Leafhoppers - Garden Pest of the Month

Leafhoppers at a glance

Type of Damage	Pierce-sucking
Plant Symptoms	Browning & curling of leaf edges
Favourite Plant	Tomatoes & Potatoes
Control	Biological (predators: spiders & mantids)

Quick Intro

These jumping insects are common in the garden, especially around the Acacia trees in our garden. Not only do they attack plants, but they lower the plants’ condition that allows secondary attack by other pests and diseases. They are easy to spot on plants, but be careful as they can bite you too!

Science Stuff

Leafhoppers belong to the insect Order of Homoptera, which means that their wings are completely membranous (unlike Hemiptera insects where half of the wing is sclerotized or hardened. They are a major plant-feeding group causing direct damage to plants as well as spreading plant pathogens (disease). They produce ‘honeydew’, a sugary excretion which ants collect as food.

Leafhoppers belong to the Cicadellidae family (cousins of the cicadas J) and contain many species, often brightly coloured. Their wings are held roof-like over the body and their hind legs have a single row of spines. They are excellent jumpers, which make them hard to catch, so leaf it to the ambush predators J.

Habitat & Feeding

They are highly host specific, meaning that they feed exclusively on one host and will adapt accordingly. A white patch occurs on plant leaves after feeding, due to the destruction of chlorophyll (green pigment) in that area. In high numbers the leaves start to brown and curl back onto themselves. A characteristic v-shaped browning of the leaf tips is a symptom known as ‘hopperburn’. In South Africa we have 350 known species and 20 000 species worldwide.

Hopperburn on tomato

Diseases

Leafhoppers transmit viral diseases (maize streak virus), fungal and bacterial diseases.

Potato Leafhopper (PLH)

I will be focusing on one specific leafhopper common in vegetable gardens or agricultural lands. (It was quite the mission to identify the leafhoppers in my garden, as my trusty insect book let me down and only had 7 species. So this meant going through zillions of pictures on Google to find one with a scientific or common name.)

There are several species of potato leafhoppers, but the one in my garden is Empoasca fabae. It feeds on many cultivated crops including eggplants, strawberries, potatoes and tomatoes. They prefer to attack my potatoes and tomatoes (likely due to both plants belonging to the same family, Solanaceae). They are bright lime green with white eyes – apparently there are six white dots on the back of the head that can be seen with magnification, as if I can get close enough for that before they jump! J Their nymphs look similar, but are smaller with no wings.

Potato LeafHopper Adult
Empoasca fabae

They arrive during spring time and can have several generations per season. Depending on your local climate, the adults either overwinter or migrate to warmer areas.

Potato leafhopper nymph
Empoasca fabae

I have another leafhopper species in my garden, but I can’t identify it, I find many similar looking species, but not this exact one. I have noticed that these are larger than the PLH and their bite is more painful! J

Leafhopper
Unidentified species

 Control

Leafhoppers are tricky to control. Physical removal of infected plants can be effective, but seeing as they will simply jump off or migrate into the garden, physical control is likely only effective short term.

Chemical control: Is the most effective. But the problem with chemical control (even home remedies) is that these insects are too ‘high’ up the evolutionary complexity scale and their pesticides will likely harm other higher insects as well. There are some insecticidal soaps available.

Biological control: This will be the mantids and spiders, wasps prefer caterpillars. I had a huge lack of mantids this season as none of last seasons’ females laid eggs in my garden (should likely go do some hunting for egg cases next season J). So I had a bit more of a problem with leafhoppers this season, but the spiders and wasps managed to move into the gap left by the mantids and kept most of them under control. (Also had more stink bugs in the garden as well, mantids also ate those last year, check my Mantid post.)

Preventative tips

Healthy plants should be able to resist most of the damage caused by leafhoppers and should produce well.

Apparently you should avoid over-fertilisation of your plants as this will increase the leafhopper populations in your garden.

