Experiences from the garden and from gardeners. Interesting things happen in the garden everyday.
There are many things that have impressed me about this plant. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t like okra as food. Maybe because every okra I’ve tasted has been store-bought, frozen, of almost unknown origin and age. Things changed when I grew okra in the garden for the first time and used it […]
Growing Okra – Recipe for Okras – Okra’s Flower! Read More »
In this article I record my personal experiences of consuming food that had expired (i.e. beyond the stated expiry date).The consumption was either while fresh or after cooking. 10% of the 88 million tonnes of food waste in the European Union ends up in the trash due to misinterpretation of the expiry date The European
Can we consume expired foods? Read More »
Today I’m going to talk about the nitrogen deficiency I dealt with with the tomatoes I grow on the rooftop of the house in the city. I grow them in “pots” that I made out of sacks. We’ll look at the conditions under which nitrogen trophenia developed and what the cause and treatment ultimately was.
Nitrogen deficiency in tomato plants grown in bags instead of pots on the terrace Read More »
Many people do not know that the cucumber plant has both male and female flowers. With the help of insect pollinators, the female flowers are pollinated by pollen carried to them by the male flowers. It is the female flowers that give us cucumbers. If, for whatever reason, there is no pollination, what we observe
Cucumbers – Male and female flowers in cucumbers – How to have lots of cucumbers! Read More »
2011 started with the kalliergo.gr a journey into the unknown. Where the unknown was plants, crops, seeds, plant diseases, the garden, flowers, trees, insects, nature itself. John Sadly, it was preceded by the death of my father John in 2008. A turning point that made me go through his records and try to find out
2022 – 11 years KALLIERGO Read More »
We find out what the ideal garden type is.Garden types. A historical journey through the gardens of modern Greece and their use.What is the ideal garden type and why. Our opinion on what the ideal garden is is pretty much a personal matter. Some people want to have a beautiful garden where everything is neat
The first year I grew the garden (everything), the water bill came to 250 Euros from the 30 we used to pay. And that was a big shock. The cost of water for irrigation was something I hadn’t honestly considered as a new grower. Suddenly the tomatoes I grew in the garden turned out to
What is really worth growing in our garden? 6 questions to help you Read More »
After pruning the vines we find ourselves with too many pruned vine stems. For some people these vine branches are like “trash” and they burn them at the first opportunity. To me, these vine stems are a great tinder for the wood stove. See what process I follow to create bundles and packages. Making bundles
Vine stems for the wood stove – How to make bundles and packages for easy tinder Read More »
If you are like me, then your garden is full of plants (weeds) all year round. These plants usually don’t have a name until we manage to identify them. We just call them weeds without knowing their possible useful and interesting properties.. But if we look at them carefully, they have such different physiological characteristics!
Plant identification – What is the name of the plant growing in your garden? Read More »
Summer is a season when there are often very high temperatures and sometimes even heat waves. Our garden plants suffer. If the high temperatures or heatwave lasts for many days, they are just trying to survive. What can we do to help them and keep them alive and healthy? Plants, trees and vegetables in the
Heat wave and Plants. How can I help them survive climate high temperatures? Read More »
Plants have many enemies. Mainly diseases and fungi. But there’s one enemy we don’t usually think about. And that’s ants. Ants cause a huge problem and endanger the production and the plants themselves if attacked by the thousands. If ants find plants an easy food source or a medium on which to “grow” aphids, then
Problem with ants eating plants – 3 solutions! Read More »
The sunflowers survived the ants that “loved” them when they were small plants, the winds that wanted to bend them and knock them down. Now it was time for them to bear fruit. One by one the flowers are fertilized and turn into sunflower seeds. This is my first time growing sunflowers, so forgive my
Sunflower seed is born from the sunflower flower (sun plant) Read More »
As a child I often saw insects called fireflies or “kolofoties – κολοφωτιές” as they were called by the older ones. In the darkness, it was very impressive and almost eerie to see little lights among the grasses. Like stars falling to earth. The fireflies, immediately attracted attention, as they were something unexpected. Light in
What problem do ants cause on sunflowers, what did I do and how did the ants deal with it in a way I had never seen before. Almost a month and a half ago, I sowed sunflower seeds in the seedbed. They went very well and almost all the seeds germinated. When the seedlings grew
Problem with ants in a sunflower plant – What clever things did the ants do? Read More »
This is the equation of photosynthesis! The chemistry that happens every day in every little green leaf of every plant on the planet. From the weed to the ever-living giant tree. The reason life exists on Earth as we know it today. The mechanism of photosynthesis Carbon dioxide and water with the help of chlorophyll
The equation of life – The equation of photosynthesis Read More »
In mid-October, I pruned the dry “stems”, stems from the artichokes. The artichokes had already started to put out new leaves and grow again. The stems were dry and “dead”. Some of the dry artichoke stems were thick and I had a hard time cutting them into pieces for compost. So I sliced them in
Worm in a dry artichoke trunk Read More »
We welcome the new growing season, now that autumn is here… and winter is just around the corner We welcome broccoli, cauliflowers, cauliflowers, cabbages, lettuce, leeks, spinach, beets, carrots, peas, beans, garlic, onions, potatoes, potatoes, endives, apples, oranges, mandarins, pears. Autumn and Winter are a magical time for the garden. You can grow so many
Autumn – Happy new growing season to all! Read More »
I have been involved in gardening, plants and hobby farming for over 10 years in Greece. I grow mostly in the cottage, and occasionally in pots in the city, namely Athens, Greece. Before (I’m not ashamed to admit it), I had nothing to do with the land. As I say,“I hadn’t stooped, stone unturned.” A
What I learned from working with plants and the garden Read More »
This year I decided to conduct an experiment. To try growing tomatoes, peppers, squash, lettuce and cucumbers in clay pots. It all started because of the coronavirus quarantine. I, like many others, missed a month and a half of the March to April growing season. I was unable to plant the seedlings in the garden
Vegetables in pots. Tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, cucumbers, lettuce Read More »
In a pine-rich country like Greece, dry pine needles are abundant. They can be used in the garden. They are very useful if used properly and with care. But they are misunderstood and treated as difficult to manage waste. Under a pine tree, whole layers of dry pine needles are created that fall from the
Pine needles in the garden. 6 uses Read More »
