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My favorite vegetables to grow in my garden

Well the Sun is shining and temperatures over 50 degrees, which makes me think of gardening. So I thought I would come up with a list of my favorite 12 vegetables (not all are actually veggies) that I like to grow.  I just posted the list on Lunch.com here: Favorite Vegetables To Grow.  I'm sure your favorites are different than mine.  What are your favorite vegetables to grow?

My top 5 in the list are below:

tomatoes  okra with its pretty blooms 

 strawberries   

Silver Queen sweet corn jalapeno peppers
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Your fruit and vegetables may have pesticides on them: Think Organic

pesticides can appear on fruits and vegetables

A pesticide may be a chemical substance, biological agent (such as a virus or bacterium), antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest. Pests include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, roundworms, microbes and people that destroy property, spread or are a vector for disease or cause a nuisance. Although there are benefits to the use of pesticides, there are also drawbacks, such as potential toxicity to humans and other animals.

Pesticide use raises a number of environmental concerns. Over 98% of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, including non-target species, air, water and soil. Pesticide drift occurs when pesticides suspended in the air as particles are carried by wind to other areas, potentially contaminating them. Pesticides are one of the causes of water pollution, and some pesticides are persistent organic pollutants and contribute to soil contamination.

Below are two lists from the Environmental Working Group on the fruit and vegetables with potentially the most and least pesticides.

The Dirty Dozen: Fruits & Vegetables that contain highest pesticides load

  • peaches
  • apples
  • bell peppers
  • celery
  • nectarines
  • strawberries
  • cherries
  • kale
  • lettuce
  • imported grapes
  • carrots
  • pears

 

Clean Fifteen: Fruits & Vegetables that contain the least pesticide residue

  • onions
  • avocados
  • sweet corn
  • pineapples
  • mangoes
  • asparagus
  • sweet peas
  • kiwis
  • cabbages
  • eggplants
  • papayas
  • watermelons
  • broccoli
  • tomatoes
  • sweet potatoes

You can peel your fruits and vegetables and trim outer leaves of leafy vegetables in addition to washing them thoroughly. Keep in mind that peeling your fruits and vegetables may also reduce the amount of nutrients and fiber. Some pesticide residue also collects in fat, so remove fat from meat and the skin from poultry and fish.

So how do you possibly avoid pesticides totally? The answer is either grow your own food or going Organic. Or both. Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on crop rotation, green manure, compost, biological pest control, and mechanical cultivation to maintain soil productivity and control pests, excluding or strictly limiting the use of synthetic fertilizers and synthetic pesticides, plant growth regulators, livestock feed additives, and genetically modified organisms. Since 1990, the market for organic products has grown at a rapid pace, to reach $46 billion in 2007.

Think before you buy. I'm starting to do that and buy organic foods. There are more and more options because demand is increasing. Be healthy and eco-friendly.


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‘Tis the season for fall colors in my backyard

fall4

The temperatures are getting cooler and the leaves, they are changin' colors. In my corner of the world in Kentucky, I get red from burning bushes, green from evergreen shrubbery, yellow is from maple trees, golden brown from oak trees and white from pampas grass.

fall2

 

 fall3

Notice the Moon showing itself off in the photo below: fall1

Well that it for my neck of the woods for this autumn.  These colors are about as peak as my colors seem to get.  Do you have photos of your Fall colors?


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Today was the day: My tomato plants are done for the season and are now in my compost bin

tomatoes that were growing My tomato plants have done their job for the year.  No more good tomatoes or blooms are on the vine so today I picked off all of the respectable tomatoes and heaved my tomato plants into my compost bin.  Alas, colder weather is near (in Kentucky anyway) and this is just one of the things to do to get ready for autumn.  My tomato plants won't be lonely, a lot of leaves will be joining them very soon.

Don't fret, I made sure there were no bugs or diseased areas on the plants.  You don't want to spread disease into your compost bin.  That just wouldn't be good for your compost bin at all.  Speaking of compost bin, mine has seen better days.  It has gotten pretty sad looking.  I made it around 8 years ago out of wood.  It has done its job, but I plan to get or make a new one for this coming spring.

Don't have a compost bin and don't know how to compost, and would like to? Do It Yourself Composting At Home


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Be Forewarned About the Datura Inoxia (Devil's Trumpet) Flower

my jalapeno peppers

Last year I received a white trumpet flower plant from a friend and I liked it right from the beginning. I mean you have large white blooms and nice foliage. It is what my little flower garden needed: some green with a Pop of white. What's not to like, right? Then as I always do, I did some research on the internet, and I found out some interesting information about the Datura Inoxia (Devil's Trumpet) plant that I now possess.  This plant has a dark side.

The most obvious item is the ominous Devil's Trumpet name. Many have heard of the Angel's Trumpet flower, in which the blooms droop down. Well, my friends, the Devil's Trumpet blooms upward as in a trumpet from not heaven but hell. Devil’s trumpet is grown in all but the coldest climates as a flowering ornamental. There are white, purple, and yellow varieties with large, single and double blossoms available. Devil’s trumpet grows naturally in disturbed areas such as eroded sites, old fields, vacant lots, overgrazed pastures and rangeland, roadsides and abandoned roadbeds, and fencerows. Apparently, disturbance and reduced competition are required for the plant to become established and grow. A wide variety of well-drained soils on both igneous and sedimentary parent materials are suitable.


