Chervil Herbs or Anthriscus Cerefolium

Chervil looks like parsley but is even more feathery. It has a very mild, subtle flavor that tastes like spring itself in a green salad, as long as you don’t overpower it with stronger herbs. It is also sublime in an omelet. Rarely more than a foot tall, chervil is nonetheless a survivor. A hardy annual, it will withstand some frost, and though it germinates slowly, it self-sows with abandon. Much of my chervil-harvesting consists of plucking little clumps that have come up in the wrong place but at just the right time for dinner. 

Well, if you to grow Chervil, then it’s obviously very important, that you must know how to grow Chervil. Here we’ll tell you the best idea of growing Chervil. You know, Chervil will grow in full sun but prefers part shade, particularly in hot climates. Growing it in nice, light, moderately rich soil and direct seeding works best. So you’ve to sow seeds outdoors as soon as the soil can be worked in spring, thinning to four to six inches apart. My chervil goes to seed and succumbs to hot weather in midsummer, but by then it has either self-sown its replacement or I have sown a succession crop in a semi shaded spot or under a lath cover such as the frame. You grow chervil indoors in winter by sowing it in a long box, then sowing a new crop in another box before the first crop peters out. To dry chervil cut it before the flowers open. It also freezes well in plastic bags.

How to Grow Basil (Ocimum Basilicum) Herbs

The herbs are all good for cooking and are handsome to look at. They’re only a snip and a taste of the vast world you can learn more about from the specialty herb of Basil that will give you the makings of a kitchen herb garden. Add to them any special favorites you might have. 

Every summer the basil to produce tall, lush plants with big bright green leaves, you need to put the leaves, whole into salads, especially salads of sliced ripe garden tomatoes. You’ve to chop the leaves and put them into sauces, soups and eggplant casseroles. And I puree great handfuls of them in the food processor along with Italian parsley, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan cheese to make pesto that glorious Italian sauce that turns a simple bowl of pasta into a delicacy. Every fall the basil I the garden give the first unmistakably dismal sign of winter’s approach. 

A few maple leaves just might be turning orange because the trees are diseased or it’s been dry lately; the geese just might be flying south to escape encroaching suburbanization of the country. But there’s no mistaking the blackened mess that is my basil after the first frost. Basil, for all its summer bravado, is a tender annual, and if frost is predicted for the night you can find out there in the dark, picking basil by the armful and making emergency batches of pesto till the wee small hours.

The commonest kind of basil is called “sweet basil” and can grow as tall as six feet in warm climates. Mine approaches 3 feet. It has small white flower spikes, beloved of bees. There are other exotic basils such as anise basil and cinnamon basil, and a bush form (Ocimum basilicum “Minimum”) that is suggested for indoor culture. The only other one I’ve grown is the wonderful purple “Dark Opal” which has pink flowers; but a friend of mine suggests “Spicy Globe”. He says it makes a little round ball, like topiary and is very spicy. I’m dying to try it. 

How to Grow Basil

Well, you’ve to grow basil in full sun if possible, in rich, loose, well-drained soil a little on the limy side. Sow seeds outdoors after all danger of frost has passed, thinning plants to about inches apart. When the plants are about six inches tall, pinch them to make them bushy.; if they start to bloom, pinch the flowers off to keep leaf production going, leaving a few to feed the bees, or to self-sow if you live in a warm climate. To grow an indoor crop in winter either sow seeds or root some stem cuttings from your summer garden before that first frost. 

Give the plants plenty of warmth and light. Indoors or out, your basil will tell you whether its soil is rich enough if so the leaves will be rich dark green; if not, they will be pale green.  Well to harvest basil, if you want to dry the leaves, cut before bloom and dry on trays or screens in a dark, well ventilated place. Freezing or packing them in oil, however preserves more flavor. Basil also makes excellent herb vinegar. 

How to Grow Beets

The best reason to grow beets is to make homemade borscht. But you can also boil them and serve them with butter or one of those gooey sauces, you can pickle them, or you can eat the green tops in salads or as cooked vegetables.

Beets can be savored from the first tops in spring to the last dug roots in December, just before the ground freezes. And it is easy to preserve them long after that by canning, freezing or storing in the root cellar. To top it all off, they’re an easy, fairly quick maturing crop. Few bugs or diseases bother them, and almost any climate suits them. The seedlings are frost hardy and can be grown in spring, summer and fall in cold climates, and in fall, winter and spring in hot ones. Most varieties mature in about eight weeks. 

Select a Site

Beets are easy to find a place for. They will tolerate some shade, so that if part of your garden gets dapple or half day sunlight, put them there, or between rows of tall crops such as Brussels sprouts. They do not take up much room. You can even grow an extra early or extra late crop in a small cold frame. 