They lay their eggs on plant stems. Each female can lay 2-3 every day for up to 50 days. These eggs hatch in 7-10 days. So the removal of spent or dead plants will likely decrease the amount of suitable egg laying places. That includes regular weeding! J

If you are close to alfalfa fields you may have more problems with PLH, especially when the alfalfa is harvested and the insects need a new food source.

Something cool

A sister family, Membracidae, the Treehoppers have a fascinating evolutionary phenomenon. They have a large pronotum, a part of the prothorax, known as a helmet. The helmet usually resembles thorns and aid camouflage. But, some species have developed very ornate helmets. Some scientists speculate that these resemble aggressive ants or animal droppings.

Learhopper morphology
Original picture: Eupteryx aurata, Sarefo, Wikipedia

Prud’homme and colleagues (2011), investigated the strange helmets of the treehoppers. They found that the helmets are actually appendages that resemble a modified wing. There is a set of genes (known as a gene family), the Hox gene family, present in all animals and is responsible for the correct development of limbs/wings during the formation of the embryo. The helmets of the treehoppers were speculated to have ‘escaped’ the constraints of the Hox gene and where able to develop into diverse appendages. This was due to the fact that, wings have a restricted shape due to their function in flight, whereas the appendages can take on a number of different shapes to facilitate camouflage. In the 250 million years of insect evolution, this is a rare and unusual case – but if there is one thing that biology and especially genetics has thought me , is that just about anything is possible, since nature does not abide by the supposed rules that humans have J. So I just thought I would share this interesting evolutionary bit with you – I hope I didn’t over-science it J.

Reference:Prud’homme B. et. al. (2011) Bodyplan innovation in treehoppers through the evolution of an extra wing-like appendage. Nature: 473 83-86.

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Please share with fellow gardening enthusiasts via the various sharing buttons at the end of posts/pages! Else you can vote for posts through the Google reactions bar at the end of articles. To stay up to date I have provided several reader and social networking platforms with which to subscribe: Twitter, Pinterest, RSS Feed Reader or Email/Follow directly using the Blog Followers widget on the left hand side toolbar. Thank you for reading and please feel free to ask if questions arise - I appreciate comments and ideas too! 😆

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Sweet Potato: How To Grow - Vegetable of the Month

Sweet Potato stats/requirements at a glance

Ease of Raising:	5/5 - Very easy
Water:	2-4/5 – Twice a week to daily
Sun:	4/5 - Full sun, will tolerate shade
Training:	1/5 – None, except for unwanted runners
Fertilise/Feeding:	3/5 – Moderate (monthly)
Time to Harvest:	4/5 – Moderate (3-4 months as leaves die, but well worth the wait)
Frost Hardiness:	4/4 – Very tender (can’t take light frost)
Uses	Culinary
Most Problematic Nemesis:	Nothing too serious
Container Plant:	No – produces tubers away from main base

Ipomoea purga
Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen
Abbildungen mit kurz erläuterndem Texte
1887)
Kurt Stubers Online Library

Quick intro

There isn’t much mention of sweet potatoes in most gardening books, yet it is extremely easy to grow and the harvest is bountiful. These tubers can be eaten baked, boiled or candied – even alcohol can be made from sweet potatoes. Young shoots and leaves are sometimes eaten as greens or given to livestock. Given enough space, sweet potatoes grow vigorously and produce a lot of tubers, but they may take over the garden if not kept in check!

History

It is generally assumed that the sweet potato has its origins in tropical America, specifically from wild Mexican Ipomoea trifida. It may have been cultivated since 8000BC in Mexico, Central and South America, and the West Indies. Columbus returned from his first voyage to the New World to Spain with the sweet potato. Thereafter the Spaniards and Portuguese transported it to Asia and Africa, and by some way it was transported to Polynesia and New Zealand as well. Lately, it is an important root crop in Asia and Africa, but is also cultivated in the Americas and Europe.

