Author: eastborngardens
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Mint Syrup Made Simply: How to Make Homemade Mint Simple Syrup
As the summer winds toward autumn, I find myself putting up produce for the fall and winter season. Even for the relatively small garden we have this year, it can be more than my family can consume. The out of control mint plant that has dutifully kept away spiders and cabbage moths all season is…
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Mint Magic: How to Grow and Care for Mint in Your Garden
Mint is an amazing plant to grow in your garden for both culinary and pest prevention purposes. It’s also incredibly ornamental and smells great in the garden. We’ve been growing mint for years. In fact, I don’t think there’s been a single year when we haven’t grown mint. It’s just so versatile in cooking and…
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Cabbage Worms: Garden Grazing Gremlins
It is so heartbreaking to spend your time and effort cultivating produce for your table, only to end up feeding the local wildlife. Some garden pests can do their irreparable harm in as little as a single day. Gardeners of lettuce, cabbages, kale, spinach, brussels sprouts, and other leafy vegetables must beware of the dreaded…
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Homemade Infused Olive Oil With Your Own Garden Produce
If you have a garden that occasionally over-produces, you’ll want to look at ways to preserve your herbs and spices for the long term. Making your own infused olive oil is an excellent method of preservation, and it creates a wonderful and beautiful gift to friends and family. Get started a few months in advance…
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Seed Saving Made Simple: A Beginner’s Guide to Saving Seeds
Whether you grow annuals or perennials, a garden continues year after year. If you’re looking to preserve the varieties and cultivars of plants that you most enjoy, you should save your seeds. Saving seeds from your own garden saves money too. If you’re going to go through the trouble of saving your own seeds, you…
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Blossom End Rot, What It Is, How To Fix It
Nothing is more upsetting to a gardener than dutifully caring for your plants only to find issues once the plant has begun to set fruit. Blossom End Rot is one of many common problems gardeners will encounter. It often occurs on common beginner gardener plants like tomatoes. Just because they’re easy to grow, however, doesn’t…
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Common Tomato Problems
Tomatoes are the most common plant for gardeners of all types and skillsets. It is an easy plant to grow and is extremely forgiving to most kinds of weather. Yet even as easy as tomatoes are to grow, they come with a whole host of problems. Fortunately, tomato problems are easy to diagnose. Today, I’m…
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How to Propagate Plants in Water
Propagating plants is easy with a just little investment of time. Dividing plants from existing plants grows the amount of plants you have around you. These extra plants decorate a new corner of your home, become gifts to friends or family, traded at plant swap events, or sold at local farmers’ markets. The methodology of…
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The Friendly (& Unfriendly) Ladybug
Among the most helpful of the insect friends a gardener can have is the beautiful ladybug. They are the primary hunter of aphids and eat a number of other common garden pests. Popularized in children’s stories, ladybugs are a common sight in gardens around the world. This guide is all about the gardener’s best friend,…
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Plant Lice: The Dreaded Aphid
Typically appearing in Spring from late May to early June (in the Northern Hemisphere), aphids are a common but nasty insect that feasts on all kinds of garden plants. Once aphids make their home on your plants, without intervention they kill even well-established plants dead within a month. This post is all about what aphids…