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Ten Easy Vegetables To Direct Sow in Your Garden

Tue, 15 May 2012 17:45:07 +0000

Following up on my recent post about the joys of direct-sowing garden seeds, I thought I'd offer a few suggestions today for easy veggies to direct-sow. Here are my top ten favorite easy veggies:

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Tricks for Successful Direct Sowing

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:45:00 +0000

As much as I love playing with all of my gardening gadgets, such as soil block makers, seedling heat mats, and grow lights, there is a certain satisfaction that comes from direct sowing seeds in my garden. I love planting pumpkin seeds with my children, and seeing those fat cotyledons seem to magically appear days later, then flourish into wild, rambling vines. And when planting corn, a good rule of thumb is to plant two for the crows, and one for the gardener. We also direct-sow many annuals, including zinnias, marigolds, calendulas, and sunflowers, every year.

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Bee Mimics in Your Garden

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:31:41 +0000

I snapped a quick photo of what I thought was a bee on my 'Cranberry' viburnum the other day. When I looked more closely at the photo later, I said to myself, "that's not a bee!"

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Starting a New Garden? Here are Some Articles to Get You Started!

Wed, 09 May 2012 11:09:58 +0000

If you've been bitten by the gardening bug, and have decided to try your hand at growing an organic garden, congratulations! If you're new to gardening, one thing is for sure: you have plenty of questions. I've pulled together some of my favorite resources to answer your gardening questions. I hope this helps get your first garden off to a great start!

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Reader Question: How Long Does it Take to Get Compost from Bokashi?

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:05:38 +0000

I get quite a few questions about Bokashi composting, and this is one of the most common (courtesy of a reader who asked via email):

"Hi! I'm just getting informed about composting and your blogs are really helpful! I was wondering how long it takes to actually harvest your first batch of compost with Bokashi composting? Thanks."

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Use Your Dandelions

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:45:58 +0000

The dandelions are in full bloom in my garden. I actually kind of like dandelions. They are a valuable food source for beneficial insects, including lady bugs, and there are actually several useful things you can do with just about every part of the plant. I wrote a post a while back about using dandelions, and I saw that About Herb Gardens guide Amy Jeanroy posted a great list of things you can do with dandelions. I'm definitely going to try her recipe for Dandelion Jelly.

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Sneaky Composting -- Worm Tube in the Garden

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:00:20 +0000

I've mentioned before that I have to be somewhat sneaky in my composting practices because we're not allowed to compost food where I live -- we are only allowed to compost lawn and garden refuse. I started my sneaky food composting by composting in a plastic storage container, then a trash can. I dig and drop my food scraps right in my garden beds, and I have a worm bin. But we eat a lot of fruits and veggies especially during the growing season, and these systems do eventually become overloaded.

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When to Start Fertilizing Seedlings

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:28:51 +0000

I've gotten this question about fifteen times in the last couple of weeks in my email, so I figured it's something that many of you may be wondering about. Seeds don't need any fertilizer to germinate. Everything they need is right there in the makeup of each seed. However, once they've got their first true leaves (as opposed to the "seed leaves" or cotyledons that appear first) they will start needing nutrients for strong growth.

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Spring Lawn Maintenance

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:52 +0000

With the warm weather we've been having, it's time to start thinking about springtime lawn care. It's still too early for mowing (though this is a very good time to have your mower tuned up and get that blade sharpened) but this is the perfect time to clean up your lawn and take care of a few routine tasks.

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Gardening Tasks for March

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:59:21 +0000

March brings a flurry of activity to the garden. Compost needs to be turned, shrubs need to be pruned, and seeds need to be started. Of course, some things have to wait until the snow melts so that you can actually see the garden. In my case, my garden is sleeping under a four inch blanket of snow, with more predicted for tonight. Meanwhile, my friends in California are transplanting their tomatoes. Sometimes, life is just unfair!

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