I was walking in the back of my yard today and almost slipped on this slippery mold-like substance. It is spread out over a vast area. It looks like little piles of slimy poop, but no animal could possibly scatter that much in the area without me seeing it! It’s everywhere! Can you help me identify it? It’s black, in piles about 3 or 4 inches around.

Our response, which we hope was helpful:

It seems like this could be a version of Dog Vomit fungus (nice name right?) – in which case you might take a look at this recent post on our blog: I Have Slime Mold In The Mulch In My Garden!

It could also be a mold called Nostoc, which starts out bluish/greenish but can turn black.

All mold/fungus is slimy and slippery, usually popping up after significant rainfall especially if the area never has a chance to dry out.

What can you do?

For long-term, you may want to look at how that part of your yard is draining. If drainage is poor, you may want to get a landscaper in to correct the slope or lay some drainage piping.

Short-term, try these techniques:

Most organic approaches:

• Apple Cider Vinegar – Use 1-2 Tablespoons per gallon of water. This is a good natural herbicide.
• Corn Meal (any kind of corn meal is OK) – Dry Method: Work 2 pounds of cornmeal into the soil for every 100 square feet. Water well, to activate the fungus killing properties. Wet Method: Cornmeal Juice – soak 1 cup of cornmeal in 1 gallon of water overnight. Strain liquid and use as a spray.
• Milk – 3 ounces of any kind of milk in a gallon of water used as a spray.
• Baking Soda – One tablespoon of baking soda per gallon of water, use as a spray. Follow up with compost at 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet to reestablish microbial population, as baking soda is very hard on the soil microbes.

Last resort – non organic:

• Bleaches and Peroxide – great fungicides. 1-2 tblsp per gallon of water.

Good luck!

Joyce & Gayle

Not all insects are pests.

There are many beneficial insects that you should welcome into your flower or vegetable garden.

Be careful using broad spectrum pesticides! You may kill the insects that are helping you keep other pests away. Insects also benefit your garden by pollinating your plants.
 
How to attract and keep good bugs in your garden:

Food
Its cheaper and easier to the good bugs you already have in your garden than to buy them at a nursery.

Many beneficial insects need to sip flower nectar to survive. Many beneficial insects need flower nectar to survive. To keep these insects in your garden, make sure to plant nectar producing flowers and a variety of plants that will bloom as many months during the year as possible. Plants in the cabbage, carrot and sunflower family will attract beneficial insects.

Not-so-Good Bugs
Ants can prevent good bugs from controlling aphids in your garden, so try to keep ants in check.

Don’t use persistent, broad-spectrum, contact insecticides.
These kill off good and bad bugs, but the bad ones will usually find their way back to your garden faster than the good bugs. So you’ll end up having to use more and more insecticide.

Pamper Your Spiders. Cover bare dirt with dead leaves or grass clippings to provide shelter for spiders. Spiders are the number one insect predator. 

Here is a list of some other beneficial insects:

• Dragonflies appear in a variety of colors. They have long narrow bodies, large compound eyes and four transparent wings.  They can be as big as 6 inches long and they eat mosquitoes, aphids and gnats.
• Praying mantises are brownish insects with wings. They are 3-4 inches long. They eat moths, flies and mosquitoes.
• Ground beetles are about 1 inch long and are iridescent black or brown. They eat soil-dwelling pests such as slugs and snails.
• Ladybugs or Lady beetles are the most familiar insect predator. Most ladybugs are round to oval with bright colors and are often spotted. Ladybugs eat aphids, mites, scales and insect eggs. Lady bugs are very effective in reducing infestations
• Pirate bugs are ½ inch long and are black and silver. They will eat spider mites, caterpillars and thrips.
• Soldier beetles are ½ inch long flat bodied beetle with a narrow, black abdomen and bright red head. They eat cucumber beetles, aphids, caterpillars and grasshopper eggs.
• Assassin bugs are ½ to 1 inch long light brown-green bugs that have a cone-shaped head and a long antennae. They eat a variety of pest in your garden including flies, mosquitoes, beetles and large caterpillars.

• Green Lacewings  are one of the best insects to have in your garden. The green lacewings vary in length from about ½ to ¾ inch. Some have gold or copper colored eyes. You can easily recognize their light green bodies with large clear oval shaped wings that they fold above their bodies. They eat aphids, spider mites, whiteflies, small caterpillars and the eggs of several kinds of destructive beetles.

