Archive for August, 2009

Heirloom Vegetables: When Historic is Better And When It Is Not

One of the most enjoyable reasons I enjoy getting my hands dirty in the garden is to grow heirloom tomatoes. Moving to the southwest has been a challenge to myself when trying to master the realm of Growing Heirloom Tomatoes in this climate zone and area. After following Front Range Livings monthly online newsletter for the past three years. I've realized that they have a vast knowledge of Colorado Springs and the front range area and you can always count on learning a few landscape or garden tips from Front Range Living. (This Tomato Basket is so beautiful) . Here are a few heirloom vegetable tips on when attempting to grow historic heirloom vegetables and when it's not.
clipped from www.frontrangeliving.com

Like most home gardeners, I was first introduced to heirloom
vegetables through tomatoes. The Amish Brandywine couldn’t be beat, I was told,
and my pulse quickened at the thought of plump, misshapen beauties all summer
long. I’ve grown a number of heirloom tomatoes and found some of them fickle.
Some are more subject to disease, take forever to ripen and offer up a scant
harvest. What I overlooked are the heirloom tomatoes that thrive in my garden
given the soil, summer temperatures and dates to maturity. 
  blog it

Caring for Your Rose Bushes

Almost everyone I know is intimidated by rose bushes. Someone started spreading the message that roses were hard to grow, and now nearly everyone is roses1afraid to even try planting rose bushes because they’re just sure they’re going to kill the darlings before they ever have a chance to bloom.

 

The main keys to thriving rose bushes are choosing varieties that do well in your area, planting them where they get a lot of sun and not planting them too deeply. Doing all those things will go a long way to helping your rose bushes thrive, but there are always certain things that are beyond your control that can happen to even the best of gardeners.

 

Diseases and pests attack all plants, and there are a couple of nasties that are particularly hard on rose bushes.