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March 2010

How to Grow Daylilies On Your Balcony

by Fern on March 31, 2010

in Flowers Galore

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Photo by gcalsa

I used to hate daylilies. The only one I knew was ‘Stella de Oro’ and it is completely over used in Southern California. Pretty much every shopping center here has a landscape full of them. But lately I’ve taken a second look. As I spend more time around all the awesome gardeners blogging about these things, I see that there is a whole world of daylilies that I didn’t know about.

But how do you grow daylilies in pots? I admit that I am a total daylily novice, so I turned to Hugh Stout, an iris and daylily hybridizer and grower, the American Hemerocallis Society, and several university extensions to find out.

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Herbs to Grow for Ethnic Cuisines

by Fern on March 30, 2010

in Herbs

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Raise your hand if you have done this at a garden center: Strolled over to the herb section (after eyeing half a dozen flowers and a new variety of tomato that you want) and randomly picked up herbs because they looked good, or because they seemed “like a good plant to have in an herb garden.” I know my hand is up.

Unfortunately this is not a very good way to select herbs you’ll actually use in your cooking. A better way is to work backwards from the type of food you like to eat/cook and select the herbs needed in those types of dishes.

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How to Grow Olives in a Pot

March 29, 2010

Loved this video from Patti Moreno, in part because she is using the same Ikea pots that I use on my balcony… Related Posts: How to Grow an Olive Tree in a Pot Harvesting and Curing Your Own Olives Olive Trees from the Holy Land

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Three Edible/Ornamental Combinations That Look & Taste Great

March 29, 2010
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A popular idea at the moment is using edible plants as if they were ornamentals. For example, people who want to make a hedge might choose blueberry bushes instead of boxwood. I think this idea translates really well in the land of container gardening. It popped up several times while I was at the San [...]

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Photos from the San Francisco Garden Show

March 28, 2010

Hopefully those of you who are able have already gone to the San Francisco Garden Show, or are going today. But if you live too far away, or were too busy this weekend, here are some of my photos from the show and of a side trip to Sunset Magazine headquarters…

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Top 10 Reasons to Visit the San Francisco Garden Show

March 26, 2010
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Adriana and I just got back from our whirlwind trip to Northern California to see the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. We had a FABULOUS time! We got to meet people we only knew through the magic of the internet, people who use Twitter, have blogs, and I even got to meetup with someone [...]

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San Francisco Garden Show

March 25, 2010

Hi everyone! I’m in San Francisco attending the garden show. I’m having a blast and there are a lot great things to see (and buy). If you’d like to see some of the photos I’ve been taking check out the LOTB Facebook page: www.facebook.com/lifeonthebalcony.

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What Type of Tomato Is Easy to Grow in a Container?

March 24, 2010
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Lots o’ people out there are gearing up to plant themselves a good ole fashioned vegetable garden. Or in the case of us balcony gardeners, a not-so-old-fashioned container vegetable garden. People are super enthusiatic and thrilled to be outside soaking up sunshine and thinking about sticking their hands in some good quality potting soil. That is [...]

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How to Grow Nasturtiums in a Container

March 23, 2010
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I’m very excited to be participating in the GROW project. Basically, garden bloggers all over the internet have joined together to grow the same plant this season. We’re all going to share our progress and thoughts on the plant on the first Sunday of the month. The plant selected is a variety of nasturtium called ‘Spitfire’. The seeds [...]

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5 Ways to Create an Ugly Balcony Vegetable Garden

March 22, 2010
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With all the hoopla in the garden blogosphere about ugly vegetable gardens, I didn’t want all my container gardening buddies to be left out of the latest trend in vegetable gardening: embracing the ugly. Being the psychic that I am, I inadvertently posted three effective, though not necessarily pretty, ways to fit more plants in a small [...]

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