Every year the Atlanta botanical garden brings to their visitors the best Bloom exhibition of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and crocuses. Featuring a quarter – million flowers of different colors, shapes and fragrances. I visited yesterday and I truly recommended for a nice family weekend!
Here are some pictures of the gardens and some inspiration for planters.
I hope you enjoy!
Spring is here! The time when your berries, grapes, peaches, nectarines, plums, apples and pears need to be fertilized!
I always use at my personal and clients homes E.B stones Organics. They have an awesome organic fertilizer for Fruit, berry and vines. This fertilizer is a blend of organic ingredients delivered from blood meal, feather meal, bone meal, dried chicken manure, bat guano, alfalfa meal, kelp meal and potassium sulfate. Also and most importantly has Humic acids, good bacteria and endo mycorrhizae.
On my established apples, plums and peaches, I wait for them to have the first buds coming and then I fertilize them. I work the soils around them about 4 feet diameter and mix the product with the soil. Then I water.
For my strawberries, just work the soil around and place 1 TBS of the product per plant and then water.
Instructions are different for all plants and age of plants, so even if the product is organic, please read the instructions carefully and use it as directed.
Our ORGANIC gardens are highlighted in magazines and our gardening tips are published year around! For the last couple of months I have been writing tips and advices for home gardeners for the Atlanta Home Improvement magazine. This week I have been asked to participate on another editorial opportunity for Mom.me about Garden Fruits and Vegetables!! I will update this note as soon as I have the link for Mom.me
How to plant Onions?
(This is me last year, with lots of vegetables…including my old radish jejejeje)
Last year, we started our first Vegetable plot in our neighborhood church with full sun. We have had 2 plots with about 3 hours of sun in our backyard for over 3 years (shade its limitation for higher yield). At our new plot, so far it has been an amazing experience. We planted, garlic, onions, green onions, carrots, kale, purple kale, radish, beet root and broccoli.
We have harvested lots, lots and lots of both kales, some carrots and 1 thousand radish!!
TIP #1: Radish grows very, very fast and all its ready at the same time, so plant according to your needs!
TIP #2: Fertilize your plot at least once a month with organic fertilizer. (Our carrots are still small and we planted them in October)
Hereby are 2 videos that I made today, enjoy:
How to plant Onions? http://youtu.be/0OH3DudIUz8
How to harvest carrots? http://youtu.be/sioxOxwfKGI
Thank you for visiting, your comments and tips are VERY appreciated!
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Feb. 10. 2013.
For the first time, I am going to try to grow papaya tree in my backyard. When I was about 8 years old my grandpa showed me how easy it was. So here I am doing it once again after 28 years. I hope the weather allows me to see at least a couple of delicious papayas! I am drying the seeds to plant them during the weekend indoors. Please visit my blog later in summer to see how it goes 
Procedure:
1. Select a delicious and sweet organic papaya. I selected a small variety USA grown papaya.
2. Cut it in half and pick seeds from the center of the fruit.
3. Place the seeds over a piece of napkin to dry them for about 5 days.
To be continuing…
Feb.23.2013
Finally, last weekend I planted the seeds on the soil. I used organic seed starter soil which I found at Pike Nursery.
Procedure:
4. Water the seed starter soil before filling the pots or water it in the pots before planting the seeds. This will prevent the seed to be washed after planting. Let it sit for a few minutes. (When the seed starter soil is dry, it tends to wash off the pot when you water it).
5. With your finger open a hole in the soil. (About 1 inch)
6. Remove your seed from the napkin and drop it into the hole. (With Papaya I do 1 seed per pot)
7. Cover the hole with soil, water it and then place your pots inside until spring. Make sure the soil it’s always moist. Seeds need moist to germinate.
To be continuing…
How to attract birds to my backyard?
When we first moved to Mindtown Atlanta, there were not many birds visiting our abandoned backyard. Nowadays, we are visited for over 30 species during the year. Some are local birds and some are migratory birds.
We basically planted evergreen shrubs such as hollies, aucubas, ligustrums, anise and many others. And most importantly we have 2 birdbaths and 3 water fountains. Water is the key to have many birds in our backyard.
Tip: Place one birdbath with stand close to a tree so the birds can feel protected and they will have a place to clean their feathers. And another one on the floor surrounding by plants such fatsia japonica, a holly tree or azaleas. Birds seem not to like birdbaths without shrubbery around it. Make sure to clean the birdbath at least once a week and refill it with fresh water every other day (even if water its frozen).
