With the spring gardening season beginning, imaginations run wild with gardening possibilities. Some gardeners may ponder the complexities of an age-old practice that is regaining popularity in recent years – companion planting. How do certain combinations of plants benefit from being planted alongside each other, yet other combinations seem to struggle? Uncover the secrets of companion planting and unlock the full potential of the garden. Join this journey of discovery and learn the art of...
As dormant plants slowly extend bright green limbs from under a blanket of soil, garden enthusiasts thumb plant catalogs in eager anticipation of another growing season. Are you making plans for your bountiful garden? It may be cold outside, but spring fever has hit many gardeners – including this one! Begin the much-anticipated season with the 21st annual Home, Lawn, and Garden Day, brought to you by the Illinois Extension McLean County Master Gardeners.
Keynote speaker Melinda Myers is a...
In late spring, a gardener walks out to their vegetable garden ready to collect a harvest, only to discover shot holes through kale and bites taken out of cabbages – even the tomatoes suffered, with many plants nursing broken stems. As the gardener returns to the kitchen, excitement for the morning harvest ends in disappointment.
Many vegetable gardeners and farmers experience the disappointment of pests pillaging a garden. Deer and rabbits consume tops off fruiting vegetables while cabbage...
When the garden harvest has matured, the work has not stopped. In North Normal, a harvest of potatoes and onions is ending but the storage preparation has just begun. If your home harvest is happening now, don’t let poor handling rot the product of your hard-earned gardening season. Follow these simple steps to prepare your vegetables for short and long-term storage.
Harvesting
The first step to storing produce is harvesting healthy produce with clean tools. This helps vegetables store...
Summer is in full swing and your gardens are planted, but there is still one bare spot in the shade. In a vegetable garden, shade is a predicament. Have no fear – food will grow here! Plant some leafy greens and lettuces in these spots and feast on many summer salads.
The more popular things to grow in your summer garden such as tomato, pepper, zucchini and others indeed will not grow well without at least 8 hours sun. On the other hand, spinach, arugula, all types of kale, Swiss chard, and...
When home gardens are bursting with an overabundance of fresh produce, growers start looking for ways to share their bounty. Backyard gardeners can help feed their community by donating fruits and vegetables to local food pantries.
Growers planning on donating to food distribution centers can take steps, even before they plant, to ensure they are providing safe, useable produce.
Connect with your local food pantry
Donating garden crops starts with connecting with a local food pantry. Donors...
In late May and early June, folks worry it is too late to plant warm-season crops like tomatoes and peppers. Plant now, the timing is perfect for rapid root establishment and healthy plant growth.
With an average high of 76ºF and an average low of 55ºF, chilly nights (temperatures less than 50ºF) no longer threaten to stunt plant growth. If proper planting time is paired with regular watering, and proper training and pruning, plant vitality will be strong, and fruit set heavy.
Here is the...
Your ambition to start your summer vegetable garden is stunting your tomato and pepper plants.
This Sunday, let Mom distract you from the gardening itch.
She is worth the time and your warm-season plants will thank you for waiting.
I learned this lesson personally last year. I transplanted tomatoes and peppers on May 15, May 22 and May 31; then, I witnessed the May 31 planting surpass earlier plantings. Later planted transplants benefit from higher average temperatures. The average last...
Do you grow peppers and tomatoes every year? Are you ready to try something different (or maybe in addition to!) the same-old, same-old? Then you should try growing onions this gardening season. With just 30 square feet of planting area, you could grow the bulk of the onions you cook with this year.
If you read my recent article on how to grow potatoes...
Cultivating a love and knowledge of gardening in youth can be a rewarding experience for all. A garden offers a place to learn, play, and grow through hands-on experience in the freedom of their own backyard. Kids LOVE to dig in the soil and get their hands & feet (or even head to toes!) dirty. Many of the gardeners today share memories of gardening at a young age with a parent or grandparent.
Through gardening, youth can practice and learn many new and important skills that will last a...
It’s almost gardening time! My family’s garden starts on April 1 with the planting of potatoes and onions. If you’ve never grown potatoes in your garden, try something different this year. Here are some helpful steps to achieve a successful crop of potatoes this year.
