Archive by Author | Patti Elwell

The Tomato Alphabet

Feb25
23 days ’till spring and soon it will be planting time!!  Watch the countdown here:
http://days.to/spring/2015
Are you trying to choose the best tomatoes to grow when spring finally arrives? Open pollinated/heirloom varieties offer the best assortment of choices but if you have issues with certain tomato diseases, you may want to try a hybrid. Below is a chart that shows what the letters in seed catalogs and on seed packet mean when indicating tomato disease resistance.
Hybrid DOES NOT mean it is GMO. A hybrid vegetable is created when plant breeders intentionally cross-pollinate two different varieties of a plant, aiming to produce an offspring, or hybrid, that contains the best traits of each of the parents. Cross-pollination is a natural process that occurs within members of the same plant species.
GMO plants, on the other hand, are the result of genetic engineering. (“GMO” stands for “genetically modified organism.”) This is a process during which the plant’s DNA is altered in a way that cannot occur naturally, and sometimes includes the insertion of genes from other species.
tomato disease codes
~ Patti

 

Garden Recycling – Save the Eggshells

Feb12

Tip for today for our gardening friends:  Save your eggshells for a nutritional boost in your garden.  Let them dry out in a container and then pulverize them in your blender to use as a calcium source for your tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.  Lack of calcium can cause blossom end rot, the dark rotted bottoms that can occur if your soil is lacking this critical mineral.  When planting, place a sprinkling of the pulverized shell in the hole. Or, simple mix in with the soil surface after planting.

eggshells

If your garden is prone to slugs and snails, roughly crush the eggshells and encircle them around your plants as a deadly barrier.  The soft bodies of these pests are sliced as they pass over the jagged edges.

Best of all, this recycles what might otherwise end up in the trash and is a natural alternative to using chemical products!

Rolling Green Keeps You In The Green!

Sep10

Just wanted to share a great deal coming up that you may want to take advantage of at Rolling Green Nursery!  Fall is a wonderful time to plant perennials, refresh your pots with annual and more AND you get to save money while adding to your garden!

On this Sunday, September 14, 10 -4 pm Rolling Green is sponsoring its 7th Annual Silent Auction and Sale to benefit Seacoast Family Promise.  With your $10 donation, you receive a 40% discount off your entire purchase except for fall crops, bulbs and consignments:

rg sale

If you do come by, make sure you come by to see me in perennials!  Patti

 

 

NH Stone Wall Program

Sep2

Discovering Stone Walls – a talk by Kevin Gardner

Monday Sept. 8, 7 pm @ Stratham Fire Station

 

In this program co-sponsored by the Stratham Historical Society and the Wiggin Memorial Library, Kevin Gardner, author of ‘The Granite Kiss’ will discuss how and why New England came to acquire its thousands of miles of stone walls, the ways in which they and other dry stone structures were built, how their styles emerged and changed over time, and their significance to the famous New England landscape.

The EAGC had Kevin Gardner speak at a club meeting a couple of years ago.  It was a fascinating program, and he was amazing to watch during his presentation as he built  a miniature wall or walls on a table top, using tiny stones from a five-gallon bucket.

If you missed this program then, you will not be disappointed if you are able to attend this one upcoming at the Stratham Fire Station!

 There is always a generous question-and-answer period during which audience members are encouraged to bring up specific problems or projects on their own property.  Copies of ‘The Granite Kiss’ will be available for sale at the program.  ~ Patti