The Kitchen Garden

Growing fresh, healthy salads is something that most kitchen gardeners aspire to do, but this can get challenging as the weather turns warmer. Lettuce in particular can be challenging to grow (above 28-30 °C) because it tends to germinate poorly when the temperatures increase and bolt to form seed. The lettuce leaves also tend to become bitter prematurely, which makes them unappealing. While certain lettuce varieties may allow you to enjoy a longer growing season because of their heat tolerance, it makes sense to look for other (equally enjoyable) options for your salad. Several other leafy greens are equally tasty, and nutritious while growing more...

Many gardeners have trouble with transplanting (especially in warmer climates) and lose their carefully raised seedlings to transplant shock. While some amount of shock is inevitable at the time of transplanting (roots being disturbed and a change in conditions that the seedling is accustomed to), you can dramatically improve the survival rate by taking some precautions – both before and after the actual transplanting… Here are some guidelines on how you can ensure a survival rate of 80-90% for even really warm climates – by reducing the shock that the seedlings experience. 1. Raising healthier vegetable seedlings – yourself.  Good...

Soil management is probably the most important aspect of an organic or natural gardening approach, but figuring out how to get it right for your pot/container/grow-bag garden is probably even more important. In most cities, getting garden soil means going to the nursery – but we aren’t really sure what goes in to some of the garden mixes available commercially. Also, soils in containers degrade over time as erosion due to excess water, direct sunlight and nutrition uptake of the plants take their toll. But one thing is certain – when you get the soil mix right, the results are...