how to grow carrots, with dr. john navazio

How to Grow and Care for Braeburn Apple Trees Malus x domestica ‘Braeburn’

I have found a new commitment to growing and eating Brussels sprouts. From 3 or 4 plants last year I ate several hearty meals including a socially distanced Christmas (not because of any sprout side effects).

And though most leaves are green—why are some not green at all, or at certain times of year?The new book, “How Plants Work: The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do” answers those questions and more. (Enter to win a copy at the bottom of the page.)Its author, Linda Chalker Scott, joined me on the public radio show and podcast to explain. Linda is an Extension Urban Horticulturist with Washington State University, a

Like all of Ken’s 18 books (!!!), “Making More Plants: The Science, Art and Joy of Propagation” is rich in instruction, but also visually arresting, since he’s an award-winning photographer, too.  It covers the botany of propagation—the why’s behind how you can make more plants of a particular species sexually or asexually or both—because as Ken says:“It is not essential to learn about botany to garden well; it’s inevitable.”Then in words and intimate pictures he covers virtually every tactic for doing so, from seed-sowing to leaf and root cuttings, to layering, grafting, division and more.  The photos are so beautiful, and Ken’s obvious enthusiasm so evident on every page, that I want to try everything. (Just what I nee

MY LIST OF HOMEGROWN INGREDIENTS FOR THE THANKSGIVING TABLE starts with the bumpy, oddball makings of a centerpiece. Gourds (like the warty or Bule ones), though delicious to look at, are more decor than dinner, but I did grow many edible parts of the harvest feast this year: sweet potatoes (which I’ve cooked with you here before) and Brussels sprouts and white potatoes and winter squash and green beans—and come to think of it, there might be something on the menu made with my apples, too, and garlic and parsley and sage and…well, you get the idea.

HOW REVOLUTIONARY ARE WE FEELING at the moment? If not sufficiently so to occupy Wall Street or another downtown, then what about to occupy our front yards (and side yards and backyards and decks and balconies) with food gardens? In this talk at the TED-Dirigo conference (dirigo is the state motto of Maine, where the conference was held, and means, appropriately, “I lead”), Kitchen Gardeners International founder Roger Doiron proposes we help solve the earth’s biggest problem–food supply–one subversive plot at a time.

Gallione, in his position as Technical Services Technician in the research department at Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Maine, is used to answering gardeners’ questions. I started at the beginning with mine: Why grow crops under cover, anyhow?There are two basic uses for fabric row covers, Paul explained:To modify temperature (for heat retention or frost protection, most early and late in the season with heavyweight fabrics); As a barrier to keep out insects, crows, and chipmunks, to name a few common troublemakers. (Note: You can also create some shade, perhaps for summer salads—t

AN ARTICLE about soil solarization for weed control, the practice of covering beds or fields with plastic to keep down unwanted plants, caught my attention in the summer of 2018. It was published on the Cooperative Extension’s online home called eXtension.org and was written by University of Maine doctoral candidate, and she was my guest that winter on my radio show and podcast.

SOME SPECIES MIGRATE to warmer wintering grounds, and oh, how deftly they do fly—whether on their way south, or on the hunt for supper, or perhaps to meet up with that someone special, and mate in mid-air. But I’m not talking about some feathered creature with a mere single set of wings; I’m talking about dragonflies—as I did in a radio segment and podcast with a leading American expert on the subject, zoologist, Princeton Field Guide author and photographer Dennis Paulson. Share in the four-winged wonder.

‘PLANT A CARROT, get a carrot, not a Brussels sprout,’ proclaims the song from the 1960 (and ongoing) musical “The Fantasticks.” But in 2014–no thanks to genetic engineering, gladly, but to charmingly low-tech creativity and total brilliance–you can plant a carrot and get a clarinet. I’ve been watching this over and again for weeks, and meant to share it sooner.

We discussed the subject of home and homing on the May 19, 2014 edition of my public-radio show and podcast; read along while you listen using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).“Basically everything in the life of organisms relates to being in the right place,” says Heinrich, then 74, a thought that wove through the discussion on my latest radio show.my q&a with bernd heinrichQ. Your books always seem to come at just the right time for me, thank you very much. I had just read “The Homing Instinct” when the first flicker reappeared early this spring, and made a beeline to the spot near my house where every year a giant anthill eventually forms. Was it observations like th

Eliot Coleman has written extensively about organic agriculture since 1975. He has more than 50 years’ experience in all aspects of the subject and has been a commercial market gardener, the director of research projects, a designer of tools for farmers and gardeners, and a teacher and lecturer. He and his wife, Barbara Damrosch, operate Four Season Farm, a commercial year-round market garden in Maine.Read along as you listen to the Oct. 8, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).Learn why he invokes us to “cultivate ease and order, not battle disease and disorder,” and more—plus enter to win the revised edition of “The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual