Fresh salsa, something many of us love to see on the party table, but how to get fresh salsa is another topic. Most salsas have such ingredients as tomatoes, bell and hot peppers of different kind, onions and garlic. Besides these vegetables, spices, salt and sometimes vinegar are added for flavor. Any of these vegetables can be grown in your back yard and even on your patio, if that is all that you have available.

Tomatoes are actually very easy to grow as long as you know a few basic rules. First of all, Tomatoes need to grow in a sunny spot. If you choose a spot that is half the day or more in the shade, you will receive your tomatoes a lot later and you will also harvest a lot less. Tomatoes can either be grown from seeds or the plants can be bought at your local supply store in spring. The plants need to be planted after the end of frost. In general, plants need to be spaced at least two feet apart. While tomatoes plants are growing at a steady rate when watered properly it is necessary to support the plants. Support can be provided with plant stakes, tomato cages or trellises to which the tomato plants can be attached. Towards the middle/ end of summer (depending on your region) Small yellow flowers will appear from which your tomatoes will grow. Tomato plants grow tomatoes for several weeks, if not months. So try to keep up with the harvesting and you will be rewarded with more tomatoes. Tomato plants can also be grown in planters and containers on patios and balconies. Of course to get a crop big enough for a salsa batch you need about three to four plants, but if you have the space, this would be a good and healthy use for it.

Hot peppers as well as bell peppers are just as easy to grow as tomatoes. The plants need a similar kind of spacing, only a few of the hot peppers are smaller plants and therefore the spacing can be less. Even though the plants do not need as much support as tomatoes plants, it is still recommended to have some kind of support such as a planting stake.

If you want to grow everything but the spices in your garden, you can even plant your own onions. But onions are generally harder to grow and if the garden is not completely in the sun all day long you will end up with tiny onions. Besides the fact that buying the onion starter plants is fairly expensive, you might not end up with the crop you expected.

Also needed for a fresh batch of salsa is garlic. Garlic can be grown in the garden, but similar to onions they are harder to grow in gardens that are in the shade for some small part of the day. Garlic and onions need lots of sun to grow properly. Most often it is recommended to buy the full grown versions at the supermarket. If you buy them from a local farmers market or as an organic version, they will be almost as good as homegrown.

There are many Salsa recipes on the market. From freshly chopped and mixed, ready to serve and eat to preserved versions that can add to your dinners and parties year round. If you have a bigger garden and are able to plant 5-10 tomatoes plants and several pepper and hot pepper plants you should be able to harvest enough vegetable to make 10-20 glasses of salsa and still have fresh vegetables for dinner in harvesting season.

Although you may be tempted to reach for that broad-spectrum insecticide in order to blow away every pest in sight, you should resist this urge. There are many easy and money saving gardening ideas that can help you control your pest population and provide general maintenance in a way that is safe and effective. Here are some easy ways to control garden pests while saving money by using regular household items and good overall common sense when providing your garden with general maintenance.

Why You Should Avoid Most Commercial Pesticides

Before you decide to start using commercial pesticides around your garden, take a moment to decide if your garden pests are hurting the plant. Why should you consider leaving a few insect populations intact? Insects and other pests are often necessary in order to create a healthy garden. Insects are often responsible for creating organic material, which means that many pests are actually helping enrich your soil matter. It is estimated that of the thousands of insect species in your area, only about three to five percent of these are actually causing the majority of the damage to your flowers, ornamentals or food crops. The crucial thing is to determine which insects are causing problems, and which are just helping to enrich your garden.

Identifying Your Pest Population

The first thing you have to do is identify your pest population. The last thing you want to do is spray away all of your beneficial insect population. This will only put your garden under more stress and possibly incite further damage. Many people who spot an insect in their garden will spray indiscriminately. In most cases, this is a mistake. Here are some tips on easy and safe ways to control specific insect populations that are making their home in your garden.

Controlling Ants – A Common Pest in Many Gardens

Here are some ideas for controlling ant populations in your garden. Vinegar has been known to keep ants away. Pour vinegar into the anthill in order to control the ant population. Another easy way to control anthills is to use boiling water to tame your ant population. There are certain plants that are also known to control ant populations, including mints, onions, Artemisia, tansy, catnip and lavender.

Beetles in Your Garden – Controlling Plant Damage

Beetles have been known to cause plant damage, and they are often known as leaf-chewing insects. There are many plants that you can use to repel beetles. Plant beans, catnip, tansy, calendula, rosemary, nasturtiums, radishes, parsley and petunias in order to keep beetle populations in check in your garden.

Caterpillars Got You Down? Easy Ways to Keep Them in Check

Caterpillars have been known to cause damage, especially larger caterpillars. If you love butterflies, you may not want to get rid of all caterpillars. However, if you find that they have caused significant damage to your plants, here are some ways to keep caterpillars in check. There are certain plants that are known to repel caterpillars, including mints, Artemisia, marigold, basil, calendula, bay leaves, borage, thyme, nasturtiums, onions, tansy, pennyroyal, sage and rosemary.

When Birds Become Pests

Most gardeners enjoy a healthy bird population in their yard, but there are instances when birds can become pests. Many birds are known to pick fruit trees clean. Here are some tips to keep birds from ruining your fruit harvest. Use reflective material like tinfoil or cassette tape across treetops and plants. Hang fake fruit or Christmas tree ornaments on your fruit trees to train birds that pecking is futile. Finally, there are several commercial nets available at nurseries that are designed specifically to keep birds off fruit.

Online Dating is very popular these days and as a result, competition for attention can be fierce. Lying is commonplace as is doctoring up the photos that accompany profiles. As a result, you have to take what others say with a grain of salt and be ready to meet someone who may have fudged a bit on their profiles. It is very important that you, yourself, are true to who you are so that you do not present any falsehoods to potential dates.

So how do you attract attention being truthful with your profile when others may not be so honest? The key is developing a spiffy profile that presents you in the best possible light while staying true to yourself (and all of your supposed shortcomings). Here is some sage advice to get you started:

1. Be Positive - When has negativity ever been attractive? Do you look for the quickest way out of a date when that person is complaining about work, ex-mates and more? Of course you do and so do other people as well! As a result, make sure your online profile is positive and upbeat. Like the old saying goes, “You attract more flies with honey than with vinegar.” For example, never say, “I hate going to the theater to see musicals” but rather “I enjoy watching action movie marathons” or whatever you love to do.

2. Be Distinctive - Avoid the stereotypical “I am a fun loving person who enjoys