not impossible. There are some veggies that are more tolerant to shady conditions than others. Generally the plants with larger wider leaves are the more tolerant ones, such as lettuce. spinach, kale, arugula and chard. There are more listed below and there are … Read more

This year I’ve chosen Green Arrow Shelling Peas to grow as one of my small space food garden items. This article will be about how that goes right from the beginning planting right to the end mature plant and hopefully to a successful harvest with delicious peas to eat. The container I chose for this … Read more

GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism, sometimes also known as Genetically Engineered Organism. I will start by saying that this article is written very much in my opinion of GMO, you may or may not agree.  I believe that GMO foods might be adversely affecting our health, in ways we don’t completely understand yet. Many … Read more

The video below was shot from my kitchen window in mid January 2012. You can clearly see the snow on the ground in the background and no flowers. There are very limited food sources for the birds this time of year. I had never hung a feeder out before this video. It is quite literally … Read more

This is an important question in many people’s minds. It seems to have become a buzz word lately. I’ll start with a bit of a story, recently I was in Costco with my husband on a Saturday when all the food tables were set up. One lady was shouting for customers to come try her … Read more

The Crack Weeder is also known as a patio knife. It’s an amazing and very efficient tool for getting the weeds out from between paving stones. So often the roots of these weeds are completely out of reach or the top just breaks off at the surface and that allows the root to continue to … Read more

How do you choose which one to use?  For Drainage: Choose perlite For Water Retention: Choose vermiculite For planters, I suggest using a little of each as they have complimentary properties. The ratio should be 25% of one or both of these total to potting soil. So that means ¾ of the volume of potting soil and the rest (¼ of … Read more