#AsAGardenerYou

Have been seen in your garden in your pajamas & rubber clogs.

Can never ever account for all your trowels or pairs of snippers.


Take pictures of your compost bucket and post the pic to Twitter & Instagram nstagr.am/p/MLyBb1uEEH/  @DirtandMartinis

Know you will be participating in #gardenchat every Monday night 9-10 p.m. ET, right @BG_garden 

Find great satisfaction in crushing Japanese beetles, lily beetles, slugs and snails.

Family knows to check the garden before filing a missing person's report.Tiffany @songbirdtiff 

Can be found at night, roaming your garden with a flashlight and a container of salt, for slugs.


Are delighted in having a Full compost bowl on your kitchen counter.

Regularly check for local nursery and mail order nursery sales.

With each year, your lawn area gets considerably smaller.

Purchase carloads of plants are without particular planting spots in mind.


Know Annie @GreenSoil makes· MooPoo in California.

Plan vacation trips around the locations of botanical gardens, nurseries, arboreta and garden tours.

Always carry a shovel, plastic bags and bottled water in your trunk -as emergency tools.

Appreciate your Master Gardener badge more than your jewelry.

Try to sneak home a 7 foot Japanese Maple and wonder if your spouse will notice.

Would rather shop in a nursery than a clothing store.

Take or send every single person who enters your house on a “garden tour.”

Randomly pull weeds wherever you go.

Look at your child’s sandbox and see a raised bed garden.

Cruise the neighborhood looking for things to use in your garden

Ask for @coronatools for Christmas, Mother/Father’s day, Birthday and any other occasion you can think of.

Brake for tantalizing garden vignettes, hidden garden views, and Plant Sales.

Name garden beds after the people whose plants fill them.

Cannot look at a given plant in your garden without thinking of who gave it to you or told you about it.

Are frequently mistaken for a staff member by other nursery shoppers.

You randomly pull weeds wherever you go.

Go out ‘with the guys’ for some beers and find yourself dead-heading the geraniums in the beer garden while your friends try flirting with the waitress.

Are on a first name basis with staff from at least 6 nurseries.

Can be found reading or writing about Gardening if..

1- it is too hot to garden
2- it is too rainy to garden
3-it is too cold to garden

Easy Healthy #Herbchat Rosemary Cheese Drop Biscuits

Bisquick a Southern staple have switched to HeartSmart

Ingredients
2 TS fresh rosemary
1.5 cups HeartSmart

1/2 cup of fat free milk
1/2 cup reduced fat cheese

 Mix milk & HeartSmart just a little, fork should stand up by itself

 Mix in rosemary & cheese

 Drop on lightly greased cookie sheet

Bake @ 450 till golden brown 8 to 12 minutes

Baking for 5 minutes 

 Done

Ready to go to tonight's family dinner

Total prep & bake time less than 20 minutes

3 Weight Watcher's points per biscuit

Easy Southern Sweet Chili

Pour into crock pot
1-can tomato soup
1-can water
1-can pork & beans
1-can diced  tomatoes
1-can red kidney beans
1/2 onion
1lb. ground beef or turkey
Cook on high for 4 hours

Enjoy!!

United States Department of Agriculture Tips for Watering your Lawn and Garden

Plants use approximately 1 inch of water from the soil each week during the summer growing season.  Therefore, this amount needs to be replenished for plants to continue to grow and thrive. Depending on where we live, nature takes care of this for us by providing rain and we supplement with additional water as needed.
Watering is a delicate balance for gardens.  Too little water causes plants to wilt and die.  Too much water means the plant cannot breathe; this can cause rotting and make the plant susceptible diseases.

Tip #1: Create a weekly watering plan.

Step 1: Decide how often you want to water.  1 or 2 times per week is recommended unless you

have very sandy soil or live in a very hot climate.

Step 2: Decide what method you will use to water (hose, watering can, sprinkler, drip irrigation, etc). 

Methods that apply water similar to a light rainfall are the most efficient because the water is more

easily absorbed by the soil and there will be less runoff, therefore using a hose with no attachment is

not recommended.

Step 3: Before watering according to your schedule, check if rain is scheduled for that day or the

next.  You might consider waiting to see if nature will do your watering for you.  If the rain is not

adequate, fill in the gaps yourself.

