Plant Tips
Plant Tip: Use a Date Calculator
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- Published on Tuesday, June 24 2014 07:21
- Written by BCG Editors
If you buy a packet of vegetable seeds from your local garden shop, it will most likely say how many days to harvest. So from your seed packet, you know that bean plants will take about 60 days from planting until the beans are ready to eat. Let's say you want to grow these beans for a specific date, like the picnic you're planing for the Fourth of July. Don't get a calendar and count backward. It's much easier to use a date calculator online! So if you want to pick and eat your pole beans on July 4, plant them around June 30 (that's this week!). I admit that 60 is an easy number to calculate, but other vegetable plants take much longer to mature – think pumpkins, which take 85 to 125 days – and the date calculator will be a big help!
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Plant Tip: Use the Color Theory in the Garden
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- Published on Tuesday, June 17 2014 07:17
- Written by BCG Editors
If you want a pleasing color scheme in your container garden, use the color wheel to decide on the best colors to pair together. (If you can't match in your wardrobe, either, I suggest hanging the color wheel in your closet once you're done with it in the garden!) Flower colors that will compliment each other, according to the color wheel, are purple and yellow, blue and orange, green and red, etc. You can also create a garden with one major color theme. In addition to green foliage, try growing container plants that will all bloom in various shades of white, or purple, or blue! And even if you have mismatched colors in the garden, it will no doubt be beautiful!
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Plant Tip: Save Coffee Grounds
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- Published on Tuesday, June 10 2014 07:15
- Written by BCG Editors
If you're like me, on Saturday and Sunday mornings you will sit inside and sip your coffee, staring out into your beautiful container garden. When you're done with your morning coffee, don't throw away your coffee grounds. Instead, add it to your potting soil! Coffee grounds, in addition to improving the structure of the soil, will act like a slow-release fertilizer, as it will slowly release nitrogen, which promotes plant leaf growth, as well as smaller amounts of calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium and trace amounts of minerals, including copper, over time. Coffee grounds will also benefit plants that like acidic soil (including foxglove, bleeding heart and hydrangea), as it will also increase the acidity of the soil.
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