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How much of my food can I grow in a small garden area? This is the question I receive most frequently from residents interested in starting vegetable gardens. Like all things in life, the answer is: “it depends.” In this case, it depends on the size of the garden, the amount of sun, and what you want to eat.

Since sun and garden space are difficult to change, the easiest way to eat more of your homegrown vegetables, is to start eating vegetables that are high yielding and easy to grow. Hence, we discover the magic of leafy greens.

Leafy greens are a backyard food gardener’s best friend. They are easy to grow, harvest, and cook. They produce an abundance of food even in low-light conditions. Moreover, they taste great, supply excellent nutrition, and look good in your garden. If you are a brown thumb, or a novice vegetable gardener, leafy greens are a great place to start.

While there are numerous varieties of leafy greens to try, I recommend chard, kale and collards. They grow productively all winter long, and even withstand summer heat. Space your plants 1 foot to 18 inches apart, both within and between rows. If you start from seed, sow every few inches in rows and then thin out to the recommended spacing. To allow each plant more room, offset planting between rows so that each plant sits between the two in the next row over, forming a zigzag pattern. Plants can be harvested as soon as they have a fair number of medium sized leaves. It’s better to take a few leaves from each plant, rather than lots of leaves from one plant, so that all of the plants can recover quickly. Harvest with two hands, or using cutters, to make sure you don’t tug on the plant while tearing off the leaves. And the best part is, after you harvest, the leaves grow right back!

There are many ways to integrate lots of leafy greens into your diet. In addition to salad, you can quickly cook leafy greens into any combination of vegetables. Start by steaming them, or stir-frying with olive oil, garlic, lemon and salt. Add them in at the end of your vegetable stir-fries, or boil them in stocks, soups, and stews. Leafy greens go well with meat or tofu, rice, noodles, and many legumes. I like to add leafy greens into my lentil soups. When I cook red beans, I scoop some of the broth into a frying pan and use it to boil the greens with other vegetables.

Adding lots of greens to your diet is an excellent way to improve your families’ nutrition. They are rich in beta carotene, vitamin C, and other anti-carcinogens. They provide excellent sources of fiber, iron, and calcium. In fact, collard greens have the same concentration of calcium as milk. Just 3.5 ounces of chard gives you all the vitamin A and half the vitamin C that you need each day.

Growing more of your fruits and vegetables means eating more of what you can grow. If you want to eat better and grow your own food, plant chard, kale and collards in your garden this year and watch the magic unfold.

Joshua Deutsch is the founder and manager of Backyard Food Gardens, providing food garden installation and complete landscaping services to the East Bay. He can be reached by Email: josh@backyardfoodgardens.com, phone: 510-289-8712, or on the web: www.backyardfoodgardens.com.

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Gardeners:
A message from the USDA

During the holidays, people buy and send more citrus plants than any other time of the year. Whether someone is buying citrus plants online or giving a citrus plant as a gift, they could be spreading citrus greening disease. This deadly bacterial plant disease is spread by a disease-infected insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, and has destroyed millions of acres of citrus plants around the world. Since there is no cure, the best way to protect our citrus is to not move citrus plants or plant materials.

Inform others about the dangers of moving citrus.
As a gardener, people respect your expertise on plants. Help spread the word about citrus greening disease. Let people know:

• Many areas of the Southeast are under quarantine for citrus greening disease and Asian citrus psyllids. It is illegal to move live citrus plants, plant parts, budwood, or cuttings from these areas.
• Many other areas are under quarantine for Asian citrus psyllids. Get a complete list of quarantined areas for both the disease and the psyllid.
• Citrus greening is only one of many diseases threatening our citrus. By not moving citrus, you help stop the spread of all these deadly disease.
• Citrus plants and plant materials include curry leaves, jasmine flowers, and the citrus leaves on wreaths and in potpourri.

Spread the word — don’t move citrus.

The safest approach is to simply not move citrus plants, ship citrus plants, or buy citrus plants of an unknown origin. If you or someone you know owns citrus plants, make sure they are inspected regularly for signs and symptoms of the disease and psyllids.

For more information from the USDA on citrus greening disease, visit www.saveourcitrus.org.

Rooftop gardens is a method of gardening we are starting to hear more and more about. And not only in your typical high rise city, like Chicago’s City Hall who’s gardens on the roof are open to the public by appointment. The gardens were built as part of an EPA study and initiative to combat the urban heat island effect and to improve urban air quality.

There is also, London’s secret treasure, Kensington Gardens,  a protected historic preservation site. These rooftop gardens were created on top of what was a department store in 1932 to give shoppers a scenic resting spot.

Whether it is a green quiet getaway or a garden for raising your own food you can grow if your structure can support the garden’s weight. The sky is the limit, get it? The sky… roof top… growing toward the light… ooooooh okay, but just LOOK at what some are doing!!

See More…

Rooftop Gardens

Vertically Vegetated Buildings

Chic City Gardens

Butterflies can be attracted to your garden by a variety of methods including planting brightly coloured flowers and bushes, providing food in the form of rotten fruit or by providing other places where they will congregate.

Flowers and Bushes

To attract butterflies to your garden you need to provide attractive food in the form of brightly coloured flowers and feeders and puddles for drinking water. Leave a part of your garden wild by allowing the grass to grow longer and sprinkling wild flower seeds throughout the area. Choose an area that has sunshine for most of the day but is sheltered from the wind. A few flat stone scattered about will provide resting places. At the edges of the wild area plant flowers and shrubs with brightly coloured blooms.

