Diatomaceous Earth to Get Rid of Pests By David Wall
An easy, safe, and effective ways to prevent garden pest outbreaks and prevent them from starting, is to use food grade diatomaceous earth (DE). It’s harmless to humans and safe for animals. The pest list thatDE is effective on is long, while the time to control is short. It’s a jack of all trades and master of all of them. For those unaware, DE is fossilized algae in powder form. The fossils were tiny...
Pruning Tomato And Pepper Plants By David Wall
Many have never heard of pruning tomato plants except for those pesky secondary branches and the central stem top a month before frost to force the plant into ripening the final fruit. Now, we’re learningthere’s more to do. For tomato plants, is pruning necessary? For determinate plants, the answer is usually no. They produce a crop and are finished by late July to early August, so why bother. For determinate...
This And That For June 2023 By David Wall
Water availability will continue to be a problem now and in the future. You can help by storing rain water, saving bath water wasted by running until the water gets warm, drip garden irrigation, saving the water from boiling vegetables which contains nutrients plants will love, enlarging ponds when they are very low, and so many more ways. In the NETSEO area, there are probably several hundred thousand gardens. If each of us could...
Should You Prune Cucumber Plants? By David Wall
We’ve discussed pruning tomato and pepper plants, but the literature suggests you should consider pruning cucumber plants. Yes, it seems weird, but better results can be obtained by pruning. The problem is most of us never heard of such pruning. So, how can pruning help? If growing bush cucumber plants, you can probably forget this article. They grow very little laterally, so there’s little to be gained by pruning. Also, if you allow...
Growing Cucumbers In Containers By David Wall
If you don’t feel you have enough garden space to grow cucumbers, consider growing them in containers. It’s easy and you can get a really good crop of this second most popular vegetable after tomatoes (which can also be grown in containers). Since cucumbers have a smaller root structure than many vegetables, there is little worry about them becoming root-bound in the container. Your first requirement is 6-8 hours of...
A Potential Danger In Sweeteners By David Wall
For so many of us, especially for diabetics, it’s important to check the sugar content in products. We normally think “no sugar,” “less sugar,” or “lite” must be better for us, and in most instances, such is smart thinking. Recently, however, an ingredient often found in regular or no-sugar products has been found to be unwanted, an in some case, perhaps downright dangerous. Some years back, I wrote an article about artificial...
This and That for July 2025 From Master Gardener David Wall
July 1, 2025 – Clip, store and hang on to this for use in 2026. Unless you’re eating organic bread, you’re consuming glyphosate, the key ingredient in roundup. While wheat may not be GMO ready, roundup will probably be sprayed on the crop to ensure the entire crop dies at the same time. Water used in soaking beans can be used as fertilizer. The water used in soaking onions can be a useful pesticide and as a nutrient solution for...
Pruning Tomato Plants From Master Gardener David Wall
June 15, 2025 – If you’re growing determinate tomatoes, disregard this article, other than to say when determinate finish producing, have more plants ready to take their place! It’s also not about pruning sucker limbs which you should already be doing. It’s not about keeping the bottom 12-24” fee of limbs for air circulation. Rather, it’s about keeping growth in check to provide the best and most fruit as well as maintaining...
This and That for June 2025 From Master Gardener David Wall
June 2, 2025 – Growing cucumbers and tomatoes? Assuming you haven’t already done so, it’s not too late to plant sunflowers right next to them that will grow to 6-8’ tall (12-14’ tall sunflowers re a wee bit much!). Both have similar soil requirements, and your vegetable fruits results are sweeter. Also, the sunflowers are a great trap crop as many insects prefer the sunflower over the cucumber and tomato! Plants can hear water...
This and That for May 2025 From Master Gardener David Wall
Raw onions are delicious but can really can cause strong odors in the house and on your breath. Soak the slices or chopped pieces in ice water for 10 minutes, then drain. The onion flavor will stay without the strong odor. Diluting bleach with water is great for cleaning garden tools. Vinegar is great for removing rust from tools. Beer is a great fertilizer for garden plants, but use it sparingly. Too much...