Science Stuff

The Sweet Potato, Ipomoea batatas, belongs to the Convolvulaceae (the morning glory family) and is often confused with yams (Dioscorea spp.) and is not a true potato (Solanum tuberosum). There are ornamental varieties, which are called tuberous morning glories, which to my mind it a better definition for the root crop.

The Golden Morning Glory
Aniseia aurea

There are different varieties of sweet potato, elongated to globular, white, tan, yellow, red, purple skinned and ones with white, yellow or orange flesh.

Ipomoea trifida, and some other wild sweet potato varieties are still bred into the domesticated lineage, as these varieties have high genetic diversity and their tubers contain more starch.

Growing Sweet Potatoes

So the one big thing I read on sweet potatoes is that it does not tolerate frost, considering that it is a subtropical to tropical crop. Therefore it should be grown in regions with five months (or more) worth of growing season. Cold tolerant cultivars have been introduced to the UK, but it still requires the protection and added heat from tunnels, frames or green houses to crop reliably.

Sweet Potato Flower
Ipomoea batatas

It prefers temperature above 24^oC (75^oF), but will tolerate temperature as low as 15^oC. It likes lots of sun and warm nights. Apparently it likes a lot of water and is sensitive to drought, although mine did not have the slightest problem with this – the tomatoes are more thirsty that the sweet potato! Water-logging may cause the tubers to rot, but there is no such threat in SA J

It will appreciate some compost and produce larger crops, but it can cope with poor soils and many farming conditions. The sweet potato requires little weeding, as it is a weed itself, excluding all other weeds (although mine was able to co-habituate with some miss-placed potato plants). Make sure that the soil is loosened up to 25cm for tubers to form properly.

Other sweet potato tips

Make sure to keep an eye on its trailing nature as it will creep into everything and needs to be restricted if grown amongst other vegetables, else you can plop it somewhere in the garden and let it carry on.

Sweet Potato Plant
Ipomoea batatas

The plant does not have problematic pests or diseases, I had a few caterpillars feeding on its foliage, but luckily my wasp army made off with the invasion soon enough J.

Harvesting and Storing

Sweet potatoes are harvested once the leaves start to yellow, usually 4-5 months after planting. Leaving the tubers in the soil after the plant has died ensures that the starch content increases and the tubers become sweeter, but the tubers must be harvested before the first frost.

Sweet Potato Tubers (White)
Ipomoea batatas

Sweet potatoes need proper curing to become sweet and moist. This can be done by storing them in a warm (26^oC, 80^oF) and humid room with good ventilation for 5-10 days. Afterwards the sweet potatoes can be stored at 12-15^oC (55-60^oF). To low temperature causes root to harden, whereas to high and dry conditions cause roots to shrivel. So I suggest storing them in a paper bag to level out the conditions a bit more. Properly cured sweet potatoes can keep for up to 12 months, just check them regularly for any signs of disease or rot.

Propagation

Sweet potatoes do best when grown vegetatively- that being cuttings or ‘slips’. Cuttings of sweet potato vine root easily and rapidly in water. Slips are similar to potato ‘eyes’; half of the tuber can be placed into a cup of water and left in the water until the tuber produces shoots, after which it can be planted into the garden.

I suppose you can get sweet potato plants/cuttings and a nursery, but no such luck here. I let some store-bought sweet potatoes produce slips and planted them in the garden.

As with the potatoes, keep some smaller tubers to produce slips in the next season.

My Sweet Potatoes

So, again, as with the potato – I don’t have a ‘formal’ sweet potato cultivar. I have made slips from white and orange flesh varieties. You will notice that some of your sweet potatoes will grow slower than the others (and they’ll have leaves that curl inwards), these are poor stock and their smaller tubers should rather not be kept as slips for the next season.

Sweet Potato Vine
Ipomoea batatas

A morning glory with identity crisis!

