food:: july gardening

Frankie’s gardening tips…

~cherry tomatoes are easy to grow in pots~

1) keep them in the sun

2) keep them deeply watered

3) miracle grow is your friend

~fresh parsley trumps the dried flakes for flavor every time~

1) it grows well from seed if watered regularly

2) keep it in the sun

3) it freezes well – just wash sprigs, cut out the big stems, bag it up and freeze.  After a couple of hours you can pull the bag out of the freezer and it will break up easily into flakes with no mess!  Just pop it back in the freezer and you have fresh parsley all winter long whenever you need it.

~potatoes are easy to grow~

1) get them into the ground early (think St. Paddy’s Day-ish)

2) cut seed potatoes in half to make more plants (try to leave 2 viable eyes on each piece)

3) put them in a bucket first and sprinkle them with bone meal to cover the cut sides well

4)  don’t dig holes for them – furrow a very shallow row, evenly space, and then hoe the dirt to cover them.  As they grow, continue to hoe a little more dirt towards the plants when you are weeding.  This strategy keeps them covered, but much easier to dig up when they’re ready to harvest.

5) 5 pounds of seed potatoes will plant a 40 foot row

~thornless blackberries are delicious~

1) give them some room and lots of sun

2) you can pretty much let God take care of them, except for trimming them back in the fall

3) you will be the birds’ BFF if you don’t pick them first

have a ridiculously amazing day blogfriends 🙂