Tip #2: Monitor the rainfall in your lawn/garden and subtract that amount of water from your

weekly watering plan.  The best way to get this information is to measure it yourself, but you can

also find this information through the National Weather Service.  You can measure it yourself by

following the instructions below:

Step 1: Place a household pan or cup with straight sides (not sloping) outside near your lawn/garden

where it won’t be knocked over.

Step 2: Within 12 hours after each rainfall ends, take a ruler, stick it vertically into the rain collection

dish and measure the depth of water.  That is the approximate amount of rainfall which occurred.

Watering Suggestions to Provide 1 Inch of Water Each Week:

Watering Can:  Once Per Week:   ½ gallon of water per square foot of garden

 Twice Per Week:  ¼ gallon of water per square foot of garden

Sprinkler System: Once Per Week:   4 hours of water per reach of sprinkler

 Twice Per Week:  2 hour of water per reach of sprinkler

Hose Sprinkler:  Once Per Week:   2 hours of water per reach of sprinkler

Twice Per Week:  1 hour of water per reach of sprinkler

  

Updating Common Gardening Myths

MONICA BRANDIES

Coleus is a wonderful annual for the warm months.

As diligent as you might be about heeding all the gardening tips you've
heard over the years, are there some where you simply question their value?
You wonder if maybe grandma's advice really was the best? Or maybe
|has become outdated?

The National Garden Bureau did. So, the group turned to its members and
asked for their professional expertise on a few commonly cited garden tips
 to find out if they were still applicable in today's gardening world.

Here is the latest update.

Myth: To get sweeter tomatoes, add sugar to the planting hole.

Busted!

Sorry grandma, this is not true. Tomato plants can't absorb sugar in the soil,
 they produce it through photosynthesis. The sugar content of a variety is
 predetermined in the plant's genetics.

Myth: Perennials won't bloom the first year, especially bare root.

Half-busted!

With modern breeding and growing techniques, this is no longer true. In Florida,
we can buy perennials such as pentas, angelonias or periwinkles already in
 bloom, and they just continue. However, if you buy a potted perennial that
requires over wintering, then you will have to wait through the first winter to
|get the desired blooms. It's best to inquire from the seller to find out what to
expect that first season after planting. I have some shasta daisies with wonderful
spreading foliage, but they haven't bloomed yet. I am hoping I don't have to wait
as long as winter.

Myth: Pinch off all blooms of annual bedding plants before planting.

Busted!

In many cases, pinching is no longer an absolute must because today's commonly
 available bedding plants are bred to be more compact with continuous blooms.
So, you don't need the pinch to manage growth or promote another flush of blooms.

Myth: Add chalk or egg shells to the planting hole.

True.

This is a good tip, as both of these items will help prevent blossom end rot in
tomatoes, because they provide calcium to the fruit. Because egg shells take
 a while to decompose, crush or grind the shells to enable them to dissolve f
aster.

Myth: Putting egg shell flakes around the base of plants will prevent slug
amage.

True.

Yes, grandma was right: Slugs do not like to crawl over the jagged surface
|of sharp eggshells, so putting down a barrier of crushed (not ground too finely)
egg shells is a great deterrent.

Founded in 1920, the National Garden Bureau is a nonprofit organization whose
|mission is to disseminate basic instructions for home gardeners. I used to work
for them; another job I loved.

* * * * *

Today's pick: Coleus has always been a wonderful annual for all of the warm
 months in Florida and has been considered a shade plant, but there are some
new varieties that will take full sun if they have enough water. All of them root
easily and stay nice until winter cold. If cuttings are taken before that, they will last
all winter indoors and can be started anew when the cold is past. Most growers cut
off the flowers to put more energy into the foliage, but sometimes the flowers are
decorative as well.

* * * * *

Now's the time to bring up something else new. Planting tomatoes in a trench or
up to the first true leaves promotes a sturdier plant. Planting deeply does help
elongate the rooting area because any point on the stem that comes into contact
 with the soil will root. The exception is when planting grafted tomatoes, because
 if the top work scion takes root it will negate the benefits of the grafted rootstock;
 so never plant a grafted tomato too deeply.

OK. I didn't even know there were grafted tomatoes until this sent me to research.
So far, they are used mostly in commercial greenhouses, but they may soon be
on the market for home growers and are said to have improved vigor, production
and disease resistance.

Be ready. There is always something new to learn about gardening.

By TBO.COM | Staff 
Published: July 04, 2012

Monica Brandies is an experienced gardener, author and freelance writer
who can be reached at monicabrandies@yahoo.com. Her website is
www.gardensflorida .com.