Try a Mortgage Lifter Tomato in 2024 From Master Gardener David Wall
January 7, 2024 – If you’re looking for a “different” large (as in huge!) tomato with great flavor, then perhaps the Mortgage Lifter is a plant you should consider. It’s an indeterminate, open-pollinated, heirloom tomato producing fruit weighing up to 2.5 pound that will produce until frost! The plant has a pinkish-red beefsteak-shaped fruit that has few seeds. Maturity occurs in 80-85 days. The plant can grow as large as...
Garden Seeds for Your 2024 Garden From Master Gardener David Wall
December 31, 2023 – It’s time to start thinking about what vegetables, herbs, and flowers you want to grow in 2024. Do you want basics, exotics, heirlooms, hybrids, organics or combinations of these? Let’s start with the basics of onions, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and okra. Where will you get seeds? This can be very simple or as complicated as you want. On the simple side, go to your local nursery,...
What is Beeswax From Master Gardener David Wall
December 29, 2023 – Beeswax. What is it? How is it made? Well, we start with a beehive. The hive is built from nothing, and when constructed, serves as a home, a giant food storehouse, and a nursery. All three items are built from beeswax. So, what is it and how is it made? Basically, it’s a wax made (secreted) by eight honeybee abdomen glands and produced in scale...
Honey Facts From Master Gardener David Wall
December 24, 2023 – Honey contains 64 calories per tablespoon including 17.25 grams of sugar: much better sugar for you than table sugar, but sugar nevertheless. We all know that honey is good for us if sugar isn’t a problem, but did you also know: Honey contains substances to help your brain to work better. Honey by itself can sustain human life. One spoonful of it will provide sustenance for 24 hours. It...
Frankincense and Myrrh for Christmas From Master Gardener David Wall
December 17, 2023 – We all know the story of the Magi bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh to Joseph, Mary and Jesus, but there was always the question of what was it, and why was it so important to warrant giving to the Christ child. Further, why has it been traded as an object of value for thousands of years. Frankincense is tree sap or resin that comes from multiple trees in the Boswellia genus. Trees are tapped,...
Forestry and Survival From Master Gardener David Wall
December 11, 2023 – Forestry and survival have been linked together since the beginning of time. Wood for spears, bows, shields and barriers against enemies, were common even in ancient of times. Wood for rifles, cannons, heat for cooking and hundreds of other uses helped make it possible for us to defeat England and become the start of a great nation. Wood for ships was paramount to early naval support. Such support has...
Try a Winter Garden THIS Winter From Master Gardener David Wall
December 3, 2023 – Most gardeners go hot and heavy from garden prep as early as January to seed start in February or early March through transplanting in spring right on to takedown after the first fall frost. The thought of growing crops through the winter just doesn’t compute! But on the other hand, if it were really, really easy, why not consider it? As it turns out, you can have winter crops and perhaps two sessions before...
Another Good Shade Tree for 2024 From Master Gardener David Wall
There are many great deciduous shade trees for yards. Both red and white oaks, for example, will grow straight and true. Red oaks tend to grow faster. There are several other nice shade trees, but one forwhich you’ve hear very little is the Tulip Tree. The Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) is native to eastern North America and gets its common name for its tulip-like flowers. It’s also called canoe...
This and That for November 2023 From Master Gardener David Wall
Please consider buying your honey from locally-based bee keepers. Why? Because a lot of the honey in grocery store may not be real. In some cases, jars contain little or no real honey. In fact, honey is one ofthe most falsified foods available. Even though the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a honey grading system so you can know honey quality, there’s no enforcement system, so producers can put whatever they...
Prescribed Burns From Master Gardener David Wall
As dry weather and forest fuel buildup continue, please consider a prescribed fire or burn, which is any fire purposely set to improve the land in some way. They may be started to reduce fuel buildups, such asbrush, dead leaves or logs on the ground, or to help restore overall health of the land’s ecosystem. A prescribed burn, for instance, might be conducted to prevent a major forest fire from occurring at a latertime. Prescribed...