 Do your best to keep good bugs in your garden and you’ll have a successful garden!

Do you have a tip for gardeners? Send it to us and we may post it here to help other gardners with common planting questions and issues. Click here to contact BornToGarden.com

This year we had a bounty of cucumbers, and so, we also had a bounty of cucumber seeds.

Now, what to do with those seeds?

No, we are not going to spit them at our little sister…tempting perhaps, but no. There are much better uses for cucumber seeds:

One of the smartest things to do would be to save them for next year. Storing seeds is both a wise and economical choice. Instead of buying the cucumber seedlings from a nursery or a garden center, you can grow your own. It not only saves you some money, but the tiny seedlings are fun to watch grow, especially know that they are your very own.

To store your seeds until next season –

• Remove them from the plant gently and wash them, make sure you get any plant debris off of them.
• After that, take an air-tight jar and put the seeds in it. You can also add a packet of silica gel (you know those strange packets you often find in the pocket of a new suitcase or purse) to absorb any moisture.
• Next you need a nice cool place for them. It is essential that the spot you keep them in is dry and dark, otherwise the seeds will rot and you will end up with a cucumber shortage. A basement is a good spot – as long as it is not too damp. Another good spot is in the refrigerator, if you can spare the space, as the cold temperature will help preserve them.

What if you forget about your cucumber seeds in the back of the fridge next year?

Well, just in case you don’t plant the cucumber seeds next year, not to worry. They are good for up to four years.

***However, the older the seed, the longer it might take to germinate and the plants may not be as strong as they could be. So, its best to replenish your seed stock freshly every year.

Good luck! Don’t forget to let us know how your garden is doing and what your plans for the fall are! Click here to send us your garden news.

Here is a list of 20 plants you need to have in your vegetable garden. These plants may surprise you! I had no idea that these plants not only looked beautiful and tasted wonderful, but also can help deter pests and bugs from the garden.

1. Basil - A favorite herb of mine anyway – and I already had some in my garden of course! Basil repels aphids, flies, mosquitos, and mites. It also has fungicidal properties. If you plant basil around your tomato plants, you won’t have to worry about icky hornworms.
2. Borage - This one I was really not familiar with, but found out that it is an herb sometimes called the starflower. The leaves taste like fresh cucumber and are used in salads and soups especially in Germany. The flowers are sweet like honey and are often used as edible decoration. It is also good for planting around your tomatos as it repels tomato worms.
3. Catnip – Cats love it, but ants, fleas and mosquitoes hate it! I see this herb in the supermarket and until now have just passed it by not knowing what to use it for. Next time I see it, I’m buying it!
4. Chamomile – Great for a relaxing pre-bedtime tea, the camomile plant keeps cabbage moths out of your garden.
5. Chives – A baked potato isn’t the same without them, but aphids don’t feel the same! Plant chives especially around your roses and lettuce.
6. Feverfew - A really pretty flower that almost looks like a daisy, and found in old gardens. It is often used as a medicinal herb. For my purposes, it is known to keep moths away. I’ll put some in pots by my front door and see if it truly works!
7. Lavender – Smells fantastic, great for making relaxation teas AND keeps slugs out of the garden. Excellent news as I am not a slug fan at all.
8. Marigolds – These are traditional flowers that my mom always planted among our vegetable plants in the gardens we had as kids. Bugs cannot stand the smell of marigolds, so plant them liberally around your garden. French and African varieties also keep nematodes out of the soil.
9. Mint – Another great herb that no kitchen garden should be without anyway. But did you know that mint plants repel aphids, cabbage moths, and cabbage worms? I sure didn’t!
10. Nasturtium – A plant I’ve read about in magazines but didn’t realize is quite prevalent. This pretty little flowering plants keeps away aphids and whiteflies. Be sure to plant these around fruit trees, cucumbers and squash.
11. Onion – If you love to cook, you love the onion. We have lots of wild onions in our neck of the woods. Onions keep ants at bay. Which is good because we also have lots of those!
12. Oregano – Growing up half Italian, I believe I have oregano streaming through my blood. Either way, its great in tomato sauce and italian dressing, and oregano plants keep away cucumber beetles.
13. Pennyroyal - In the mint family, pennyroyal leaves have a strong spearmint smell. Ants don’t like it, so I definitely do!
14. Petunia – I knew a little girl named Petunia once…but I digress. Pretty flowers and the added benefit of repelling aphids, leafhoppers, and Mexican bean beetles.
15. Radish – A great entry for salad ingredients, the radish is smartly planted around cucumbers and squash to keep away beetles.
16. Rosemary – I love rosemary bread and so always have fresh rosemary around. Plant this in your garden to ward off the cabbage moth, bean beetle and carrot fly.
17. Rue - As in “you’ll rue the day” I guess, because this medicinal herb smells terrible! But it does keep away Japanese beetles (and gardeners…yuck!). ***GOOD TO KNOW: don’t plant rue anywhere near your basil – they don’t play well, and so neither plant will grow.
18. Tansy - Another pretty little flower, Tansy is disagreeable to ants.
19. Thyme – One of the herbs we can’t do without, Thyme plants deter cabbage worms and slugs.
20. Tomato – Yep, you’ve probably got these in your garden already. And if you also have asparagus, plant them together. The tomato plants will ward off asparagus beetles.

