BORING TROUBLES NO MORE
First Evidence: Limp Leaves
Complaints. Complaints. I’ve been hearing so many complaints about squash plants, how they looked healthy, then all of a sudden flagged and took a turn on the road towards death. I can help you deal with the problem — but mostly for next year. The best time for action was earlier this season.
Young zucchini, early in season
An insect called the “squash vine borer,” lodged in the stem, is responsible for your squash’s wilting. The saga of how that insect got there began in early summer, Read more
OTHER CREATURES ALSO LOVE APPLES
With more forethought, Adam might not have bitten the apple and I might not have planted apple trees. For my part, I hadn’t realized that apple trees had so many pest problems.
But Adam did bite the apple, and I did plant apple trees and we each have dealt with the consequences. I could have resorted to the season-long drench of pesticides recommended to kill every pest. Instead, I decided to research potential pest problems, then see how little, if any, pesticide I could use and still harvest an acceptable crop of high quality apples.
Home grown Esopus Spitzenberg apple
WOULD THE REAL (BEST) OREGANO PLEASE STAND UP
What’s in a Name
Ripe tomatoes bring to mind tomato sauce; tomato sauce brings to mind oregano. You would think that all that you needed to do to get oregano would be to mosey on down to the local seed store to pick up a plant or a packet of seeds, or send away to your favorite mail order nursery, right? Wrong!
Pizza
Oregano is, botanically, Origanum vulgare, a hardy perennial that sometimes parades under the names perennial marjoram, wild marjoram, or pot marjoram. As you can see, confusion is already creeping in. Marjoram is also the name of another herb. (Pronounce “marjoram,” with the accent on the first syllable, so the word sounds much like “margarine.”) Read more
