Companion Planting with Beets

There are many plant companion settings. Plants that help one another out by promoting healthier growth, warding off certain pests, and helping keep the soil's pH at a healthy level for the plants around them. Today we are going to talk a little about using beets as companion plants:

Beets are a great companion plant for Lettuce, Brassicas, Alliums, and Cucumbers (read more about cucumber companion planting). Beets add mineral to the soil which greatly help the before mentioned plants. However, beets should not be planted near runner or pole beans as these types of plants stunt each other's growth.

Beets also make a great container plant. Try using a large round washtub for a container, just be sure to drill holes in the bottom.

What experiences have you head in growing beets in your garden?

Companion Planting with Geraniums

There are many plant companion settings. Plants that help one another out by promoting healthier growth, warding off certain pests, and helping keep the soil's pH at a healthy level for the plants around them. Today we are going to talk a little about using geraniums as companion plants:

 Geraniums help brassicas, tomatoes, grapes, aubergines, roses and peppers by attracting pests such as leaf hoppers and Japanese beetles away from other plants. The Geranium is considered a trap crop when used in this manner.

Keep in mind, when you have your watering can out, that Geraniums do not need much water. In fact if over watered damage that can be hard to reverse will be caused to the plant.

Companion Planting with Alliums

There are many plant companion settings. Plants that help one another out by promoting healthier growth, warding off certain pests, and helping keep the soil's pH at a healthy level for the plants around them. Today we are going to talk a little about using alliums as companion plants:

When planting companion plants together, keep in mind that even plants that help one another in other climates, soil conditions, etc. don't always get along, as we post about companion plants, be sure to always know that each garden will vary slightly from another and what works for some may not work in your garden.

For planting alliums, you might find it easier to use a bulb planter.

First Time Container Gardener

Crystal, one of Red Hill General Store's employees, is trying her hand at gardening. She decided to keep it simple with a container garden and just two varieties of plants.

"Start small, learn from your mistakes, then expand."

She is hoping that this mantra and the fact that she isn't going all out her first year gardening will keep her from getting in over her head. We think she'll be just fine.

For her container, Crystal used a 17 gallon Round Wash Tub.

Her two plants of choice: Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes & Sweet Chocolate Bell Peppers.

Mortgage Lifter Tomato Starter Plants

The Mortgage Lifter Tomato plants that she got at Red Hill General Store in Hillsville, VA are an improved version of 'Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter' tomatoes. These have added disease resistance, a more uniform fruit, they are more red than pink when ripe, and produce a smaller (yet more productive) fruit at 10-14 oz. The Mortgage Lifter Tomato bears fruit until frost. For an interesting history on 'Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter' tomato visit: Tomato Geek.

Sweet Chocolate Bell Pepper Starter Plants

The Sweet Chocolate Bell Pepper is Crystal's experimental plant, while she's always loved tomatoes and definitely enjoys her share of bell peppers, she has never seen or tasted a Sweet Chocolate Bell. This is one pepper that, to Crystal, sounds too delicious to pass up trying to grow on her own.

The Sweet Chocolate Bell Pepper has a sweet flavor, a hint of spiciness, produces a 2 oz., shiny brown, block shaped bell, with 3-or-4 lobes. These peppers can also be harvest in their green stage.

Crystal drilled holes in the bottom of the tub, and put about 1-inch of gravel in the bottom before filling with potting soil. She got the tomatoes and peppers planted just as a huge rainstorm started, so she lucked out on having to water them just yet. She's a little worried that her plants are too close together, but she is going to see what happens. Stakes will come into play as the plants get bigger. And we will keep track of how she is doing and keep you updated on this beginner's container garden. We hope she has a lot of tomatoes to share!

Need ideas for tomatoes? Read: Tomato Use Ideas

How to Keep Birds out of Fruit Trees

Yesterday, our sister blog, Bell Outlet Blog, wrote an interesting article with a few tips on keeping birds out of your fruit trees. We feel that this is a topic that our readers would gain a benefit from so we thought we would share one of their tips, but allow you to travel over to their blog to check out the rest.

• If birds have an even easier food supply to get food from they won't want to bother with the fruit trees. Distract them with bird feeders placed away from the trees (but close enough that they will visit the feeder instead) do a little research on the types of birds that are "visiting" your fruit trees and find out which seeds for your feeder will attract them the most.

 This tip is definitely one that can help to deter birds from eating your hard worked for fruits and possibly even vegetables if you are also having trouble with birds in your garden.

We would love to hear some of your personal tips on keeping birds out of your hard worked for fruits and vegetables!

Gardening Chores for May

For those of you in the southeast, you may want to consider visiting the May Page of Southeast: Organic Gardening's Monthly Garden Calendar. Even if your garden isn't organic many of the tips on that blog can apply to what you need to be doing this time of year. Such as:

• Clearing out your compost bin.
• Filling in bald spots.
• Sow and transplant.
• Crop care.
• Plant flowers.
• Take your spring annuals to the compost bin and replace with summer flowers.
• Pruning
• Fertilizing certain plants.
• Monitor for bugs in your vegetables.
• Getting rid of invasive pest plants.

 There's lots of things to be doing this month! Good luck and we hope to hear about some of your gardening adventures.

May is here! Are you Gardening yet?

May is not only here, but we are already 5 days in. Which means many of you are getting ready to start (or already have been) doing some major planting, transplanting, etc. as the average last frosting date here in the mountains of Virginia is between May 10th and 15th.

While browsing the internet, we came across a planting calender that Virginia Tech has on their website (it is in .pdf format) We hope that you find the information there helpful.

With all the rain that we've been having lately it might be a good time to start thinking about rain barrels. It is hard to determine whether a summer is going to be a rainy or dry one, but by storing water from times of plenty for use in times of drought you can save yourself a lot of heartache of your gardening dying from not enough water.

We hope that everyone has gotten a great start to their gardens and we would love to hear about your experiences with your gardens this year!

Read up on Gardening Chores For May.