Daily Gardening Tips
From eagle-rock.org
- All these tips and more first appeared on this Facebook page
May 2012
Day Topic Tip Photo Photo caption More 22 Some general pruning rules These tips come from a book written in 1910 (link below) but the rules are still valid. For [most fruit trees] a pyramidal form will be desirable. To secure this, four or five side branches with three or four buds each, should be allowed to grow and the center shoot should be cut off at a height of 10 to 12 inches. After growth has started, the trees should be occasionally examined and all surplus shoots removed, thus throwing the full vigor of the plant into those that remain. 
For most fruit trees a pyramidal form will be desirable. Pruning 21 Common water-crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis) This plant grows well in our pond. I found this plant in nature. The flowers are 7 to 20 mm. This plant adds oxygen to the water, an advantage when you have fish in your pond. Both the leaves under and on the water can be eaten fresh or dried. 
White cabbage just planted Common water-crowfoot 20 Planting cabbage and giving extras Today i planted white cabbage plants. They were pre-sown in the greenhouse. Cabbage can suffer from infections by a single-celled organism called Plasmodiophora. The disease is called clubroot and can affect species of the mustard family, Cruciferae, such as cabbages, radishes and turnips. Clubroot causes tumors in the roots and can block growth of the plant and even cause death. Clubroot can easily be prevented by adding a handful of agricultural lime to the planting hole. I always dig a hole some 50 cm deep and fill that with a half a bucket of compost, a handful of lime, a handful of bentonite and a handful of lava dust. The organism that causes clubfoot doesn't like lime, but cabbages do. Originally cabbages come from a wild species that grows at beaches near seas and oceans. 
White cabbage just planted White cabbage 19 Planting pumpkin on the compost heap The danger for night frost is over so time to plant out warmth-loving crops. I have this big compost heap that i don't need to use in the coming season. It's the perfect place for growing pumpkins and similar plants such as cucumber and melon. So i planted two pumpkin plants on the south slope of the compost heap. Pumpkins and cucumbers and melons belong to the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae) and they all like much sun and a humus-rich soil with lots of nutrients. Just one pumpkin or cucumber plant can either give you a big harvest or entirely disappoint you when the conditions or the weather aren't right. 
1 - Pumpkin plant (Uchiki kuri), 2 - Chard, 3 - Lettuce, 4 - Barley, 5 - Calendula. 2/5 grew by themselves from seeds that were in the compost heap. Pumpkin 18 Companion plants onions and carrots Carrots can be affected by carrot flies. Crop damage is caused by the up to 10 mm long larvae (maggots) feeding on the outer layers of the carrot root. Onions can be affected by onion flies which resemble houseflies. They lay their eggs in groups on the shoots, leaves and bulbs of host plants and on the ground nearby. The larvae create large cavities in bulbs. But onion flies don't seem to like the smell of carrots and carrot flies don't like onions. So onions and carrots make perfect companion plants. I always plant bulb onions in the lines of carrot seeds, each one or two hand widths an onion. I've never had problems with either carrot flies or onion flies but heard of many gardeners who had this problem. This method also has the advantage that you can see where you sowed the carrots. Carrots take long to germinate but bulb onions sprout fast. 
The photo shows another method of planting onions and carrots together. Carrot & Onion 17 Sorrel Dock leaves or sorrel leaves (Rumex) are a traditional remedy for nettle stings. Dock leaves are edible too. 
A gardener's cultivar of sorrel Rumex
