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This is a closeup of superb Valentine bleeding heart flowers. The plant likes soil to be evenly moist but not constantly wet. Allow surface soil to become dry to an inch deep or more between waterings. An eastern exposure is ideal and filtered light or mostly shade is preferred much of the day. Avoid scorching the plant from too much direct sunlight and excess heat. As soon as the first crop of blooms begins to show signs of exhaustion, cut back the entire plant once flowering is done. Sprinkle a complete fertilizer on the surrounding soil, moisten in and wait. If autumn frost doesn’t arrive too early, you’ve a good chance to enjoy a second flowering of bleeding heart during fall.
Columns, Farm Life

Odes to purple potatoes and to horticultural hearts

Also: an Alberta reader is on the hunt for a Bird of paradise

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What’s it going to be this Valentine’s Day? Red roses, a box of chocolates and a corsage along with a singing card are standard. Or maybe you’ve created a one-of-a-kind, original Valentine’s Day card of your own? Perhaps a night out in town with a reservation for two at Mr. Mikes Steakhouse hits the spot. […] Read more
Tomatoes and a toonie
Columns, Farm Life

Tomatoes rise stronger from ashes

Also, bank on beans to boost beneficial bacteria in your bowel

By
Got a stove or fireplace where you burn wood only? Save those ashes and use them in this summer’s garden to grow some of the finest tomatoes ever. Already I can hear myself singing: “Oh it must be the tomatoes, maybe strawberries and homegrown potatoes, but I still think it must be tomatoes.” Those are […] Read more
chokecherries on the tree
Farm Life

How chokecherries vary from chokeberries

Also, a reader poses many questions, and saline solution helps ease common cold symptoms

By
Thank you to my Grainews friends and readers for coming by again. What would I do without you? We’ve all heard the expression: you’re like the salt of the earth — someone who stands by and pitches in to help through thick and thin. I think of plain old ordinary salt as something that helps […] Read more
Echinacea plants are a beautiful addition to the garden. As herbalists will tell you, echinacea is also an excellent natural remedy during cold and flu season and has many other uses.
Columns, Farm Life

The benefits of echinacea

They’re pretty to look at, but echinacea plants also have been used for centuries to produce herbal remedies for a host of ills

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Hey there and hi, y’all good people! Ted here and welcome to the program. This is the final Grainews issue for 2023. Are you into the Christmas spirit yet? Just as Rudolph is the most famous reindeer of all, according to a seasonal song, echinacea is famous for its contribution to helping humans stay well. No […] Read more
Doug Kretchmer and his parrot companion, Billy the Kid.
Farm Life

A bird story

Singing Gardener: Plus fond recollections of bygone days, and the importance of marking Remembrance Day

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A bird that’s a plant and a bird with feathers are as different from each other as daylight is from darkness. In my last Grainews instalment, I wrote about a tropical plant commonly called Bird of Paradise. Today, another kind of bird story takes centre stage, which you can read about further along. There’s a […] Read more
Bird of Paradise
Farm Life

How to grow beautiful bird of paradise flowers

Singing Gardener: Plus some thoughts on grape juice and its plentiful health benefits

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How are you doing, everybody? We owe it to ourselves to feel good and have as many of these good days as possible, even though we know some days can be anything but good. When someone says to me, “Have a good day,” I often respond with, “Those are the only kind of days I […] Read more
Purple sage is a woody shrub with beautiful, aromatic flowers and is easy to grow.
Farm Life

Medicinal merits of sage

Popular herb used for centuries to help ease cold and flu symptoms

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Howdy, good people and how-do y’all. Welcome again to Grainews country. For some gardeners and farmers, the harvest season is done. For others, there’s very little or no harvest left to be done. How have things been where you are? Let me know, should you care to share. I often sing about weather and climate […] Read more
Potatoes harvested from container-grown Melody potato plants from EarthApples. Melody has smooth skin, dry flesh and can be boiled and mashed. It also has high yield potential and overall good resistance to late blight on plants and common scab and bruising on tubers.
Farm Life

The best times to go fishing

Singing Gardener: Plus a few things you may not know about potatoes and melons

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My grandma on my mother’s side loved to go berry picking. She was a berry picker through and through, seeking out wild saskatoon and chokecherry bushes. Together, we often picked raspberries from canes at her home garden patch too. If there was anything she taught me I was qualified to do, it was picking raspberries. […] Read more
A juvenile male Anna’s hummingbird investigating a geranium for nectar. Mature male hummingbirds can be aggressive and try to keep others away from a feeder station, even if there’s plenty to go around.
Farm Life

Marvelling at hummingbirds

Singing Gardener: Their aerobatic antics can provide hours of enjoyment

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Are you being gentle with yourself? Life has a way of slowly taking us off course from time to time. Often there are so many things to do, so many pressing commitments and responsibilities to family and others, that we don’t take care of ourselves. Another great challenge is the health of our planet, Mother […] Read more
This is Kevin Bloski’s front lawn seeded with a majority of Kentucky bluegrass and a grass seed mix from Early’s called Erin Green. Bloski, who consistently waters the double trunk weeping birch tree, says it’s one of the few remaining weeping birch trees in Saskatoon.
Farm Life

How to repair dog damage on lawns

Singing Gardener: Plus some tips for reseeding

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There are similar benefits derived from gardening and from owning a dog. When it comes to dogs, I’m no specialist, but a question arises: How compatible are gardeners and dogs? I’ll leave responses to you, our Grainews family of readers. I see a lot of folks walking with their dog, and sometimes with more than […] Read more

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