If any of this information surprises you, you’re not alone. We’ve always had gardens and while we knew about some of these helpful plants, we were surprised by a great many too.

If you have any great garden tips, please send them to us using our handy contact form or by leaving a comment on this post. We’d love to hear from you!

You need to watch your cucumbers when you grow them. They can suffer from various ailments that you can prevent and cure.

• First up is the cucumber beetle. These little pests, in addition to eating the leaves, can carry the bacteria responsible for bacterial wilt. The best way to stop them is to control them. Insecticides, covers for the cucumbers, and wilt resistance cucumber plants are all great solutions.
• Next up is the cucumber mosaic virus and the tobacco mosaic virus. These viruses can cause the leaves of the cucumbers plants to become deformed and turn yellow. The fruits can also become discolored and misshapen.

The cucumber mosaic virus can be spread by aphids (tiny insects) and other infected plants. If you find an infected plant, pull it up and destroy it immediately, before other plants catch it.

The tobacco mosaic virus is spread by smoking near the plants or by touching the plants after smoking. It can be prevented by washing your hands. Both of these viruses are incurable. Again, the only thing you can do is to pull up he plants and destroy them.

• Another cucumber sickness is misshapen or deformed fruit. Don’t worry its not a virus or an inscect this time, it usually means too much fertilizer or too little water.

If you have hollow cucumbers then you need to fertilize the cucumbers more. Another good thing to do would be to keep the soil moist around the plants. The hollow cucumbers are still safe to eat, but they may be a little bitter.

If your cucumbers are bent, like in a c-shape, you might want to water them. This is usually caused by hot dry conditions. It happens more in the late summer, though. It is also helpful to mulch the ground and add compost to it.

• The final cucumber calamity for today is powdery mildew. Powdery mildew is a fungus that spreads across the leaves of a plant a drains them of nutrients, sometimes killing the plant. It causes the leaves to turn brown and yellow and can kill the fruit.

The best treatment is to pick off the dying leaves and fruit and discarding them. Do not use these discarded leaves for compost, as they will infect other plants. Increase air circulation around the plant and keep it well watered and fertilized.

These tips and helpful hints will help you on your way to a cornucopia of fresh, delicious cucumbers!

Have a tip for growing cucumbers or your favorite fruit or vegetable? Click here to tell us all about it!

The chaos began in the middle of May, once the garden was tilled, the fence installed, and the plants purchased.  They seemed harmless and cute at the time, but when we put them in to the soil they started their growth. The six cucumbers grew slowly at first, and then they started to climb the small section of wire fence we placed between two posts. Before long we had a large lump spreading across the ground, getting bigger everyday. While weeding the garden I pushed aside some of the leaves and found a flower. The plants were starting to make cucumbers! Over the next few days I would look at them and see more flowers and more leaves. Their growth accelerated. Little lumps started to form behind the flowers; they were what we had been working for the entire time: Cucumbers!

When the cucumbers reach their full size (or you get hungry), gently pull them off the vine. If you let them hang on the vine, the plant will make seeds and stop making cucumbers.  When you pick them, have a bucket of cold water by to dunk them in. It cools them down. Make sure the bucket is large though because for every ten feet of cucumbers plants, you will generally get twelve pounds of cucumbers. Cucumbers can be refrigerated for about two weeks in plastic bags.

