Timely Tips on Pet Care and Organic Gardening

Learn more about your favorite subjects - gardening & pets! Our growing library is designed to help you increase your knowledge. Browse by topic or search by keyword. Thanks for reading!

Parsley Pleases Both Pollinators and Your Palate

Marshall Grain Co.

Oct 23, 2018
5 min

Parsley Pleases Both Pollinators and Your Palate

There are at least two really great reasons to plant parsley. One is for your own enjoyment as a culinary herb. The other is for the benefit of the Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly. It also has some medicinal uses. Parsley is one of a huge family of flowering plants called Umbellifers that include more than 3700 species. You may recognized some of them as caraway, carrot, celery, chervil, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, hemlock, and lovage. It is a biennial plant, which m

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Marshall Grain Co.

Sep 11, 2018
4 min

Planning Your Fall Garden

Nearly everything in Texas is determined by the weather and that goes for your fall vegetable garden. You’ll see on our Vegetable Planting Guide that, on average, our first freeze of the season doesn’t occur until November 21. However, that’s just an average. Some years it will happen sooner, and other winters may never experience a freeze at all. In any case, freezing weather will mean the end to harvesting many crops. Other edibles like the chilly weather and will happily p

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Marshall Grain Co.

Aug 27, 2018
2 min

A Powerful Garden Predator

The praying mantis - or mantid - is the most interesting looking beneficial insect to have around the garden. An icon of the beneficial insect world, the praying mantis serves as a powerful helper in the garden! It is a great generalist predator with a broad ranging appetite for pest insects, including most pest insects, mites, and eggs. They’re great for controlling larger pest insects such as the tomato hornworm. The best time to release them is when you start planting you

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Marshall Grain Co.

Aug 14, 2018
4 min

How to Make Your Own Organic Pesticides

By Sarah Harris As a rancher, I have had my fair share of problems in controlling and eradicating pest infestations. Nonetheless, many organic solutions have offered me impeccable results in eliminating insect pests from my garden. In this article, I’ve provided some of my favorite DIY recipes to help you control troublesome bugs. Before we start on how to make them, here are a few things that you’ll require: 1. Neem Oil The oil extracted from seeds of the neem tree is a natu

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Marshall Grain Co.

Jul 10, 2018
6 min

How to Grow Watermelons

North Texas is a great place to grow watermelons. They absolutely love our hot, sunny environment, which is why Texas is one of the highest producing states for watermelons. Native to Africa, watermelons have been cultivated for at least 5,000 years. We know the ancient Egyptians loved watermelons because they depicted the fruit in drawings on the walls of tombs and even left watermelons with their dead to nourish them as they journeyed through the underworld. Did we say wate

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
4 min

GROWING AND ENJOYING OKRA

We’ve made it quick and convenient for you to learn to grow Okra like a boss! Okra, also known by its fans as Lady Finger, is a kitchen garden essential for us Texans and is served all over the world. This tasty and beautiful plant will grow around three to five feet tall and will furnish gorgeous hibiscus like flowers and delicious seed pods all summer long. This guide includes descriptions of the types of okra that perform best in North Texas climate, how to organically gro

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
2 min

LADYBUGS DINE ON "SOFT-BODIED" INSECTS

We all love to hang with our four-legged friends in the garden, but did you know we have friends in our garden with six, eight and even more legs. One of the most asked questions about managing an organic garden is, how to identify these friends? To answer this important question you must first answer “what is it”? and “what is its purpose”? Did you know that 97% of the insects found in your garden are either helpful or innocuous? Garden insects can be helpful in many ways.

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
6 min

HOW TO GROW BROCCOLI

EAT BROCCOLI FOR EXCEPTIONAL HEALTH BENEFITS Broccoli has a long culinary history going back to the Romans but it wasn’t until recently that its exceptional health benefits were recognized. Florets and stems are packed with vitamin C and provide calcium, potassium, and iron. A single ounce of broccoli has as much calcium as one ounce of milk. The 4-inch to 6-inch blue-green heads are delicious raw or cooked — much better than store-bought broccoli! Fall is the best time to pl

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
4 min

HOW TO GROW KALE

WHY IT'S COOL TO GROW AND EAT KALE Just a few short years ago, kale was a relative unknown leafy green. What a difference a few years makes! The kale craze shows no signs of slowing down. This green, a member of the cabbage family, has gone from being a simple garnish or an ornamental plant for our winter flower beds to one of the most popular greens for smoothies, salads, soups, side dishes and hip culinary delights. You can even buy kale in the healthy snacks section of you

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
5 min

HOW TO GROW ONIONS

THE LONG AND SHORT OF GROWING ONIONS “What a difference a day makes.” That’s especially true when it comes to growing onions, since this versatile vegetable forms bulbs in response to the length of the day. There are three types of onions and each one is better suited for growing in different regions of the country. “Long-day” onion varieties will quit forming tops and begin to form bulbs when the day length reaches 14 to 16 hours. “Short-day” onions will start making bulbs