Select a Soil

The best soil for beets is a sandy loam lightened and enriched with compost or aged manure (fresh manure makes the root grow side shoots instead of forming one nice round beet). If the soil is acid, dig lime in to raise the pH to at least 6.0. Give beets a luxurious soil, lightening and enriching it to a depth of at least eight inches, and pulverizing it and ridding it of rocks, roots and other obstacles.

Planting Beets

Sow the seed as early as you can work the soil. Because in summer and fall crops soak the seeds to help them germinate if the weather is dry. Plant the seeds ½ inch deep in rows a foot or so apart, or plant them in a wide row. In either cases try to sow the seeds about an inch apart or if they’re any closer they will be bard to thin later; but if they’re too sparse you’ll have gaps in the rows. Water the seed bed with a fine spray and cover it with a light layer of straw or salt hay to keep it moist. Plants every two weeks if you want fresh beets all summer; let up in August if it is hot and dry, then make a few sowings in fall or later in a cold frame. 

Growing 

When your seedlings emerge, remove any straw or hay mulch that is covering them. If you have planted in rows add mulch between the rows. It is important to keep the soil moist around the seedlings. When they’re about two inches tall you will have to thin them. Unfortunately nature produces beets in small, inconveniently designed clusters and several seedlings will come up where each cluster falls. Pull out seedling groups so that the ones remaining are about four inches apart, then snip the extras in each cluster so that just one remains. If you get behind and don’t have a chance to thin until the seedlings are taller it is no big problem; those taller thinning will be good in salads. Just be sure to give maturing roots space in which to grow without crowding. The main idea in growing beets is to get them to mature quickly so that they are tender and not hard and woody. This is done by giving them the kind of soil described above, a steady water supply, no weeds to compete with, and proper thinning. If I lived in a warm, dry climate I would preferably use the mulched row technique especially If I were busy and might forget to weed and water enough. Beets are fairly heavy feeders and appreciate a top dressing with compost or a balanced fertilizer when about half grown. 

Pests and Diseases

A few beetles might show up but probably will not decimate the crop; neither will the small yellow leaf miner. Apply rotenone for the beetles if necessary if you get leaf miners just pull off the white band damaged leaves. Beets occasionally get a fungus disease. Prevent it by keeping the leaves as dry as possible. If it gets started destroy the affected plants. 

Harvest

While the beets are growing you can pick up to a third of the leaves off each plant and use them as cooked greens. If you are a real beet green aficionado you can just pick all the greens and forget the roots. When your fingers tell you that the beet roots are two to three inches in diameter, it is time to harvest them. Pull or dig them up and cut off the stems. Leave on an inch or two of stem if you are storing the roots. 

Varieties

The basic tried and true red beet is Detroit Dark Red good for spring or fall. Good early varieties include “Red Ace” Early wonder and little ball a small sweet one. The popular Ruby Queen gives a bountiful yield. Cylindra is long instead of round. Burpee’s Golden is a beautiful red-orange beet root that does not turn everything purple when cut. This is a plus if you’re making potato salad, unless for you, beets should be like real madras guaranteed to bleed. Especially if you are making borscht. 

How to Grow Best Flavors & Sweet Carrots

If you pull up a Queen Anne’s lace plant growing along the side of the road, you’ll find that its root is a little white carrot. This wild carrot is the species from which our modern hybrid carrots were developed. Indians ate the wild ones, and so can you. But for most gardeners and cooks carrots have come a long way. The main goal in breeding has been to develop better flavor and sweetness by reducing the size of the pale core in the middle, where less sugar and vitamins are found. As a result the best ones are a good rich orange red, crunchy and sweet.

Carrots are now come in all shapes and sizes; the traditional long, tapered ones; short stubby ones; tiny fingerlike ones; even little round ones. Such variety does more than just make life interesting. Carrots of different lengths are suited to different soils and different lengths of seasons.

Carrots do not grow well in very hot weather. Coolness keeps them from turning woody and seems to bring out their color and flavor, too. So in warm areas you must grow them during fall, winter and spring. In the north you can plant them in early spring, then start more every few weeks until August 1 or so, so that there’re carrots in the ground even in early winter. They’re one of the few vegetables that you can actually leave growing straight through the hard freezes of winter, to pick them in early spring. To a northern gardener in mud season these seem like a real prize.

Select a Site

The best site would be sunny and well drained. But carrots will grow in partial shade. I have grown carrots in raised beds with great success it is the best way to maintain the fluffy soil they like. But I find that I have to be extremely vigilant with my hose, since carrots need consistent moisture, and these beds dry out quickly.