Butterflies prefer single flowers rather than double blooms as they are easier for gathering nectar. Mix up the colours as butterflies have different preferences. Some will be attracted to flowers in shades of red, orange or yellow, some prefer whites or blues or purples. Also plant in clumps to provide an attractive mass of colour. Annuals and perennials to plant include phlox, lavender, zinnias, asters, candytuft, catnip, daisies, goldenrod, verbena and Marigold. Shrubs and bushes include the butterfly bush (buddleia), honeysuckle, mock orange, potentilla, hawthorn, lilac, and hyacinth.

Make an Artificial Puddle

Shallow puddles will attract butterflies so you can make a permanent artificial puddle. Take a shallow dish and add some sand then moisten with water, stale beer or some fruit juice. Bury the dish up to the rim in a sunny part of the garden.

Food for Butterflies

Butterflies love fermenting fruit and vegetables. A fruit tree in the garden will attract the butterflies if you allow the fallen fruit to stay on the ground. Put out small amounts of over ripe fruit, any type will do, butterflies will love it mushy and fermenting. Uneaten bananas can be stored in the freezer and defrosted when required. The freezing process will turn them black and the fruit inside will be mushy. Just right for attracting butterflies!

Feeders for Butterflies

An easy butterfly feeder can be made by using a shallow saucer or dish with a sloping rim and hanging to a tree branch or pergola with flower pot hangers. Hang it higher than the surrounding flowers. To attract the butterflies plastic or silk flowers can be attached to the hanger. Put some mushy, fermenting fruit sprinkled with water or fruit juice in the dish. Check regularly to make sure it is still damp as butterflies do not like dried food.

Butterfly Nectar

In place of the rotten fruit you could make butterfly nectar by boiling together 1 cup of sugar and 4 cups of water. Do not add any food colouring but, to attract the butterflies, add some brightly coloured objects or plastic flowers to the feeder. You can store the unused nectar in the refrigerator for around a week.

Sponge Butterfly Feeders

Brightly coloured sponges can be soaked in butterfly nectar and hung from pergolas or trees in areas where there are no other flowers.

By providing the ideal conditions for butterflies you will enjoy their visits throughout the summer.

Janet Ashby is a keen gardener who finds gardening in the tropics a challenge. For more information and lots of craft ideas visit http://hobbycraftnews.com More on Beneficial Insects

There’s more to harvesting and drying sunflowers than many professional growers realize. How soon you decide to harvest them will depend largely on energy costs, temperatures, and whether you prefer them to dry naturally. Ideally, your sunflowers won’t be exposed to insects and diseases, and the temperature will be warm enough to allow them to dry on the stem. However, those circumstances are rare. In reality, most crops will be vulnerable to some level of pests and diseases. And depending upon where you live, the temperature can cause your sunflowers to freeze.

In this article, I’ll explain some of the benefits of harvesting your sunflowers early. I’ll also describe how they’re dried and why the moisture in the air can affect your crops.

Benefits Of Harvesting Early

With energy expenses escalating, you might think that allowing your sunflowers to dry naturally is a good idea. But, there are plenty of reasons why you should consider harvesting them early. First, if the temperature is close to freezing during the evenings, your sunflower crops are not actually drying. The moisture is being sealed inside. But, even if you’re not growing your sunflowers in freezing temperatures, there are still many advantages to an early harvest.

For example, the weather can often be harsh for sunflowers. Rain and strong winds can pummel your crops and prevent them from drying properly. Also, keep in mind that the longer you allow your crops to stay outside, the more vulnerable they’ll be to insects, birds, and other pests. What’s more, they’re more susceptible to mildew, mold, and diseases.

Sunflowers also have to cope with weeds, which can become a problem if they’re not managed. You can use chemicals to control them, but their effectiveness is often limited, depending upon the weather and soil. If you own a high-power dryer that can output high temperatures, consider an early harvest to dry them yourself.

Temperature And Moisture

There are many places where the air has increased capacity to hold moisture during the harvest season (for example, South and North Dakota). When this is the case, your crops will dry more quickly. Sunflowers, because of their ability to take advantage of past crops’ residual fertility, can be especially resilient in this type of weather. And the higher the temperature, the more capacity for moisture the air has. In that case, you might be able to allow your sunflowers to dry on the stem a little longer. Of course, you’ll still need to be vigilant about protecting them from critters, insects, and weeds.

Harvesting Your Sunflowers

Years ago, growers harvested their sunflowers when the backs of the heads began to turn brown. However, many crops today come from hybrids and should actually be harvested when the heads are still yellow.

When your crops have a seed moisture of about 35%, you should consider harvesting them. You can actually wait until the moisture level is approximately 12%, but you’ll run the risk of a fire in your combine. This is another benefit of an early harvest. The damper the seeds, the less likely a combine fire will occur. Plus, damp seeds are less likely to break apart while threshing. When the seed moisture is around 10%, there’s far more breakage.

Even though letting your sunflowers dry naturally tends to cost less and be lower maintenance, it’s no longer always the best choice. Today, the combines and high-temperature dryers we use allow us to harvest early and thereby further protect our crops from insects, disease and bad weather.

This sunflower information is brought to you by The Sunflower Guy, the best way to send sunflowers anywhere, check us out at http://www.sunflowerguy.com

More information on Growing and Cultivating Sunflowers