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Please share with fellow gardening enthusiasts via the various sharing buttons at the end of posts/pages! Else you can vote for posts through the Google reactions bar at the end of articles. To stay up to date I have provided several reader and social networking platforms with which to subscribe: Twitter, Pinterest, RSS Feed Reader or Email/Follow directly using the Blog Followers widget on the left hand side toolbar. Thank you for reading and please feel free to ask if questions arise - I appreciate comments and ideas too! 😆

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Wasps: Biological Control - Garden Critter of the Month

Wasps at a glance

Occupation:	Predator
Value to Gardener:	5/5 - Pest Controller and Pollinator
Danger to Humans:	4/5 – They can sting when provoked
Availability:	5/5 – They’ll arrive or you can buy some

Quick Intro

The wasp is likely an under appreciated garden helper. They are one of a few insects that duel as a predator and a pollinator. If left unthreatened they will be valuable additions to any garden.

Wasp morphology
WikipedianProlific, Wikipedia

Science Stuff

Wasps belong to the order Hymenoptera, which includes bees and ants. The main difference between a Hymenoptera (Bees, wasps and ants) and Diptera (Flies and mosquitoes) is the narrow waist for the Hymenoptera and small spoon-shaped halters are present in Diptera.

Wasps have biting mouthparts and an ovipositor (egg-laying organ). The ovipositor can be modified to sawing, boring, piercing or stinging. There are many different types of wasps, either specialising in a prey-item (spiders and caterpillars) or by biology (larvae deposited in plant leaves, creating galls or cuckoo wasps that lay their eggs in the nests of other Hymenoptera). Here is a quick list of a few major wasp families:

Ichneumonidae (For lack of common name, I’ll make it Drilling Wasps): These wasps have slender bodies and females have a long ovipositor modified to bore holes into plant stems to reach the larvae upon which they parasitise. Eggs are deposited into the larvae of moths, butterflies, flies, other Hymenoptera and lacewings.

Ichneumonidae
Dolichomitus imperator
Oviposition 

Gall wasps: These are wasps that deposit their eggs in plant material, causing localised swelling of the plant material and forms galls. These wasps are considered pests in agriculture. Families include; Eucharitidae and Pteromalidae.

Pompilidae (Spider-hunting wasps): These wasps vary in size, depending on the prey items size. They are often black with bright orange and red markings. Spiders are caught, returned to the nest where larvae are deposited in the paralysed spider.

Pompilidae
Spider-hunting wasps
Sphictostethus nitidus 

Vespidae (Paper wasps): These are the most common wasps and will be the main family discussed in this article. All species build papery multi-celled nests of chewed wood pulp and saliva. They are highly social and will defend their nests aggressively.

Vespula germanica
Vespidae
Paper wasp 

Eumenidae (Potter wasps): These are solitary wasps that excavate burrows or use mud to make nests. They deposit their eggs in the nest before introducing paralysed caterpillars.

Eumenidae
Potter wasp

Sphecidae (Mud daubers): This is a large family of solitary wasps. They also create burrows or mud nests. Adults feed on pollen and larvae are fed with insects. Females can sting, but are seldom aggressive. They can be used as biological control agents in agriculture, depending on their prey preferences.

Ammophila sabulosa
Sphecidae
Mud daubers 

One specific mud dauber that is regular visitors to my garden is the Flowerpot wasp, Pseudoplisus natalensis. I recognise them by their ‘white socks’. Females dig holes in the loose soil of the flower pots and bring leaf hopper (Ptyelus grossus) nymphs to the nest. They are fascinating to watch, they will fling out dirt from their burrow, leave and a few minutes later return with a paralysed leaf hopper to be store in the dungeon J. Which is great, because not only are the leaf hoppers a pest, but they have a nasty bite to them when they sit on you!

Habitat

Wasps, especially, paper wasps have diverse habitats and are found just about everywhere. Once a colony has been established, fertilised females can overwinter and new colonies are founded in spring, resulting in a continuous wasp presence.

