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I've always found the idea of companion planting fascinating. I wouldn't swear it always works, but I suspect there's a lot more substance to it than its detractors will admit. Gardeners have been fine tuning it for years and there's no substitute for experience. Today I'm combining two of my gardening loves: growing tomatoes and companion planting. I culled through a few dozen articles and books and my own experience and pulled together my list of companion plants for tomatoes. Since you're going to grow some of these plants anyway, why not experiment with growing them together? There's still plenty of time to start some seeds.

Photo: © Marie Iannotti

Companion Planting for Tomatoes originally appeared on About.com Gardening on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 01:06:34.

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Where on earth do all those aphids come from? Seriously, how do they find their way into our homes in the dead of winter? What were they living on until I so graciously started some seedlings?

What they lack in size, they make up in numbers. Debbie Hadley, About's Guide to Insects, says "...a single aphid could produce 600 billion descendants in one season." What chance does a gardener have against those kinds of odds? And they apparently have some type of twisted relationship with ants, who protect them in order to get their fix of honeydew. Debbie sheds some light on these little suckers of the plant world.

• All About Aphids
• Where Did All These Aphids Come From?
• The Odd Couple - Ants and Aphids
• Two Homemade Aphid Sprays
• Houseplant Pest Problems

Photo: rgrabe / stock.xchng.

Where Do All the Aphids Come From? originally appeared on About.com Gardening on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 01:09:53.

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I've yet to plant an evening garden, probably because the bugs come out at night, but I have a list of flowers I'd love to include in one, in the future. White flowers top the list for evening gardens. Of course there's moonflower, evening stock and night blooming cereus. But also near the top of the list is Mirabilis jalapa 'Alba'.

Four O'Clocks do indeed bloom sometime around four o'clock in the evening and they stay in bloom through the night. I've read that night blooming flowers do so because they are pollinated by moths. I can't confirm that, so if any of you have any knowledge of this, please let us know.

That bit of trivia aside, Four O'Clocks are tender perennials, often grown as annuals, that start blooming in mid-summer and continue to bloom profusely until frost. Why wait until you create an evening garden to plant them? Put some in a pot on the patio, tuck a few in your walk way and plant some under a window, so their gentle vanilla scent can catch you off guard when a breeze blows in. This week's featured plant may seem common to some gardeners, but it's a triple delight: flowers, fragrance and reseeding. Are Four O'Clocks on your seed list?

Featured Plant: Four O’Clock (Mirabilis jalapa) originally appeared on About.com Gardening on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 01:00:02.

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My well-meaning friend emailed a link to Gardener's Supply Kitchen Garden Planner and I can't stop playing with it, so I figured why no share it with all of you. You set the size of your garden and you'll get a square marked off in 1' grids. There are 47 different vegetables that you drag onto the grid and it tells you how many of that vegetable to plant in 1 sq. ft. For example: 9 beets or 2 cucumbers. (Although I question that 1 sq. ft. is adequate for a pumpkin vine. You an save your map, print it, even edit the plant names so you know which are the 'Blue Lake' beans and which are the 'Italian Bush'. When you print it out, you get more detailed planting tips. It's very addictive and a nice way to see how much you can squeeze into your plot.

If you're still wondering how much you should plant, so that your family doesn't mutiny when they see beans for dinner again, here are some guidelines for how much to plant in the vegetable garden, gleaned from my own experience, friends and the bean counters (literally) at cooperative extensions around the country. I say guidelines, because it all comes down to what you like to eat and how well it grows.

Photo: © Marie Iannotti

Gardening Question of the Week: How Much Should I Plant? originally appeared on About.com Gardening on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 01:01:46.

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There's been a huge push to gets kids involved in gardening. You'd think they'd be naturals: dirt, bugs, food... Actually, most kids do enjoy working in the garden. It's being patient while things begin to grow that they can't stand. This week is National Green Week and the Green Education Foundation has set a goal of getting 10,000 school gardens up and growing this year, with their Green Thumb Challenge. They provide lots of help and direction on their site, if you'd like to help your child's school.

The Welch's company is teaming up with Scholastic to award Welch's Harvest Grants to schools planning to start gardens. There are indoor and outdoor garden packages of tools, seeds and educational materials. Five 1st prize winners will each receive a $1,000 package. Twenty-five winners will get a $500 package and another 70 winners will receive a package worth $250. The contest ends next week, so check it out now.

And Bonnie Plants has a charming program called Third Grade Cabbage Program. Participating 3rd graders will receive a free Bonnie O.S. Cross cabbage to plant grow and nurture. These are big cabbages that can get up to 50 pounds, so there's an air of excitement for a small kid growing one of these. At the end of the season, schools select the best cabbage, based on size and appearance. That student's name is then included in a statewide drawing. Each state's winner is chosen in a random drawing , by the Commission of Agriculture. The winners get a $1,000 scholarship to put toward their education. Last year, 1.5 million students participated in 45 states. That's Ohio State Winner, Dakota Gurney, with his champion cabbage. I sure hope Dakota likes cabbage.

Bonnie Plants' 3rd Grade Cabbage Program. Ohio State Winner: Dakota Gurney
Photo Provided by Green Earth Media Group

Raising Gardeners originally appeared on About.com Gardening on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 01:01:23.

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