Cucumbers are great for any gardener, first timer or experienced. They produce a lot, which is very satisfying and are well worth the money for the plants.

Want to grow your own cucumbers? Here are some great links to get you started:

Bush Pickle Hybrid Pickling Cucumber

Sweet Success Hybrid Slicing Cucumber

Salad Bush Hybrid Slicing Cucumber

Just today the FDA announced that even more states are susceptible to the outbreak of salmonella (salmonellosis) infected tomatoes. On their list of don’t eats include raw: Roma, Round Red and Plum tomatoes. You should also not eat any products containing these raw tomatoes.

As someone who loves tomatoes, I’m in shock. Although I live in Tennessee, a so-called “cleared” state, I’m not so anxious to buy any tomatos in the grocery store. (Other cleared states and regions: Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas in its traceback investigation. Imported tomatoes from Belgium, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, The Netherlands and Puerto Rico also have been cleared).

If you live here, or buy tomatoes that come from any of these areas, you are affected: Two significant sources in production at that time that have not been cleared by the federal agencies are Florida and Mexico. New Mexico Department of Health officials have said that its investigators are looking closely at product from Mexico. States reporting the highest sicknesses (no deaths have been reported yet): Texas (56), New Mexico (39), Illinois (17) and Arizona (12).

Other states affected are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Given all of this, I am glad that I decided to grow my own tomatoes (and zucchini and cucumbers and fresh herbs), although my plants are not quite to the bearing fruit stages yet. Stil I would recommend anyone who intends on eating fresh, uncooked vegetables anytime in the future, that you grow your own. It’s not hard to do, with our guide to growing tomatoes and other vegetables, you have all the information and sources you need. It’s not expensive, if you frequent our vendors, you’ll find some of the best prices around for seeds, seedlings and starter plants. Space isn’t an issue as most vegetables can grow in containers if that is all you have room for, and tomatoes are especially accommodating as they can actually grow upside-down,
hanging from a basket!

Don’t wait for the FDA to tell you that today’s supermarket produce is not actually the best thing for you, and often carries diseases, germs and other unpleasantness – such as high price tags. Take the bull by the horns and start your own vegetable garden today! See our recent post: Planting Vegetables 101

Basically, organic gardening is growing plants and vegetables in a completely natural environment, using only natural and not synthetic products. Organic gardening is sometimes looked upon as more difficult than traditional gardening, but in fact, it makes gardening a lot easier. Why? Because organic gardening keeps the soil in great shape, it is not adulterated with chemicals.

Organic gardening is actually more than just not using chemicals and synthetic products. It is a whole philosophy – meaning thinking of your organic garden as part of an entire ecosystem that takes into account animals and insects, other plant life, people, the air, the water and the soil. The organic garden exists in harmony with the nature that surrounds it.

How to create an organic garden:

Start with the soil.

As with any garden, organic gardens always begin with the soil. Your first step is to have your soil testing. Click here to learn more about soil testing, testing kits you can buy and what soil test results mean.

Once you know what your soil contains, you’ll know what will grow best there. Also, you’ll know how you might have to change your soil to grow the plants and or vegetables that you want. Keep in mind that plants already adapted to your climate and soil will usually grow best, with the least amount of work and attention. Growing plants not normal for your area or climate will most likely require more of your time and energy. This isn’t a bad thing at all, just something to consider.

Composting is a “given” when it comes to organic gardening. Take a look at our What is Compost? page for more info. In short, compost is made up of organic matter that you already have around the house – grass clippings, decaying plant matter like dead leaves, and vegetables scraps from the kitchen. If you already have a compost bin started, you’re on your way. If you don’t, take a look at these available bins and starters:

And see our Shopping for Compost and Compost Supplies page for more composting tools and materials.

Compost will give your soil incredible amounts of nutrients. These nutrients are key to growing a fantastic organic garden. You can tell composted soil because it is richly dark, sweetly smelling, and is teeming with worms! Worms are great for aerating your garden (we’ll talk more about that in a future post on beneficial insects).

Once you’ve begun adding compost to your soil, you’ll want to re-test the soil (if you’ve already tested it). Some soil will need more than compost to get it ready for planting the plants you desire. Again, once you know what your soil contains, you can better judge what nutrients it is missing.

WATCH FOR OUR NEXT ORGANIC GARDENING POST: Beneficial Insects