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
4 min

HOW TO GROW SPINACH

WANT TO GROW A SUPER FOOD? TRY PLANTING SPINACH Spinach may have gained its fame from the 1960s cartoon character Popeye, who got his strength by downing cans of it, but spinach has changed a lot since the days of coming out of a can looking like mush. Today many call spinach a “super food” because of its myriad health benefits. People in the U.S. consume nearly 2½ pounds of spinach per year per capita, according to the USDA, as news of its health benefits have become more wi

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
1 min

FAST-ACTING ORGANIC WEED KILLER RECIPE

Nothing kills weeds faster than 20% Horticultural Vinegar. This non-selective acid burns weeds back to the roots. Use full strength on all types of weeds. You can increase its effectiveness by adding a small amount of natural Orange Oil to each gallon of 20% Vinegar. Orange oil is also commonly used as an organic herbicide. Together they make a potent weed killer. Everyday dishwashing liquid serves as a surfactant, which makes your mixture adhere to weeds. Pick any sunny day

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
8 min

HOW TO GROW GARLIC

GROWING GARLIC TAKES PATIENCE Garlic is a great plant to have in your garden for a lot of reasons. Some say it repels vampires. And according to Jewish proverb, “a nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat!” Silly, maybe, but it is true that garlic is a natural repellent. It chases away many insects, and is a natural fungicide. Garlic also has many genuine medicinal uses. Garlic contains a chemical called allicin which is an antibiotic that fights v

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
4 min

WHAT YOUR PET SITTER NEEDS TO KNOW

November is the heaviest travel month of the year, with families coming together for the holiday season, combining with business travelers and vacationers. But if you’re like many pet owners, you need to pack your bags in secret because your pooch gets stressed when you pull out the suitcase. While dogs may cry, or shiver and shake, your cat might react by jumping into your bags to let you know “I have no intention of being left behind.” Our pets know how to make us feel gui

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FRAGRANT WHITE MISTFLOWER PROVIDES LATE SEASON COLOR

Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
3 min

FRAGRANT WHITE MISTFLOWER PROVIDES LATE SEASON COLOR

Last (But Not Least) Bloomer Makes A Spectacular Autumn Appearance By Josephine Keeney and Becca Dickstein What a magnet for all kinds of pollinators White mistflower is! Just at a time when most flowering plants are going to rest for the winter, this shrub explodes into gorgeous bloom that covers the entire plant. Try it as a substitute for non-native chrysanthemums. Its long-lasting, fuzzy white flowers attract hummingbirds, butterflies and other pollinators. It also makes

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HARVEST HELP - WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THAT PRODUCE

Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
3 min

HARVEST HELP - WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THAT PRODUCE

4 Ways to Preserve Your Bounty Of Home Grown Fruits and Vegetables Are you overwhelmed with tomatoes from your successful backyard gardening? Don’t know what to do with the abundance of zucchini you’ve produced? And what will you do with the bushel baskets of pears from your tree? Even the most ardent pear lovers probably will tire of pear pancakes, pear compote, pear tarts, pear salads, pear chutney, and the list goes on. Don’t despair. Your wonderful, fresh produce does not

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
3 min

HOW TO BE POLLINATOR FRIENDLY

pollen is the stuff that makes many of us sneeze our brains out during the growing seasons. It usually takes the form of fine, powdery, yellowish grains or spores, sometimes in masses, that blow around in the air and irritate our eyes and noses. For most of us, that’s all we know about pollen. However, without all that pollen, we would most likely starve to death. Pollen is also the stuff that helps produce most of the food we eat. In fact, all flowering plants need to be pol

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
2 min

PINCH YOUR MUMS TO MAKE THEM GROW

“And here’s a pinch to grow an inch.” Who doesn’t remember hearing that from some member of the family or friend of your parents when you were growing up? The saying usually was something people said on a birthday celebration, and any amount of pinching was worthwhile if accompanied by a gift. While pinching may have had no influence on your height; the same is not true for flowers, especially mums, the delightful flower that brings a host of color – red, lavender, while, yel

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DOES MULCHING MATTER? JUST ASK MOTHER NATURE

Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
3 min

DOES MULCHING MATTER? JUST ASK MOTHER NATURE

Has mulching fallen off of, or never made it onto your gardening “to do” list? Maybe you haven’t had the time to mulch or you’re not aware of its many benefits. If you are looking for a good authority on the subject, just ask Mother Nature. She’s thought of everything and that includes providing the forest floor with a protective blanket made from falling leaves and needles. Smart gardeners mimic Mother Nature by using decomposing organic materials — bark or wood chips, pine

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Marshall Grain Co.

May 8, 2018
3 min

HOT WEATHER SPELLS DANGER FOR PETS

DON’T LET THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER THREATEN YOUR PETS Photo Credit: East Bay SPCA It’s summer and just like fireworks on the Fourth of July (hope you had a good one), we can expect to see news stories about animals left in hot cars, or stranded outside in the heat. It’s hard to believe with all the publicity every year that anyone could ignore the dangers of leaving pets in a vehicle with little ventilation, or left out in the blazing sun with no shade; but they do. Increasing

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