How To Grow Cantaloupe

March 29, 2010 By 8 Comments

How To Grow Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe is another one of my favorite melons. It produces really well, and we are able to get lots of melons per plant. I don’t love cantaloupe from the store, however, cantaloupe fresh out of a garden is really good. These are melons and are grown and planted similarly to watermelons.

Make sure not to plant them until all threat of frost is past. These plants grow well in hot weather. Make a large circle in the soil and plant 3 to 4 seeds in the circle. If you are planting these in a raised bed, plant them in the corner and train them to run over the side of your raised bed.

Once your plant is the size that you want, you can pinch off any curly cues as they start to form new vines so the energy can be spent growing melons. I think the easiest way to tell if a cantaloupe is ripe is through the smell. Also, the cantaloupe will have turned from green to brown and cream colored. Looking at the bottom of the melon can help you see if it is ripe as well.

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How to Grow Eggplant

March 27, 2010 By 6 Comments

How to Grow Eggplant

Eggplants are like bell peppers. They like hot weather. They can’t be planted when there is any danger of frost. Also, these do better if you start them inside 4-8 weeks before you plant them outside. They need to be planted about 2 feet apart. Wait for your eggplant to get shiny and then it can be harvested. Eggplants need rich soil to grow well. Also, make sure that you get any bugs off of the plant. They are sensitive plants, and don’t like bugs.

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Naturally Controlling Bugs In Your Garden

March 27, 2010 By 3 Comments

Naturally Controlling Bugs In Your Garden

Bugs can eat up a garden and your hard work. However, there are some natural ways that you can reduce the bugs in your garden. One way of course is to squish them yourself or knock them into a cup of water with some soap or oil.

One of my favorite ways to get rid of bad bugs is with good bugs. Ladybugs and Praying Mantis bugs eat bad bugs in your garden. You can actually order these bugs for your garden. We are planning on order Praying Mantis bugs this year to help control our bug problems.

A quick note about lady bugs. Make sure that your ladybug is a ladybug. There are bean beetles that look a lot like ladybugs when you see them in their adult stage. If you are growing beans and think that you see ladybugs on them, take a look around your plants. Make sure that you don’t see bright yellow baby beetle bugs. The bean beetle goes through several stages. You will see bright yellow eggs on the bottom of your leaves. Then it will form a tiny yellow slug looking bug. Then it will turn into a bright yellow beetle before turning into a bean beetle that looks like a ladybug.

We made this mistake last year and thought that the bean beetles were ladybugs and let them live. They quickly took over. We won’t make that mistake again though. You can tell a difference between them after you have seen thousands of them. (-:

Also, if you can attract toads to your garden; they can be very beneficial. Toads eat lots of insects and will even eat slugs.

Slugs hide during the day under pieces of wood. If you have a slug problem, you can turn over pieces of wood that you might have in your garden during the day, and kill the slugs on the bottom of the wood.

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How To Grow Green Beans

March 26, 2010 By 6 Comments

Green beans are so yummy fresh out of a garden. We usually grow a lot of greens beans each year because we can quite a few to last us through the year. Green beans can be planted until after the danger of frost is past. In our area locally this means after April 30th. This is why these can be planted where your sugar snap peas , cabbages, or other cool weather plants were planted. Green beans can make a lot of beans per plant. I only had a couple of plants at my house last year, but I still had enough to get a mess of beans most nights for supper. There are many different varieties of greens beans. However, the two main types are bush beans and beans that grow up trellises. Bush beans can produce a lot of beans and are good for smaller gardens. Our favorite type of bush beans are tenderettes.

Beans that grow up trellises and be easier to pick because a lot of the beans are at your height, however, you still have to bend down to get the beans at the bottom. My personal favorite green beans that grow up trellises are Greasy Grits and Granny Pluma beans. Greasy Grits are a mountain type of bean, so they will only do well in my area. Even in the Raleigh area they don’t do too well. Obviously in the mountains they do even better. My most favorite green bean though is my great grandmother’s green bean. She cultivated it and gave us the seeds. They are the yummiest green bean ever. I wish there was a way I could share them with all of you, but unfortunately they can’t be bought she just grew them. We have tried about every kind of green bean to see if we could find others like hers, but we can’t, . We just keep saving her beans each year.

Green beans are picked before they get too full. They should be picked about every 3 days. You want them to be tender and snap easily. If you do have some that you leave too long and the pods are really full, you can shell them.

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How To Plant Lima/Butter Beans

March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

How To Plant Lima/Butter Beans

These are my mother’s favorite beans. Lots of people love them. I personally don’t love them enough to plant them in my personal garden. (Makes me sound like I am not a true southerner.) Lima beans can be grown in bush form or they can run up trellises.

If you are planting a bush variety in a traditional garden they need about 3 feet between the rows just because the bushes get bigger than your typical green bean bush.

Pole limas grow up trellises. These need to be picked or they will stop producing. Also, they need plenty of water and healthy soil that is full of nutrients. The slight advantage of these limas as opposed to the bush limas is that they are less likely to touch the ground and rot from being too wet.

You can plant the seeds directly in the ground about 4 inches apart. I usually plant a couple of seeds every 4 inches just to make sure they come up. When they come up, if there are 2 in one place just pinch off the smaller one at the soil and let the healthier plant live.

You can also start these seeds inside. This will allow you to have a longer growing season and produce more lima beans.

Typically you begin to get lima beans about 12 weeks after you planted the seeds.

Lima beans are ready to pick when they are fat. These aren’t like green beans which are tough if you let them get too big and fat. Limas are shelled, so you want big limas inside the pod.

Just a side note: Butter beans are lima beans. A lot of southerners including my grandparents only call them butter beans, not lima beans . . . just so you’re not confused when you go to buy your seeds.

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