Paper Wasp
Belonogaster dubia

They just have a habit of making nests at inconvenient locations, under door frames, in keyholes. Simply remove the nest at night (this prevents harm to both humans and wasps, but be careful – my mom is fearless when it comes to this J, she has forcefully relocated many colonies without a single sting J and no harm to the wasps either) and they will relocate to somewhere else, without losing your garden helper or being stung in the process.

Diet

Adult paper wasps feed on pollen and make great pollinators, since they are larger than bees and distribute more pollen to other flowers. Mine like the raspberry's flowers and since they’ve been pollinating it; the raspberry has given full fruits (all of the multiple flowers are pollinated and all set to fruit).

Adult paper wasps feed their young on chewed caterpillars. This season (summer 2012-2013) I have had a major caterpillar invasion of epic proportions! I have had about a 40% loss in tomatoes, all due to caterpillar feeding. The worst part is that they will not eat one whole tomato until it is completely consumed; they eat one or two holes in each tomato. This makes the tomato rot and fall from the plant. Others have gotten into some leafy vegetables as well, but luckily my trusty army of 1 persistent female wasp made off with all of them (in one day!) before too many vegetables were lost. (The caterpillar were mostly moth species, especially Chrysodeixis acuta, Silver U or Tomato semi-loopers, I’ll do a full pest profile on these soon J).

Paper Wasps Hunting
Belonogaster dubia

Silver U, Tomato semi-looper
Chrysodeixis acuta

Wasp SOS

Twisted-wing parasites: Is a highly specialised group of insects that resemble beetles. They belong to the order Strepsiptera and are parasites that live within other insects, mostly Hymenoptera and Hemiptera (True Bugs – stink bugs and the like). Stylopid females penetrate the host cuticle, they become sessile and remain in the body of the host and can be seen protruding from the abdomen. After insemination of females by flying males, stylopid larvae consume their mother (hemocelous viviparity). The larvae are mobile, they seek out and infect new hosts, where they moult into legless maggots that remain within the host, feeding of nutrients in the blood. Along with abdominal deformities, the parasites cause the host to become sterile and cause behavioural changes of the host. Infected wasps do not perform social colony tasks, instead they leave the colony and gather in clusters at suitable mating sites for the parasite. Female parasites of the Xenos vesparum species do not exhaust their host's reserves and may overwinter with their wasp host, whereas males exhaust their host’s reserves and the wasp dies at the end of the summer season.

Twisted-wing parasite
Strepsiptera, Halictophagida
Halvard, Wikipedia

Wasps – last thoughts

Even though they can be the stuff of nightmares, this season has made me realise how under appreciated they really are (even more than mantids J) and that can be excellent pollinators and great biological pest control.

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Please share with fellow gardening enthusiasts via the various sharing buttons at the end of posts/pages! Else you can vote for posts through the Google reactions bar at the end of articles. To stay up to date I have provided several reader and social networking platforms with which to subscribe: Twitter, Pinterest, RSS Feed Reader or Email/Follow directly using the Blog Followers widget on the left hand side toolbar. Thank you for reading and please feel free to ask if questions arise - I appreciate comments and ideas too! 😆

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Comfrey: How To Grow – Herb of the Month

Comfrey stats/requirements at a glance

Ease of Raising:	3/5 – Bi-weekly check-ups
Water:	2/5 – Minimal, twice per week (especially in a container)
Sun:	4/5 – Full sun, shade tolerant
Training:	1/5 – Minimal (harvesting keeps plant in shape)
Fertilise/Feeding:	1/5 – Minimal, at least during the growing season
Time to Harvest:	1/5 – Immediate (purchased a seedling) to Soon (from seed)
Frost Hardiness:	3/4 – Tender (can’t take mild frost)
Uses:	Medicinal, Pollinator attractor & Compost
Most Problematic Nemesis:	Some caterpillar feeding
Container Plant:	Yes definitely

Comfrey
Symphytum officinale
Flora of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (1885)
Kurt Stober Online Library

Quick intro

Comfrey is known for its healing properties and is currently also used as compost addition or as a liquid fertiliser, which is prepared from the leaves. Even though it has wonderful medicinal and composting properties, the plant may be considered as a weed by many.