Seed Potatoes
When you get your seed potatoes from the garden center or seed supplier, they’ll be whole potatoes with tiny growths called “eyelets. Cut seed potatoes into quarters 6 to 10 days before the desired planting date....
It’s that time of year again… time to plant your tomatoes and peppers and get your summer garden going! Most gardeners have grown these before, but with a few tips and tricks, you can decrease disease prevalence, increase plant health and get a better harvest. One tip: prune them both!
It is recommended to prune your tomato and pepper plants at planting and during establishment, and depending on variety, throughout the harvest season as well. Of course, pruning practices differ between the two...
Do you struggle with weed control in the spring before planting your summer garden? Does your garden lose topsoil after a heavy rain due to slope? Would you like to improve soil structure and add organic matter to your garden?
Backyard cover cropping is for you!
At the time of writing this, our mix of spring cover crops - field peas, oats, and clover - are coming up nicely at the Unity Community Center in Normal, Ill. I broadcast-seeded just before the last bout of rains and...
Every gardener should be thinking about growing their own greens in the spring. They are easy to grow, have large harvests, and taste best when grown in slightly cooler weather. The plants should be grown in full sun beds or containers.
Kale is a cool-weather crop that is beloved for its large textured leaves. Transplants can be planted in the garden three to four weeks before the last frost date in the spring (April 10 in central Illinois). Kale grows three to four feet tall. Space plants...
Originally published by Kelly Allsup on February 19, 2021.
Who would have known seeds would be the latest craze in 2021? Many seed companies are finding it hard to keep up with the demand and are out of stock or delayed in delivery. If you haven’t ordered your seeds, don’t fret, some are still available and your garden centers will not let you down on offering the average fare.
Coming from a greenhouse background, I have mostly bought vegetable transplants to start my garden. It was...
Believe it or not, it's never too early to start making plans for this year's garden. Knowing when to plant for your area and getting your plants started right will help you maximize the growing season.
When to grow?
Planting dates are determined two things: the first and last frost dates where you grow, and how much time it takes for a crop to mature. Always check the plant tag or seed packet for the recommended date.
Cool-Season Vegetables: These crops grow and develop...
Patio containers will grow food and boast hues of silver and white, and I think we may even see gardeners experimenting with growing sweet potato vine towers.
Long gone are the acre gardens with rows and rows of vegetables. The current gardeners are growing their food in patio pots, garden bags, raised beds, buckets or anything that holds a moderate amount of soil. This gardener has had great success with spinach, Swiss chard, beets, kohlrabi, eggplant, peppers, carrots, radishes, and a...
Garlic is a garden favorite because it is so commonly used in our culinary world. Like many crops, fresh garlic grown in the home garden surpasses anything bought at the grocery store. It is a long season crop, planted in the fall and harvested in the summer. A cold period is required for garlic to produce bulbs.
Types of Garlic
There are two types of garlic: softneck and hardneck. Hardneck garlic has better flavor, produces a hard stalk known as a scape (flower) and is recommended for...
Connie Kostelc has been a Master Gardener volunteer for University of Illinois Extension in Livingston County for the last 22 years. When gardening for edible plants, Connie uses the French intensive raised bed method.
Connie says the look of a French Intensive raised bed garden is different than the conventional raised bed garden. Conventional raised bed gardens use wood boards placed above the ground a foot or two high and filled with soil or compost from an outside source. In a French...
1. Adding eggshells when planting tomatoes adds calcium and prevents blossom end rot. Fiction.
Eggshells add very little immediate calcium to the plant.
Any composter who has added eggshells to their pile know that it takes several months, often more than a year, for eggshells to break down. And that means they are not adding calcium to the plant. Rather, eggshells should be ground or boiled to make the calcium more available faster. Make a solution by boiling four to five shells per plant....
For the last two years, I have been gardening in five-gallon buckets. A team of Extension colleagues from the Horticulture and Nutrition programs are teaching area residents who do not have access to garden space how to grow and their own herbs and veggies. The ‘Garden in a Bucket’ outreach has already reached hundreds of people in McLean, Livingston, and Woodford counties.
