September Guides

The September guides for the Veggie Lady are now available at http://www.theveggielady.com/gardenguide.php

Organic Restaurants - LocalHarvest

Organic Restaurants - LocalHarvest: "Organic Restaurants There is a rapidly growing movement within the culinary world towards both regional and seasonal cuisine. We recently incorporated restaurants into our directory to help this movement along. Imagine you are going on vacation in Hawaii next January -say Kauai- (sounds good), and you want to go out to an excellent meal. LocalHarvest can provide you with the information you need to find the restaurant on Kauai that uses the freshest and most regional cuisine. Would you like to find a restaurant close to you that sells locally grown produce? Use our map to find one near you! "

intheveggiepatch - August

intheveggiepatch - August: "I just love August. This is the month to get moving into gear. Days start to warm up but the nights are still cool. "

July Guides Available

The following monthly Garden Guides are now available for July 2007 -

* In the Veggie Patch
* Planting Guide
* Harvest Guide

There are 2 versions. One for the southern hemisphere and one for the northern hemisphers.

Simply Cooking

All the resources to help you learn everything you always wanted to know about Cooking

In The Veggie Patch (June) Northern Hemisphere

Sit back and enjoy the warm weather this month. Hydrangeas make a wonderful summer display with their giant "mop heads" in shades of white, blue and pink. Click here for full details on what to plant in June.

In The Veggie Patch (June) Southern Hemisphere.

June is quiet in the garden, so it's a good opportunity to attend to some of those "must-get-around-to-doing-sometime" jobs in the garden. Click here for full details on planting in June.

In The Veggie Patch (May - Northern Hemisphere)

May is a month of moderate activity with most jobs focusing on maintaining a healthy garden. Prevention is always better than cure, especially in the garden.
For more information visit - In the veggie patch (North)

In The Veggie Patch (May - Southern Hemisphere)

I just love this time of year. It's a time to appreciate the changing seasons. You'll start getting a little dew on the ground over night and deciduous trees start putting on their colourful show for autumn. Take an early morning stroll through the garden and learn where your different micro-climates are. North facing alcoves are a warm winter haven, protected from frosts and can be ideal for extending the crop of tomatoes and cucumbers grown in pots.

For more information visit - In The Veggie Patch

Mother's Day Gifts

Mother's Day is almost upon us. What better gift to give to a gardening-loving mom than something to enhance their gardening experience.

In choosing the type of gardening gift, consider your budget. When your budget is holding you back from buying the best gardening gift, don’t fret. There are garden accessories and gardening wear that would suit your fund.

Gardening gloves, footwear and kneepads, may be bought in a variety of colors, texture, and material.

If you have prepared a bigger budget, specialized gardening tools may steal the spotlight. Before choosing which tool to purchase, make sure to check which tool is missing from your mother's inventory. To prevent duplication, you may even stealthily ask her which gardening tool she dreams of having.

Of course, you shouldn't forget about a card. Great ideas for mother's day cards can be found at The Right Card.

Organic food

The food we eat should be tasty, nutritious and healthy. The way it is grown should help, not harm our environment. But can we really be confident that the fruit and vegetables bought from a supermarket meet these two simple criteria? Are we sure the levels of pesticides, insecticides and fungicides our food has been treated with will do us no harm?

Organically grown foods are not sprayed with these chemicals. They may not look as colorful and well presented as shop produce, but they are nutritious and full of taste.

Growing your own fruit and vegetables is easy. You just need to learn some general principles, familiarize yourself with the plants you intend to grow and get started.

In The Veggie Patch (April - Southern Hemisphere)

This is the time of year when you get the last of your warm season fruit and veggies. You'll get tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, cucumber and corn if they're in a warm sheltered position. Continue to harvest and store pumpkins and potatoes. I'm actually getting capsicum and pumpkins from the compost I laid down last spring and they're great. I've had a particularly hard time with fruit fly this year so crops of tomatoes are down, however. This is a rewarding time to bask in the success of your spring and summer labour, so enjoy it!!

Continued ...

Xeriscape

xeriscape
Originally uploaded by flicka23.

Living in an arid or semi-arid region that habitually receives scarce rainfall does not mean that you are automatically destined to a dry dusty garden. The term "xeriscape" refers to the designing of a garden that employs seven water-conserving methods. This type of garden works well for areas that are prone to mild drought conditions. Of course, those who just wish to conserve water will certainly appreciate that it is an ecologically friendly method of gardening. It may also prove beneficial for people who do not choose to be bothered with the time and expense of traditional water-consuming gardens during the summer season.

In the Veggie Patch (April - Northern Hemisphere)

If you've worked hard last Fall then you'll have plenty of cabbages, Brussels sprouts and broccoli now. So too, cauliflower, celery, beetroot, lettuce, silverbeet, English spinach, capsicum and snow peas are still in abundance.

In the same way, what you plant now will reward you through Summer and Fall. April is another big month in the garden, so get cracking now and you'll be sitting back during summer to enjoy the harvest.

Continued ...