3 great garden plants for early spring

Making Chicken Manure Compost for Home Garden or Composting chicken manure: Chicken manure contains more amount of nitrogen than almost any other type which aids in strong leaf and stem growth. Gardeners call it black gold.  Though, adding fresh chicken manure to gardens can burn the leaves and the plant roots. Composted chicken manure mellows out the nitrogen and will not harm plants. Each chicken produces approximately one cubic foot of manure every 6 months. A guide to chicken manure compo

Neem Oil Pesticide Formulation, Application for Garden Plants Today, we learn neem oil pesticide formulation and application of it. The neem plant is a quick growing and long-living tree, native to Burma in India. From there the neem tree has spread and is now developed all over the world. Neem oil, the most popular neem plant product, is prepared by pressing the neem seed kernels. The kernels can have as much as 50% oil. Neem seed oil is an ingredient in many skin care products. In India, mo

Companion planting has been around for generations, but most of the plant partnerships recommended have little basis in actual science. Times are changing though, thanks to an abundance of current research looking at the benefits of partnering certain plants together. My most recent book, Plant Partners: Science-based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden (Storey Publishing, 2020), presents effective interplanting strategies home gardeners can use to grow a better garden. In a p

Do you have difficulty growing spring carrots? Germination seems to take forever in the spring due to the cool air and soil temperatures. A lot can go wrong during this time. Here are 4 tips to improve carrot seed germination. Many longtime readers of this blog will know that I usually have a difficult time growing spring carrots. Fall carrots are rarely a problem. They usually germinate and become established quickly in warmer soil. Once they reach this point, they are likely to succeed and ma