The Datura Inoxia (Devil's Trumpet) Dark Past, Present and Future: Use With Caution

From ancient times continuing to the present, the taking of Datura tissues, particularly the seeds, was used in shamanistic rituals as a path to enlightenment. Today, people frequently experiment with it for the hallucinogenic effect, but the results are so unpleasant (dark visions, disorientation, amnesia, blurred vision, dry mouth, and incontinence) that they seldom recommend the experience. Overdoses can result in death. The plant has been used to treat impotence, asthma, diarrhea, as an analgesic, to control fever, kill parasites, and as a drug for criminal purposes. Devil’s trumpet contains a host of phytoactive chemicals including atropine, hyoscyamine, hyoscine, scopolamine, norscopolamine, meteloidine, hydroxy-6- hyoscyamine, tiglic esters of dihydroxytropine, and a number of withanolides. It causes erratic behavior and even death of livestock that have eaten it, but it is seldom a problem for pastured animals because they carefully avoid consuming it.

Hummingbirds sometimes visit the flowers, but are affected by the alkaloids in the nectar and must limit their consumption. Honeybees are apparently unaffected. The flowers have an intense night fragrance, which perhaps helps attract night-flying moths.

I like my Devil's Trumpet flower, but with all that is going on with this plant, I couldn't recommend it to everyone.  Come to think of it, I guess it has Devil in its name for more reasons than one.   You've been warned.


Source: John K. Francis, Research Forester,
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
International Institute of Tropical Forestry,
Jardín Botánico Sur, 1201 Calle Ceiba, San Juan PR 00926-1119,
in cooperation with the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, PR 00936-4984
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Jalapeño Peppers: Crop It Like It's Hot

my jalapeno peppers 

If you like hot and spicy food, I'm sure you've had your eyes water from jalapeño peppers a time or two. Have you thought about growing them yourself? I'm grown them a few times and there are many reasons for doing so. Jalapeño peppers have more benefits than just clearing out your sinuses while ingesting them. There are some health benefits. Hot peppers have shown to reduce blood pressure, may protect against some forms of cancer, may boost metabolism and, believe it or not, improve digestion. They contain vitamin A and C as well as beta-carotene and are low in fat and calories.

They are very easy to grow; just make sure they get plenty of sun. The growing period for a jalapeño plant is 70–80 days. When mature, the plant stands two and a half to three feet tall. Typically, a single plant will produce twenty five to thirty five pods. You will probably only need one plant. Jalapeño plants have shown to be a good repellant against some insects and critters. Many gardeners plant jalapeño pepper plants near their other crops to take advantage of this natural repellant and protect them.

Some say that jalapeño are really hot. Well, yes and no. They can be pretty hot, but if you compare them to other peppers they are child's play. From jalapenomadness.com below are the hotness rankings of peppers from 'very mild' to 'are you kidding me?':

  • El Paso (Very mild)
  • Anaheim
  • Jalapeño
  • Hidalgo
  • Serrano
  • Cayenne
  • Tabasco
  • Red Chile
  • Chiltecpin
  • Tabiche
  • Bahamian
  • Kumataka
  • Habanero (One of the hottest grown - 30 to 50 times hotter than a jalapeño)
  • Bhut Jolokia!

 

It is an interesting list. Frankly, I like spicy food, but I'm scared of anything below Tabasco. I'll stay with my jalapeño peppers, thank you very much. As the above photo shows, my jalapeño peppers are close to pickin' time. Soon I'll be enjoying sliced jalapeño peppers with cheese on tortilla chips. Yummy.

Do you have any recipes involving jalapeño peppers?


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Shasta Daisies: For That Added 'Pop' In Your Garden

shasta daisies

Over 20 years ago, my Dad planted a few Shasta daisies in our garden. I didn't think too much about them at that time. However, when they bloomed I was surprised at the impact that they made. I was just as surprised seeing how they propagate themselves into more and more every year and how they are easy to divide and replant. I found that out when I took a few of the Shasta daisies he planted and replanted them at my house.

I've had very good success with my Shasta daisies in my garden. The photo above shows my Shasta daisies blooming this year. They are a major bright spot in my flower garden. They give it that needed 'pop' my flower garden was lacking. I'm very happy with them.

Shasta daisies (Leucanthemum x superbum) are perennials (they come back every year) and are pretty hardy from zones 4 through 9. They were formerly classified in the genus Chrysanthemum, these daisies were transferred to their own genus of Leucanthemum because they lack some traits of true Chrysanthemums. The Shasta Daisy originated as a hybrid produced by the famed American horticulturist Luther Burbank, who developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career.

My Dad always loved gardening and it was a passion I didn't quite share back when he planted the Shasta daisies all of those years ago. I have to say that now I sure do. Unfortunately, gardening didn't appeal to me until after he passed on. That would have been a great thing to share with him.

Shasta daisies are fun and easy to grow. They do like good garden soil; this means a well-drained soil, not clay soil, but one where moisture is present and organic matter is excellent. They will also thrive better is you practice deadheading, which means to cut off the flower and stem as it starts to fade and die but before it has a chance to set seed. One potential problem I see is that after a few years you need to have plenty of room for them or you'll need to thin them out. One great resolution for this is to divide them and give a few to friends. They can then enjoy Shasta daisies at their home as I have enjoyed the ones I received from the ones my Dad planted over 20 years ago. Thanks Dad.


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