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vegetable gardens

Gardening Video: Managing Bad Bugs in Your Vegetable Garden

August 25, 2020

Saturday Seminar presents:
Managing Bad Bugs in Your Vegetable Garden—Lessons from The Learning Garden

Squash Vine Borer adult_Lisa Brown_CC BY-NC 2.0_Flickr
Squash vine borer adult

Presenter: Laura Brooks, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer

Now that you’ve planted your vegetable garden, it’s time to discuss the nemesis of every veggie gardener: bad bugs!  Which ones should you look out for and what can you do about them?

Laura Brooks, co-chair of The Learning Garden’s vegetable plot located at the Buncombe County Extension office, highlights the three most common pests that were encountered last year in The Learning Garden: squash vine borers, flea beetles, and Mexican bean beetles. She describes the organic methods that Master Gardeners used to help ward off these pesky insects.  Laura explains the life cycle of these insects, what they look like from larvae to adult stages, when they emerge, and effective treatments.

To access this video on the Buncombe County Master Gardener website, click on the link:

Managing Bad Bugs in Your Vegetable Garden

Or go to www.buncombemastergardener.org, click on the ‘Resources’ tab at the top of the page and select ‘Gardening Videos’ from the drop down menu.

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Categories Gardening Videos, Insect Pests Tags insect pests, integrated pest management, vegetable gardens

Support Your Plants: Ways to Make Your Garden Healthier and More Fun!

July 23, 2020

Are your vegetable plants encroaching on your garden paths? Are you finding giant, inedible cucumbers hiding under foliage? Time to think about garden structures! Create these supports from hard materials—wood, plastic, metal, concrete—to enhance the growing of vegetables or other plants. Such structures can provide space, support, and creative expression to enhance your garden.

Steps for using plant supports in your garden:

  1. Plan: Consider plant characteristics and direction of the sun.
  2. Prepare: Build your structure sturdy enough to support your chosen plants.
  3. Train:  Some plants need to be fastened or tied.  Others need to be gently wound around a stake or string where they will continue growing.
  4. Water: Use an irrigation system, soaker hose, garden hose, or watering can—always water at the bottom of the plant.
  5. Harvest: Using garden structures and supports for vining and top-heavy plants will enable you to plant closer together and have a larger and healthier harvest from a smaller space.
Planted row of beans with supports by MARamsey
Beans with supports

Gardening in small places.
When you’re concerned about lack of space, there’s always the possibility of getting plants to spread up! When planning and planting a garden, it’s important to consider how much space each plant needs to be healthy and productive. Be mindful that trellised plants do cast shadows, so consider what neighboring plants might be blocked from the sun.

 

Ramsey Garden-Combining practical and whimisical
A well supported veggie garden

Disease prevention.
Supporting tall or vining plants allows for air circulation, which helps prevent fungal and other diseases. Such structures not only help prevent wind-broken branches—which can foster pests and diseases—but they can also prevent soil splashing onto leaves, which can result in fungal diseases. For vegetable gardens, supporting vining plants makes for cleaner and often healthier produce because the harvest will not be on the ground.

Match your supports to your plants.
Plants with tendrils, such as peas and pole beans, will wrap themselves around posts and strings. Tomatoes are frequently tied onto stakes or wire cages. Most cucumbers or melons can benefit from supports that are sturdy enough to hold the weight of the growing bounty. These heavy-duty supports can be made from wood, canes,metal, PVC plastic, and string or wire.

Bean tunnel in the Ramsey garden
Tomato cage for support
Cucumbers on masonry reinforcement ladder

Functional whimsy.
There’s also a creative enjoyment in either incorporating found objects into your garden as supports for plants, or to use already existing structures. Fasten peas, cucumbers, or sunflower stalks to old window frames. Have your tomatoes climb a fence or baker’s rack. Let your pole beans, climbing nasturtiums, or moon flowers weave their way onto a scarecrow or up the post of a bird house. These supports bring harvests of fruits and vegetables—and smiles!

Sunflowers with window frame supports
Moonflower on a scarecrow
Beans on birdhouse post

Article by Mary Alice Ramsey, Buncombe County Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer

For more information:
UMN Extension: Trellises and Cages to Support Garden Vegetables
NC Extension Gardener Handbook- Chapter 16. Vegetable Gardening Techniques. Vertical Gardening

Bartlett, Michael V. and Rose L. The Bartlett Book of Garden Elements. David R. Godine, 2014.
Bartholomew, Mel. All New Square Foot Gardening: 3rd Edition. Square Foot Gardening Foundation, 2018.

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Categories General Gardening Tags plant supports, vegetable gardens, vertical gardening

Gardening Video: Straw Bale Gardening—An Alternative to Raised Beds

May 11, 2020

Gardening in the Mountains presents:
Straw Bale Gardening—An Alternative to Raised Beds

Presenter:  Phil Roudebush, Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteer

Gardening with straw bales offers the advantage of creating inexpensive raised beds, which can be placed in a variety of locations for growing vegetables, herbs, or flowers. The presentation covers how to select the straw bales, their placement at home, how to condition straw bales before planting, various types of planting techniques, and how to maintain a straw bale garden throughout the growing season.

To access this video on the Buncombe County Master Gardener website, click on the link:  Straw Bale Gardening.

Or go to www.buncombemastergardener.org, Click on the ‘Resources’ tab at the top of the page and select ‘Gardening Videos’ from the drop down menu.

Learn more:
Straw Bale Gardening
by Layla Burgess, HGIC Horticulture Extension Agent, Clemson University
Clemson Cooperative Extension Factsheet HGIC 1264  

Straw Bale Bed: A Way to Garden While Building Soil
by Kefyalew Desta, Assistant Professor, and Janelle Malone, Extension Assistant
Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service PSS-2264 

Straw Bale Gardening
Washington State University Extension Fact Sheet FS109E 

Straw Bale Gardens Complete by Joel Karsten

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Categories Gardening Videos, Installation & Planting Tags straw bale gardening, vegetable gardens

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