Monthly Gardening Reminders
by: Brian Cook
As you work on perfecting your homemade wine, it is important to spend a little time each month tending to your garden. Here I have broken down by month some of the things that you will want to do to ensure a bountiful harvest that you can use when making your own wine at home.
January
Little can be done this month, and much will depend on how much has been done in previous months. If the weather is mild the planting of fruit trees and bushes may be undertaken, but do this only if the weather appears likely to stay mild for a few days at least.
Look to blackcurrant bushes and remove any swollen buds and burn them.
Get in supplies of insecticides and fertilizers.
February
Make sure all trained fruits are tied to their supports securely, and give each a mulch of manure if there is plenty available. If only limited amounts of manure or compost are available keep these till later on. Loganberries and raspberries not already cut down should be attended to and the new canes tied in.
If the weather is mild a light forking of the top soil round fruit bushes and along rows of canes, followed by a dusting of lime, will do a lot of good. This will also unearth a few pests for the attention of birds.
All fruit trees and bushes should have been planted by now; if they have not, get them in before the end of the month.
March
Gooseberries and currants should be sprayed this month with paraffin emulsion to safeguard them against brown scale and red spider.
Watch blackcurrants for "big bud" and pinch off any suspects and burn them. Care must be taken now because the buds may be at the point of opening.
Fork round bushes and canes as for February if this was not done last month.
April
Spray blackcurrants with a lime and sulphur wash where "big bud" is suspected. Repeat if necessary.
The main activity in the garden now will be spreading compost or manure and keeping down weeds before they get a hold.
Any weak growths on fruit bushes may be cut out so as to leave the stronger growths to bear the fruit. This will also help the growth of new wood on which next year's fruit will be borne.
May
To keep strawberries clean put clean straw round the plants. Before doing this dress the bed with two ounces of super phosphate per square yard and hoe this in lightly.
Give all fruit a mulch of manure or compost, or dead leaves. Begin weekly feeding with liquid manure.
Watch all fruit for signs of pests and diseases and spray with proprietary brands of insecticide.
June
Gooseberries often need thinning at this time of the year. Do this so that the smaller fruits are left to develop fully.
Make wine with the thinning.
If the weather is very dry, mulch fruit bushes with manure, compost, leaves, straw, lawn mowing or whatever is available. Mulching conserves moisture in the soil and helps the fruit to swell. This can increase the annual yield by as much as a third.
If green-fly appears spray with a proprietary brand of insecticide.
July
Fruit bushes and trees make rapid growth at this time of the year. If there is any suggestion of overcrowding, cut out some of this new growth, leaving the strongest to grow on.
Look to the vines; if there is an abundance of long straggling growths, cut some of them out, leaving those you will want for cutting back in the autumn.
Runners from strawberry plants may be pegged down to make new plants. Peg down the strongest young crown on the runners that come from the plants bearing the heaviest crop. Pinch off the runner an inch beyond the crown to be pegged down. If this is not done the runner will continue to run and develop new crowns; this will weaken the parent plant and will also produce an abundance of new weakling plants.
If tree-fruit crops are heavy, thin to two or three fruits to each cluster. Far better to have three good fruits to each bunch than five or six under-sized ones.
August
Keep down weeds with the hoe. Gather apples and pears if ready and look to later varieties: thin these as necessary.
September
Loganberries and raspberries that have borne fruit may be cut down now and the new canes tied in.
Clean up round trees and bushes and burn all leaves if pests and diseases have been prevalent. The ash, if there is enough of it, should be stored for hoeing in round fruit bushes in the spring. Hoeing now will help to prevent weeds growing from seeds dropped earlier.
Pegged-down strawberry runners may be lifted now, severed from the parent plant and planted out. Strawberry beds need replacing every three years; it is a good plan then to replace a third of the bed each year with these new plants.
October
Clean up and burn all rubbish round fruit bushes and canes. If loganberries and raspberries have not yet been cut down and the new canes tied in, do this now.
Prune currants and gooseberry bushes.
Plant fruit bushes and early varieties of tree fruits.
November
All those jobs that you should have done during August, September and October must be done now.
December
Look to blackcurrants for "big bud"; pinch off infected buds and burn them.
Plant and prune vines, fruit trees, bushes and canes.
Make sure that you are getting a good supply of compost ready for next year.
About The Author
Brian Cook is a freelance writer whose articles on home wine making have appeared in print and on many websites. You can find more of these at http://www.makinggreatwine.com.
