Almost 20 years ago, I helped teach a class to my Pathfinders, a Christian group likethe Boy Scouts, on wild edibles. You know, there are several different approaches to weeds. You could pull the weeds by hand by digging the plants to the root level. You could spray any number of compounds over the weeds […]
Eric Larson, correspondent
Posted inLife and Culture
A Stroll Through the Garden: Weeds can be pulled while protecting perennials
I got an email from a reader years ago in April about a sunny site with a recurring weed problem. “I used some chemicals a few years prior and got rid of them.” The bad news was that weeds from the lawn had crept back into her flower beds. As you prepare for the main […]
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Part 2 — Fighting voles & moles
Last week, I wrote a column on moles and recommended how to help you manage moles in your gardens. Moles and voles are not even in the same family. Voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus, or meadow voles, are voracious vegetarians and may eat up to 100% of their body weight daily: carrots, beets, seeds, berries, bark on […]
Posted inLife and Culture
A Stroll Through the Garden: Part 1 — Fighting moles & voles
A few weeks ago while at the pool, I made a new acquaintance who asked me about moles. He said, “How do you get rid of moles?” I recalled some initial ideas about castor beans and a trap that works. Here are my insights as I reviewed my previous columns and current research on this […]
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Cover crops offer new solutions to old problems
A friend from church asked me, “Is there any cover crop to plant in the spring?” Traditionally, most home gardeners only plant cover crops in the fall. Spring plantings of cover crops will help improve the yields of selected vegetables. Lettuce and corn require a lot of nitrogen during their growing seasons. Fertilizer applied to […]
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Companion planting
One of the questions I have had over the years is, “Why would you want to mix two different plants in the same row?” When I started gardening back in Overton, I would plant each packet of seeds according to the plan I had laid out, emptying each seed packet as I went along. That […]
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A Stroll Through the Garden: When can I start planting?
My readers have asked, “What can I do to get my garden going now?” Because I love getting out in the garden, I feel disappointed not having a chance to plant your seeds and bedding plants in the soil. In north central Ohio, there is only a 10% chance of having your plants nipped by […]
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A Stroll through the Garden: Tilling the soil can start soon
WARNING: It’s too early to plant your garden. You are still in planning mode. Recently, when I did the garden talk in Bellville, I made it clear that it is still very early to start turning the soil or planting a raised bed outside. Over 100 years of weather records reveal that mid-May is a […]
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A Stroll Through the Garden: Time to put shovels in the ground
If you can take notes on a topic, you won’t have to decide on a new workable plan tomorrow. When I make the same mistake over and over, I feel foolish. If we can keep a journal for the year and record experiences, it can be a start for planning the garden next year. Records […]
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A Stroll Through the Garden: How to get started planting
Clearing the ground is an essential part of any new or old garden. Our new plants will needspace for the roots to grow. If you can get rid of the sod in the area, you’re closer to planting. When someone hires me as a landscape designer, normally I make a new bed. One of the […]