Carrots like a deep loose sandy loam the classic beautiful soil. But there’s some latitude here. If your soil is a little heavy, even after adding organic matter, you can still grow the shorter carrots usually an early crop. If your good topsoil is shallow these shorter ones are also the right choice. For late season crops you can get by with poorer soil, and a little less moisture and coolness, by growing the longer carrots that root well below the hot, dry soil surface. But for the carrots to get down that far with any kind of grace, the soil has to be light and airy to the full depth of the carrot root. If the soil is not free of obstacles stones, roots, clay lumps, old horse shoes, etc., the carrot will bend, fork, twist or even stop cold. The closer to the surface, the more the soil should be pulverized, even sifted.

The second most important soil factor is moisture. Digging in organic matter such as compost or manure will help the soil to stay moist. Well-rotted manure will improve the texture and will add nutrients too, but if you use manure, dig it in at least six months before you plant the seeds. (Fresh manure, or even rotted manure if recently applied, can cause carrots to fork and send out little side roots). Mulching will also help to keep the water content steady. Since carrots are a root crop, the soil should be relatively low in nuitrogen, higher in phosphorus and potassium. Potassium is especially important to carrot health, and adding wood ashes is a good way to provide it (but screen out chunky cinders that might impede root growth. The idea pH is around 6.5

Planting

Carrot seeds are sown directly into the garden. The first ones can go in about three or four weeks before the last expected frost. I prefer single rows because they’re much easier to mulch, for maintaining the moist soil surface carrots need. I wet the seed bed or furrow very thoroughly before I plant, to speed up germination. I try to space the seeds about an inch apart, although this is virtually impossible to do because they are so tiny. Some people say that mixing them with sand or coffee grounds makes distributing them evenly easier. You can also buy pelleted seeds of some varieties; these are easier to plant. I cover the seeds with a half inch of loose, pulverized soil made airy with organic matter a whole inch for summer plantings; the seedlings won’t come up through a hard crust. You can cover them with sifted compost, a nonsoil medium such as vermiculite, or whatever mixture suits you, as long as it is very light.

When the seeds are in, I water the bed with a fine spray and lay a layer of salt hay over it to shade it and keep it moist. Some gardeners even lay wet burlap over the seeds, especially if they plant to be away for a few days and won’t be able to water. The burlap must be removed as soon as the seeds have germinated. Others sprout the seeds between wet paper towels in the refrigerator. Another trick is to sow them together with a fast growing radish variety. The radish seedlings will emerge first and shade the slow, spindly carrot seedlings. They’ll also mark the rows and help break the soil crust, if any. The radishes will be harvested long before the carrots produce their major root growth. But like it or not, carrot seeds just take a long time to germinate, and the best thing to do is keep them moist without washing them away and be patient.

Growing

It is best to thin carrots several times, first when they are one to two inches high, then later on whenever they are starting to look crowded. In the first thinning eliminate any seedlings that are closer than half an inch to another seedling. Snipping them off with scissors is one way to do it without damaging the seedlings still growing. The second thinning is more fun, because you are pulling up tiny carrots to toss in salads. When you are finished thinning each plant should have a space to grow in that is at least the size of a mature carrot, plus a bit more.

So far I have probably made carrot culture sound like pretty picky work. It is at first but once the carrots are off to a start they take care of themselves quite well. The only supervision they might need is a soaking in dry weather loose mulch around the plants, and perhaps a liquid fertilizer then they is about six inches tall. The last succession crop really repays you for your trouble. Mulch it heavily and leave it in the ground for a spring harvest. If you see flowers resembling Queen Anne’s lace in your carrot patch, it means that the carrots have bolted (produced flowers in order to make seeds). This has never happened to me, but if it happens to you plant bolt-resistant varieties and stick to cool weather plantings. 

Pests and Diseases

Carrot problems are usually minimal. Carrot diseases are not common, but most, including “carrot yellows” can be avoided by crop rotation. Rotating the crop will also deter the one serious pest, the carrot rust fly. And the will not bother your late plantings. Flea beetles may bother your late ones, but not the early ones.

Harvest

Give carrots a good twist when you pull them up so that the leaves do not break off in your hand, but once they are up, cut off the leaves right away. Carrot tops may look pretty on carrots, but they keep growing and draw moisture and nourishment out of the roots, leaving them limp, wrinkled and tasteless.