History

Comfrey is native to Europe, especially Ireland and Britain, and temperate parts of Asia. It has been cultivated since 400BC due to its unrivalled potential for healing external wounds and broken bones, hence receiving its namesake ‘Knitbone’ or ‘Boneset’.

Comfrey was favoured amongst the Greek physicians, especially during times of war. Today comfrey is also grown in North America and it roots and leaves are still used for medicinal purposes.

Science Stuff

Comfrey belongs to the Boraginaceae family of herbs, the Forget-me-not family. This family mainly contains herbs with hairy leaves, including Borage, Fiddelenck, Forget-me-not, Alkanet, Lungwort and Bugloss.

There are two main species, wild or common comfrey (Symphytum offinale) and rough or prickly comfrey (Symphytum asperum). A hybrid variety exists as well between S. offinale and S. asperum, known as Russian comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum).

Comfrey is used both internally and externally, but it is unadvised to use internally, as comfrey contains the toxin symphytine (Pyrrolzidine alkaloid), which causes liver damage and may be carcinogenic.

Comfrey leaves and roots are used to make extracts for extrernal use. These extracts contain allantoin, which stimulates the growth of new cells, rosemarinic acid, which is an anti-inflammaroty and mucilage, which soothes inflamed tissues. Roots contain twice the amount of allantoin than leaves. Comfrey is generally used as a cream and applied to affected areas that includes wounds, broken bones and is frequently used as a skin product.

Growing Comfrey

Leaves are main part of the comfrey plant used in the vegetable garden. Therefore it requires a fair amount of nitrogen to encourage good leaf production and will do well when fertilized with nitrogen-based mulch, such as animal manure or lawn cuttings.

Comfrey is difficult to grow from seed, as germination takes long (20 weeks) and is erratic. New plants can be successfully propagated from root cuttings. It is also advisable to grow comfrey in a container as it has a deep root system, making the plant nearly impossible to remove from the garden as new plants regrow from any root stumps left in the soil. Keep comfrey well-watered during the growing season if you plan to harvest leaves from it.

Russian Comfrey
Symphytumn x uplandicum

Pruning

Essentially no pruning is required, since regular harvesting keeps the monster in shape J.

Other Tips

Comfrey, specifically Russian comfrey, as a compost addition or liquid fertiliser is highly recommended when you have a vegetable patch. It is high in nitrogen (hence proteins), phosphorus and potassium (Good NPK values J). For detailed NPK quantities of comfrey refer to Composting. If your comfrey is in the garden (and you tend to keep it there) then your comfrey will tap into deep nutrient reserves in the soil that can be recovered in the leaves.

Here are a few ways comfrey is used as a compost/feed addition:

ü    Compost activator – add to compost composed mainly of dry brown material. Layers of comfrey between the brown matter will heat the compost heap and assist with decomposition. Do not add too much comfrey as the comfrey will break down instead of assisting the decomposition of the heap.

ü     Comfrey mulch – a 5cm layer (2 inches) of fresh leaves around the stems of plant will break down slowly and release nutrient to the soil without removing nitrogen whilst decomposing (such as straw and leaves). It is good for just about any vegetable or fruit, but can be useful addition to nutrient guzzlers such as fruiting plants (tomatoes & fruit trees) and root vegetables (potatoes).