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Monthly Gardening Reminders
Monthly Gardening Reminders
by: Brian Cook
As you work on perfecting your homemade wine, it is important to spend a little time each month tending to your garden. Here I have broken down by month some of the things that you will want to do to ensure a bountiful harvest that you can use when making your own wine at home.
January
Little can be done this month, and much will depend on how much has been done in previous months. If the weather is mild the planting of fruit trees and bushes may be undertaken, but do this only if the weather appears likely to stay mild for a few days at least.
Look to blackcurrant bushes and remove any swollen buds and burn them.
Get in supplies of insecticides and fertilizers.
February
Make sure all trained fruits are tied to their supports securely, and give each a mulch of manure if there is plenty available. If only limited amounts of manure or compost are available keep these...
Monthly Gardening Reminders
Fruit > Monthly Gardening Reminders
Five Tips From An Italian On A Mediterranean Diet
Five Tips From An Italian On A Mediterranean Diet
by: Constance Weygandt
Growing up Italian, I marveled at the
women and men, in my family, who cooked. Not only were they wonderful chefs but had a natural talent for balancing food groups. There was an emphasis on fresh produce and meat, that I am partial to today.
One of my grandmothers used to take me to the chicken store to pick out a chicken. Yes, the chicken was still clucking and running around. Today, although I no longer visit the chicken store to get the freshest poultry available, there are still some valuable lessons I like to follow.
Think of Pasta as a side dish, not a main course.
The first time I was served pasta, outside of my family, I was astonished. The pasta on my plate would have been four servings, in my family. One pound of pasta serves eight people. Two ounces of pasta with a vegetable and a protein is a meal. Serve more vegetable dishes, if...
Fruit > Five Tips From An Italian On A Mediterranean Diet
Fruits Secrets
Fruits Secrets
by: Sharon Hopkins
Fruits, goldmine of vitamins, minerals and fibre are ideal to consume at least 4-5 servings in a day. Since they are in the natural form, account for largest part of water and 100% bad cholesterol free, it's much easier for the body to process and absorb the vitamins and minerals from the fresh fruit.
Apple ? Round fruit with lots of fibre, vitamins A, C, E and folate. Available in green, red or yellow skin when ripe. Apples reduce the risk of colon cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer. They also help with heart disease, weight loss and controlling cholesterol.
Bananas ? Long thick skinned fruit yellow in colour when ripe. Good source of fibre, potassium, vitamins A, C, B6, E & folate. Unripe or green bananas are used in cooking.
Cherries ? small round fruit with a seed, red or black in colour when ripened. Cherries always have to be ripe to eat. Cherries contain anthocyanins that reduce pain...
Fruits Secrets
Fruit > Fruits Secrets
Learning about the Story of Citrus: Florida's Natural Visitor Center
Learning about the Story of Citrus: Florida's Natural Visitor Center
by: Susanne Pacher
One of the things that Florida is known for is, you guessed it, is orange juice! The citrus industry has been playing a big role in Central Florida for many decades, and considering its importance, I wanted to learn a bit more about it.
So with the help of the Orlando Visitors and Convention Bureau I was able to locate "Florida's Natural Growers", a citrus-processing cooperative that produces the well-known "Florida's Natural" brand of juices. The cooperative was founded in 1933 and today more than 1000 independent growers are part of this cooperative processing and marketing organization.
Florida's Natural operates a 540 acre fruit processing center in Lake Wales, about an hour south of Orlando. They are now the largest employer in the Lake Wales area. The facility also offers a visitor center which educates tourists on the history of Florida's citrus...
Learning about the Story of Citrus: Florida's Natural Visitor Center
Fruit > Learning about the Story of Citrus: Florida's Natural Visitor Center
All About Aphrodisiac Foods
All About Aphrodisiac Foods
by: Micheline Stansfield
Throughout history, rightly or wrongly, many gustatory delights have been termed aphrodisiac foods, in the belief that consuming them contributed to one's desire for the opposite sex. For the most part, the foods had less to do with the mood, than the tom-foolery that went along with eating them!
Asparagus - Believe it or not, this green stalk, reviled by your kids, was considered a phallic symbol and sought after by women in yesteryear.
Avocado - Cut it in half, and you have the appearance of female genitalia. But the ancient Aztecs name for it was Ahuacuatl, or testicle tree. The fruits generally hang in pairs, which explains the strange term. But in the centuries since its discovery, the creamy flesh has been considered a boost to romantic moods.
Oysters - Do they or don't they, raise any questions about their effect on men and lovemaking? Actually, oysters contain zinc, which...
All About Aphrodisiac Foods
Fruit > All About Aphrodisiac Foods