Varieties

Stored in boxes in mulched pits or trenches outdoors, in moist sand in garbage cans in the cellar, or just in the refrigerator, carrots keep a long time. Freeze the small, tenderest ones, but use the heavy duty “keepers” in soups and stews or simmered in butter and a little brown sugar until all the cooking liquid has evaporated. Good short, early varieties are “Danvers Half-long” the Chantenay varieties such as “Red Cored Chantenay” and the sweet Nantes types such as “Scarlet Nantes”. Good long carrots are “imperator” a great keeper “Gold Pak” “Orlando Gold” which resists bolting and cracking and A Plus, which is especially nutritious. Ball shaped carrots include “Kundulus” and the old fashioned “Oxheart”. Good midgets are the three inch “Little Finger” lady Finger and short in Sweet. 

Apricots: The World's Healthiest Fruit

Apricots are native to the mountains of Asia and need freezing weather during their dormant period. Though quite cold hardy, they are happiest in long-summer areas in Zones 6 – 8, especially the west coast. Since they bloom very early in spring, they don’t thrive in areas such as New England where spring weather is erratic and can kill the tender flower buds, thus keeping the trees from fruiting. The tangy fruits are very rich in vitamins and are grown on 20 foot trees that are very long-lived in favorable climates. Apricots are beautifully orange colored fruits with full of beta-carotene & fiber that are one of the first signs of summer. However dried and canned apricots are available throughout the year. Fresh apricots with a plenteous supply of vitamin C and are in season in North America from May till August. Therefore any fresh fruit you see during the winter months have been imported from either South America or New Zealand. Relatives to peaches, apricots are small, golden orange fruits, with velvety skin and flesh, not too juicy but certainly smooth and sweet. Nearly describe their flavor as almost musky, with a faint tartness that lies somewhere between a peach and a plum.

Select a Site

Though southern slopes are good in mild climates, avoid them in areas where early bloom can be frost nipped, choosing a northern exposure so bloom will be delayed. Don’t plant apricots near tomatoes or any other members of the Solanaceae or near melons, raspberries or strawberries, all of which can transmit disease. It is even best to avoid places where these plants have grown within five years. Plant the trees a good 25 to 30 feet apart unless they’re dwarfs. The branches spread wider than the tree is tall. 

Soil

Soil should be deep, with no interference from subsurface rock. Fertile, well-drained loam is ideal; clay soils are all right if not too heavy; sandy soils, because they warm quickly in spring, can cause too early bloom.

Planting

Buy one-year old trees and plant in early spring while dormant (fall in mild climates). Cut the top back to 2 to 2 ½ feet.

Growing

Since apricots are deep-rooted they need to be thoroughly watered, especially when the fruiting buds are developing. Don’t over feed them, though, and avoid high nitrogen fertilizers that can produce soft fruit with pit burn. Too much growth too fast can also produce weak branches. Thinning helps produce larger fruit, reduces strain on the branches and keeps the fruits free of disease. Often late frosts will drop some fruit on its own later; but if it doesn’t thin fruits to about three inches apart when they’re thumb sized. Prune apricots as you would apple trees, heading back the top when it reaches the desired height and keeping it open enough to let in sun to ripen the fruit. Fruiting spurs will stop producing after a few years and should be pruned out to favor new growth.

Pests and Diseases

Several diseases can plague apricots. Brown-rot fungus covers the flowers with gray spores; if you can catch it at this stage and prune out affected areas it may not injure the fruit later. Bacterial canker (black spots on fruit, purplish spots on leaves) should also be pruned out. Black heart, a verticillium fungus, may appear as wilting leaves in early summer and as black streaks within the wood. Avoid growing apricots with the plans mentioned above. Pit burn makes the flesh near the pits turn mushy. Keep the roots cool with mulch in hot weather, and avoid overfeeding. Wounding trunks can cause crown gall, so protect them.

Cankerworms that attack the trees may be deterred by a sticky material wrapped around the trunk (commercially available). Fight borers by promptly removing all dead or diseased wood, including any lying on the ground. Some pests that bother plums and peaches, such as plum curculio and peach-tree borer, also affect apricots.

Harvest

You can expect to start harvesting some fruits three or four years after planting. A healthy mature tree can produce as much as 250 pounds of apricots. Pick when fruit is ripe and can be picked easily but before it loses its firmness.

Varieties

Most apricot trees are self-pollinating, so the time of bearing is less important in selecting varieties than is the area in which you live. The late-bearing “Moorpark” and the early “Goldcot” are the most popular varieties in prime Apricot County. Other good varieties include “Hungarian Rose” “Early Golden” and “Perfection” (the last is not self-fertile). In colder climates you’ll do better with “Moongold” “Alfred” “Chinese” “Sungold” and a series bred for both hardiness and disease-resistance that includes “Harcot” “Harglow” and “Hargrand”. There’re also varieties such as “Erligold” developed for low-chill areas like southern California.