Most importantly, please do not apply any pesticides in your garden. If you apply an insect control for example you will kill not only the undesired insect but the beneficial as well, then a bird will eat this insect and then you will be poisoning the bird too.
How Important is Water for Birds?
It is VERY important, birds like other (all) animals, need water to survive. Birds also use
water for bathing, to clean their feathers and remove parasites. Every day we have many birds visiting our backyard’s birdbaths and water fountain. I don’t even have to place bird food anymore, because with water I attract more birds than ever.
Check out the following videos and pictures:
Video:
Pictures of my backyard birds:
Interesting sites:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/Members/BirdNote09–ProvideWater.pdf
http://blog.wbu.com/2012/07/16/how-important-is-water-for-birds/
What to plant in February in your Vegetable Box?
Have you always wonder what to plant during the winter months in Atlanta? You can grow many vegetables that MUST be planted during the cool season. Hereby, you can find some of the vegetables that you can plant in February.
FEBRUARY PLANTING
Vegetable Days to harvest
Asparragus 2 years
Beets 55 – 65 Days
Broccoli 60 – 80 Days
Cabbage 70 – 120 Days
Carrot 70 – 95 Days
Collards 55 – 75 Days
Kale 50 – 70 Days
Lettuce 60 – 85 Days
Mustard 40 – 50 Days
Onion, green 60 – 90 Days
Onion, dry bulb 100 – 120 Days
Peas, Garden (english) 60 – 70 Days
Peas, edible pot 60 – 70 Days
Peas, Southern 60 – 70 Days
Potatoes, Irish 70 – 90 Days
Radish 25 – 30 Days
Spinach 40 – 45 Days
Turnip 40 – 60 Days
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Where do birds sleep?
I am a bird lover and almost every day I take pictures of birds in my backyard. Some are migrating birds and some (many) others are local for my area. Today around 5:30 pm, I saw a downy woodpecker getting inside of a birdhouse, so I started searching online where they sleep. And I found out that they normally have roost holes in trees, where they spend the night. For my surprise, this woodpecker liked our birdhouse. This bird house was the nest for Chickadee family of 4 babies last spring (2012). Hereby is the picture that I took of him and some very interesting sites about where birds like to spend the night.
Downy woodpecker
http://www.wvdnr.gov/wildlife/magazine/Archive/06winter/AvianQuestions.pdf
http://birding.about.com/od/birdbehavior/a/Birds-At-Night.htm
Winter is the perfect season to collect your fireplace ashes either to store them in a save container or use them into your garden. When wood burns, nitrogen and sulfur are lost as gases, and calcium, potassium, magnesium and trace element compounds remain.
“Wood ash has a very fine particle size, so it reacts rapidly and completely in the soil. Although small amounts of nutrients are applied with wood ash, the main effect is that it is a liming agent.” (1) Furthermore, calcium works as soil amendment, helping to maintain chemical balance in the soil and improves water penetration.
Uses:
1. As calcium and Potassium soil amendments
2. Enrich compost, enhance its nutrients by sprinkling in a few ashes to the mix.
3. Block garden pests. Spread evenly around garden beds, ash repels slugs and snails. Salt in the ashes dehydrates these insects.
Calcium and potassium are both essential to plant growth. Hereby, I am listing the symptoms of both deficiencies.
Symptoms of calcium deficiency:
- Necrosis at the tips and margins of young leaves,
- Bulb and fruit abnormalities,
- Deformation of affected leaves,
- Highly branched, short, brown root systems,
- Severe, stunted growth, and
- General chlorosis.
Symptoms of potassium deficiency:
- Yellow and brown spots on leaves
- Leaves drop off
- Smaller and fewer fruits
- Fruits appear deformed or small
BEFORE applying ashes to your plants please keep in mind that too much ash can increase pH or accumulate high levels of salts that can be harmful to some plants, so use ashes carefully. And don’t use it in acid-loving plants such as blueberries, cranberries, rhododendrons and azaleas would not do well at all with an application of wood ash.(1)
1. http://emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/frederick/2004/ashes.htm
Azalea
Camellia Flower bud
Fatsia Flower
Fatsia Flower and flower bud
Hellebore
Holly Berry
Hyacinth emerging
Insect on leaf
Tree Berry