ü    Liquid feed – There are two ways to make liquid comfrey feed or comfrey tea. One is really smelly (the reason why I switched to the other) and the other is not.

o      Smelly: Simply cut the leaves into small pieces and add to a bottle or bucket of water and seal. After about 1-3 months, depending on the amount of leaves, you will have nasty smelling liquid feed. It works wonders, but the smell is terrible. It smells bad due to the anaerobic (no oxygen) decomposition of the comfrey in the water. Dilute this in a ratio of 1:10, 1 part of comfrey liquid to 10 parts water.

o      Not smelly: Place comfrey leaves in a plastic container with holes in the base. Weigh it down with a stone or brick. Place this container (with holes) in a second container. The second container can be lined with a plastic bag if you intend to re-use it for another purpose. Place a lid on this to prevent flies from making a breeding ground in there. As the comfrey decomposes it produces an odourless black syrup that drips to the bottom container. (Alternatively you can use one bucket with a hole and the comfrey placed on top of another. Comfrey will then drip into the bottom bucket for collection.) The comfrey liquid is a concentrate and therefore requires dilution before use. It is also diluted in a 1:10 ratio (1 part liquid comfrey to 10 parts water).

Liquid comfrey can be used on tomatoes or similar crops three times a week and potted plants once a week. The tea can be stored in glass jars in a cool dark place until further use.

If you have caterpillar feeding on your comfrey it is easiest to physically remove them from the plant. Other problems may include rust and powdery mildew. To control these, cut the plant to the ground and burn the infected leaves. New uninfected leaves should regrow rapidly.

Harvesting & Storing

Comfrey leaves can be harvested up to 5 times a year during the spring to summer months. Leaves are harvested once they are 30-60cm high (~ 1-2 feet).

Comfrey leaves can be dried, but they are brittle. Thus it is preferable to use comfrey leaves when they are fresh.

Seed Saving & Propagation

Russian comfrey (S. x uplandicum) produces clusters of pink, purple or blue flowers in summer. Common comfrey (S. officinale) produces white or pink flowers and is likely insect pollinated.

Russian Comfrey Flowers
Symphytum x uplandicum

Russian comfrey is preferred in the garden as it is sterile and does not self-seed yet bares the same nutrient-rich foliage properties of S. officinale.

Since comfrey is difficult to raise from seeds, root cuttings are used.

My Comfrey

I have the Russian comfrey. Originally one comfrey, which self-propagated from a leaf cutting if I remember correctly J. Very prickly, wear gloves if your skin gets irritated when you handle the leaves.

Russian Comfrey
Symphytum x uplandicum

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Please share with fellow gardening enthusiasts via the various sharing buttons at the end of posts/pages! Else you can vote for posts through the Google reactions bar at the end of articles. To stay up to date I have provided several reader and social networking platforms with which to subscribe: Twitter, Pinterest, RSS Feed Reader or Email/Follow directly using the Blog Followers widget on the left hand side toolbar. Thank you for reading and please feel free to ask if questions arise - I appreciate comments and ideas too! 😆

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Vegetable Garden Myths & Truths

I was going through the internet articles and blogs where I read all kinds of reasons for having a vegetable garden. But I felt like most of the reasons aren't true and many things go unmentioned. So I decided that I would make my own versions of vegetable garden myths & truths. Now, just another note on the "saving money part", here in SA we get charged a fortune for both water and electricity - so water needs to be free and anything in the vegetable garden based on electricity (such as water pumps, timed irrigation ...) is also out of the question on my little student budget. As such, the truths & myths above would mostly apply to gardeners in SA :) But that doesn't mean that the rest of the world can learn something too!

Enjoy


- Update 2014 -

Since posting this article the economic state of South Africa has changed a lot and growing your own veg saves a lot of R!!!

See my updated post for a list of vegetables worth growing:
Starting a Productive and Economic Food Garden

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If you enjoy the content please share with fellow gardening enthusiasts via the various sharing buttons at the end of posts/pages! Else you can vote for posts through the Google reactions bar at the end of articles. To stay up to date I have provided several reader and social networking platforms with which to subscribe: Twitter, Pinterest, RSS Feed Reader or Email/Follow directly using the Blog Followers or Follow Your Way widget on the left hand side toolbar. Thank you for reading and please feel free to ask if questions arise - I appreciate comments and ideas too! J
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