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Quick Tomato Tip

by Fern on April 18, 2012

in Fruits & Vegetables,How To

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See that sucker there? Suckers are secondary branches that grow in the joints of existing branches. Pinch ‘em off. Suckers take energy away from growing tomatoes. No tomatoes will form on sucker branches.

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Post image for Container Gardening A to Z: A is for Alliums

Allium is the name of a great genus of plants for container gardeners. “Allium” literally means “garlic” in Latin, but botanically speaking, it includes onions, chives, and ornamental flowers as well. They all grow from bulbs and all have grass-like or tubular leaves with an onion/garlic scent to them when you brush up against the leaves. Because of their bulbous nature, they tend to be able to survive a bit of neglect, great for beginners and lazy gardeners!

Here’s how to grow several different type of edible alliums on your patio, porch, balcony, roof top, or anywhere else you can stick a pot…

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What do Worms like to Eat?

April 11, 2012
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In case you haven’t heard, I am now a vermicomposter (how could you have missed it, every other word out of my mouth is pretty much about worms! ). I have been feeding them some of my kitchen scraps and it is interesting to see what they like eating and what they don’t. And trust me, [...]

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Win Your Very Own Collection of Sempervivums from Arrowhead Alpines

April 2, 2012
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I have been having so much fun with my own sempervivums (see my little mint box and picture frame) that I am thrilled to share this news: Arrowhead Alpines is offering to send one lucky person (in the U.S. who is at least 18 years old) six of their very own named sempervivum varieties. Keep [...]

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Mint Tin Turned Mini Garden

April 1, 2012
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If you’ve ordered a bunch of sempervivums from Arrowhead Alpines like I did, you need lots of things to do with all those little babies semps make. This was a totally fun and super easy little garden to make. I used a mint tin that I purchased at Trader Joe’s but if you’ve got an [...]

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How to Make a Succulent Sempervivum (Hens & Chicks) Frame

March 25, 2012
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This past Saturday I did a demonstration at the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show on vertical gardening. One of the things I demonstrated was how to make a succulent photo frame. As promised, here are the step-by-step instructions for those of you who weren’t able to make it to the show…

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Sempervivum Sweet Sixteen

March 22, 2012
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In honor of the NCAA’s Sweet Sixteen which begins today, I thought we container gardeners could have a sweet sixteen competition of our own. A SEMPERVIVUM Sweet Sixteen. We’re going to have brackets just like the NCAA tournament, except our brackets will pit different varieties of Sempervivum against one another. You all will vote for [...]

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Succulent Frame Made With Sempervivums

March 20, 2012
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If you’re a fan of Life on the Balcony’s Facebook page then you probably know that I recently bought some neat sempervivums from Arrowhead Alpine Nursery. I have several projects in mind for these succulents, but the first is this photo frame, filled with little semps. I am going to be a horrible tease though, [...]

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Wormalicious Giveaway!

March 19, 2012
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UPDATE: Congratulations Anna, you’re the winner! Now that I have my own worms composting away on my balcony, I think everyone (okay, “almost” everyone) should have worms composting their food scraps and junk mail too. Just call me your friendly vermivangelist. Get it? OK. Sorry for all the bad worm jokes these past few posts. [...]

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1000 Red Wigglers Are Doing Their Thing in My Worm Factory 360

March 16, 2012
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In addition to receiving Amy Stewart’s book, The Earth Moved, I also received a Worm Factory 360 to review. Now you know why her book re-launch is to blame for the fact that I own so many Red Wiggler worms. I have to say, it is incredibly fun to share worm facts (I have been [...]

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