6 Fall Crops To Plant Now and Grow Through Winter

A frost occurs when the temperature falls below 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees centigrade. It is damaging to plants in two ways, water is rendered unavailable to plant roots and the cells of sensitive plants are ruptured.

Weather – is the combination of rainfall, temperature, wind sunshine and air humidity which affects your garden at a particular point in time. Climate – is the summary of the weather which is likely to affect your garden throughout the the year. The climate maps of your area should be used as a rough guide only.

Tulips are some of the more popular bulbs in the world. Reading the book “The Black Tulip” by Alexander Dumas as a child created an interest for life in these bulbs. Introduced to Europe from Turkey over 400 years ago Holland soon became home to them. The Dutch became synonymous with the Tulip, and became renowned for their abilities in their breeding and cross breeding. The storyline of the book was to breed a black tulip. There was a time in Holland when tulip bulbs were worth a good deal of money and where fortunes were made and lost on a bulb! Similar to our current share markets where people can be carried away paying a lot of money on the current favourite stocks. Nothing has changed! There are now over a hundred different species, with the resulting hybrids running into thousands of varieties.

If your lawn is typical, you will have issues with crabgrass. Probably year in and year out. You want to get rid of it because your lawn is suffering, but how to go about it?

Eggplants or aubergines as they are called are becoming better known in the western world. Other names they are known by are eggfruit, brinjal and guinea squash. Eggplants originate from the Middle East and Asia, and instantly recognizable by their shiny purple skins. Eggplants are from the same family as the tomato and potato, as the scientific name of Solanum melongena esculentum suggests. There are many varieties, coming loosely under three types. The multi colored, small and the familiar egg shaped fruit. The purple/deep red color predominates; the multicolored variety has shades of cream through to pink.

Capsicums and Chillies are the well-known peppers. The difference is that some are sweet peppers, the other hot peppers! Some of the small hot peppers can easily be grown in containers as houseplants, the fruit taking the starring role instead of flowers. They are a heat loving plant and grow well in warm climates or cooler places in a heated environment like a glasshouse or sunny conservatory.

Irises are the wonderfully colorful flowers that grow from rhizomes or bulbs into large clumps creating magnificent displays for little effort. They have been around for thousands of years, generally found in the northern hemisphere they grow worldwide. They are strong plants in so much as they make a statement, no matter where they are planted, either mixed in with other plants or as a focal point in or on a rockery, perhaps near a garden pond as they don’t seem to mind damp feet. Most irises are perennial plants growing from rhizomes. The rhizomes are thick fleshy growths that often lay half exposed on the surface of the garden.

Iris are an easy plant to grow, whether from bulbs or from rhizomes. The most common irises grown are Spanish, English and Dutch probably because they are bulbs. Bulbs do not frighten people as much as the sound of the word “rhizomes”. Every one wants and understands the simple terminology! The flowers are different to the well-known flag or German irises, also known as bearded irises grown from rhizomes. Flowers of these irises are fine and delicate and come in colors ranging from white through to gold, mauve and purple. They flower at different times to each other, first the Dutch variety followed by the Spanish and then the English bulbs, Reticulata Irises are smaller and flower in the late winter, early spring period, some of these even have a light perfume.

If you plant fall crocus in the garden during late summer or early fall you will have beautiful naked flowers for late fall. Fall crocus are best if planted with low ground cover or ferns that are low to the ground.

Gardening is a healthy, stimulating physical activity that, with some consideration for ways to lessen the load, to continue gardening with a little less effort than we put forth in our earlier years, can be enjoyed on into our eighties and nineties. Here are a few suggestions and ideas to help you keep enjoying the fun of gardening as a senior gardener.

Getting your tomatoes to the fat, red juicy size follows if care is taken with their initial planting and situation as they are quite forgiving and grow really well. Like most things, extra care brings results that can improve on what would have been an ordinary crop.

Choosing the right lighting systems is one of the most important decisions a person can make when attempting to grow a garden indoors. In fact, the right grow light system can make or break the entire gardening experience. Some of the most popular types of systems are built around a 1000 Watt HPS grow light.