Gardening

  • Gardening

    Lost battle against Cucumber Mosaic Virus, again!

    Uh oh, it is just August 1st and my cucumber plants have already started dying from CMV. This year I planted my cukes in a different box… the one I planted tomatoes in, last year. They survived longer than if I planted in the same box as the one in which I planted them last year (when they got killed by CMV). I am really tired of this CMV, there is no solution to this problem 🙁 They say prevention is the only thing you can do…but how?

  • Gardening

    Sources of vermiculite in northern Virginia

    At first I found out that vermiculite is almost impossible to find here in northern Virginia. After searching for a day or so I eventually found a few suppliers of it: Meadow view farms in Woodbridge has the fine variety…the kind they tell us to stay away from  4 cu ft bag for $25 Home Depot has 2 cu ft bags of the medium variety for $21 Merrifield Gardens in Fair Oaks has the 4 cu ft bags of coarse vermiculite for $40 Roxbury Farms in Fredericksburg has 4 cu ft bags of coarse vermiculite for $27 Southern States in Manassas has 4 cu ft bags of coarse vermiculite for…

  • Gardening

    Trying out the Square Foot Gardening method

    Tilling the soil ever year was a pretty tiresome process. So I was looking for an easier way to grow vegetables and came across this book describing another way called Square Foot Gardening. The ideas in this book seem to be pretty good. Use no soil, just use a mix of compost, peat moss and vermiculite. At first I found out that vermiculite is almost impossible to find here in northern Virginia. After searching for a day or so I eventually found it locally.