Like some of our bucket gardeners, I had no access to garden space for several years, but a strong desire to grow. This...
In the heat of summer’s end, vegetable gardeners are often drained by the weeding and watering routine, and ready to put the garden to bed.
But fall provides a more comfortable environment and some of the most productive gardening of the year when vegetables are planted in late summer and mature in the cool temperatures of fall. Fall vegetables require less watering, and sustain less insect and weed pressure.
At this time of year, think root crops, brassica transplants, and leafy greens....
This week’s gardening task includes planting sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes may be a long crop (4-5 months) but with a gardener’s care, one can have poundage of storable food.
Sweet potatoes, a tropical plant, usually need four to five months of warm day and night temperatures for optimal growth. Sweet potatoes are planted in late spring when weather warms. Sweet potato slips (shoots of mature potato) are planted in loose soil.
Chris Enroth, Extension horticulture educator, explains his...
Tomato plants are warm-season vegetables that should be planted after the danger of frost. For our area that means early to mid-May. Hopefully no one planted theirs before last weekend’s cold snap! Here are some steps to remember when growing your newly planted crop.
1. The first question you should ask is “Are these determinate or indeterminate plants?” Each has different requirements.
Determinate (bush) varieties produce fruit on their growing tips, stopping production once the fruit has...
Looking back, we may realize this was the year we had a surge in cultivating new gardeners and nature enthusiasts.
While most of my readers already garden and are looking for new tips and interesting information, we likely have brand new gardeners who can do without technical jargon and nuanced garden issues! Back to the basics!
Below are a few tips to be a successful new gardener.
Start small! Transforming the whole back yard into vegetables and flowers may be the end goal, but it can be...
In the last article, we talked about starting seeds indoor with limited resources. A lot of seed can be started outdoors during the month of April.
Carrots can be planted by seed starting April 10. Carrot seed is so small that inevitably you must thin your seedlings, which can be quite a tedious task. My advice is to mix the seed with soil or sand to spread the seed more evenly. When you do thin or clip tops with a pair of scissors, use the seedlings in a fresh pesto or soup. Be patient as...
Whether you have a young person at home for school closures, or are just young at heart yourself, experimenting with kitchen scraps can turn into a bountiful garden to enjoy again. Skip the compost bucket or garbage can, and re-grow your leftover veggies and fruits for beautiful houseplants and garden additions.
Kitchen scrap gardening reinforces the concepts of recycling and reusing, and learning plant parts.
The following fruits and vegetables are examples of plants that can be grown again...
Free time on your hands? Avoiding social spaces, but need some time outside?
First, remember that just because you're outside, the virus can still spread. If you're working with more than one person:
Maintain minimum distance of six (6) feet between you and others in the area.
Do not take part in strenuous work that requires more than one person.
No sharing of treats, snacks, or water. Everyone needs to provide their own water to stay hydrated!
Bring your own garden tools and buckets....
‘Tis the season for the garden seed catalogues. If you are like me, you are perusing through these catalogues that advertise 15 varieties of watermelon, 50 varieties of peppers, and even more tomato varieties to choose from. They all look amazing and are all claiming “vigorous!” “great flavor!” and “disease resistance!” So which one do you choose?
My solution is to ask an expert who has been gardening for decades. Chuck Voigt, now retired, was an academic at the University of Illinois Urbana-...
Originally published by Kelly Allsup on February 11, 2020.
When do I plant? Should I plant seeds or transplants? What about seed spacing? Find what works best for backyard vegetable growers in Central Illinois!
Vegetable Seed/ Transplant Spacing
Asparagus
Crowns (roots)
Place Crowns 12-18 inches apart, 6 inches deep, spread roots and cover crown bud with 2 inches of soil...
Originally published by Kelly Allsup on February 11, 2020.
Asparagus goes great with hollandaise sauce, has a nutty flavor when eaten raw (wash it first, and cut off the lower third), and is always a welcome treat at a restaurant. With a little patience and some planning, you can grow loads of asparagus each spring.
Growing Requirements
Full sun is required.
Poor drainage in your asparagus patch will promote disease issues in the roots.
Some growers emphasize the...
