Last week I discussed ornamental edible flowers. This article features some of the edible flowers from vegetable, fruit and weed plants.
Precautions and Harvesting Review
A reminder: before consuming edible flowers, one should always proceed with caution. The flowers should come only from your garden or other trusted sources that have not been sprayed with pesticides. Many flowers share common names, so always look for the scientific name (genus and species) to ensure you have the right flowers, since not all flowers are edible.
Harvest fully opened flowers in the morning right after the dew has dried. Carefully wash them, and as needed remove the stamens, styles, pistils, and sepals (the parts that hold the...
/h3>If your company does residential landscape pest control, your employees should be trained to know what to do when they encounter a vegetable garden, or fruit or nut trees in a yard (Figure 1). Their training should include how to answer a customer's questions about the safety of their pesticides around vegetables or herbs. Talking to a customer about the edible plants in their garden so you don't accidentally spray their plants might save that account from subsequent cancellation.
Is it appropriate for a technician to recommend that a resident simply wash their vegetables after having their yard treated for say, mosquitoes, or should the vegetables be thrown away? What about a perimeter spray around the home? The answer...
Advice from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa
Client's Request: I have a plot in a community garden and haven't seen it for about a week. During that week, the weather gave us some significant overnight frosts and winds. When I went to my plot today, my stand of 6-foot-tall fava beans were looking very sad. They'd been blown around, obviously, but it also looks like all the leaves from about two feet on down to the ground are either gone or turned brown, and the stems look brown, too. Can these plants be saved, or should I just turn them under as soon as the ground dries...
By UC Master Gardener Kate Russell
Ornamental shrubs, trees, lawns, and countless unknown plants fill most landscapes. These plants provide shade, beauty, and erosion protection, but you can't eat them.
As older plants are replaced, or new areas are developed, consider adding edible plants to the landscape. Often more flavorful than grocery store produce, homegrown edibles come in all shapes and sizes, making it easy to match any landscape design. Gardens are not limited to traditional rows of tilled soil. Even if all you have is a balcony or a sunny window, you can grow edible plants!
What do these plants need?
Nutrient rich soil, adequate water, and 6-8...
/h4>It's time to grow tomatoes, and we have tips to help you grow them.
Remove all lower leaves, keeping just the top two to three sets. Allow the wounds to heal for a few days, then plant in a deep hole or sideways in a trench so that only the remaining leaves are above the soil. Roots will form where the leaf nodes were, resulting in a stronger, more stable plant as it grows.
Prepare your soil by mixing in 2 to 3 inches of compost. Add in some organic fertilizer if your soil is lacking in nutrients. For raised beds or containers, add in some fresh potting soil and slow-release organic fertilizer to ensure plants have the nutrition they need to grow and produce.
Choose an area that gets 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a...