Composting is a great way for gardeners to make their own soil additives and save money at the same time. Using your own compost can increase your harvest immensely. It can also cut down on disease in your gardens. It is simple to compost and the benefits are immense. People … [Read more...]
Healthy Soil: The Key to a Healthy, Productive Garden
Healthy Gardens Start with Healthy Soil Healthy soil is the key to growing delicious and nutritious food. But what exactly is soil? And what makes it healthy? Soil is a blend of organic material, water, air, and minerals. The organic matter comes from plant roots, … [Read more...]
Lasagna Gardening 101: the lazy, no-till garden method that works
By Julie Christensen Maybe you’re the type of gardener who loves spending hours in the garden – tilling it in the spring and weeding and watering it through the rest of the summer. Perhaps you have a flexible work schedule and children who make their own meals, do their own … [Read more...]
How to Use Epsom Salts in Your Home Garden
By Julie Christensen You’ve used Epsom salts for aching muscles in the tub, but Epsom salts in the garden? If this sounds far-fetched, consider that test gardeners from the National Gardening Association noticed significant improvements in their gardens after using Epsom … [Read more...]
Using Chicken Poop As An Organic Fertilizer
Fertilizers are nothing new to gardeners. In fact, most organic gardeners are intimately familiar with the benefits and uses for various types of manure as both fertilizer and compost material. Many gardeners are now turning to backyard chicken keeping and finding that the manure … [Read more...]
How To Take a Soil Sample
Although it is possible to dig into and analyze your own soil for basic nutrient amendment, it is recommended that those gardening in unknown soil (soil never used for the purpose) get their soil professionally analyzed. Most gardeners will also benefit from periodic sampling and … [Read more...]
How to Increase the Number of Earthworms in Your Garden Soil
Earthworms are something that all of us are familiar with. Most of us, at a young age, were introduced to the "slimy, gooey" things and learned to either love or loathe them. Given various names like "fisherman's friend," "gardener's buddy" and "earth diggers delight," worms are … [Read more...]
Seaweed as a Natural Fertilizer
Seaweed as a fertilizer has a lot going for it. It's an abundant resource that washes up on beaches throughout the world. It can be dried for easier transport, or incorporated wet into compost. It's also a good source of plant nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, … [Read more...]
Cover Crops for the Backyard Garden
Not many home gardeners think about cover crops. Many, in fact, are unaware of them altogether. Those who have heard of them may think that they are just for commercial farmers. But the truth is, cover crops can be very beneficial to the backyard gardener. Why Use Cover … [Read more...]
Make Your Own Potting Soil and Growing Mix
Need some potting soil to grow plants or seedlings? Sure, you could go straight to the local garden store and buy up bags and bags of soil, but there an alternative -- one that is much cheaper. You can make your own! Making your own soil has several advantages. First, it's … [Read more...]
Gardening with Soil Blocks
Soil blocks have been around for at least 2,000 years, first used by the Aztecs to build the so-called "Floating Gardens" of Mexico City, which were long strips of land surrounded by water used for growing plants and vegetables. The Chinampas system of farming utilized a seeding … [Read more...]
Where To Find Composting Worms
Worms aren't just for fishing bait anymore. The art of vermicomposting (using worms to produce compost) and vermiculture (raising and breeding worms) has reached new heights of popularity in recent times. Both environmentalists and gardeners (or anyone who is both) are finding … [Read more...]
Worm Composting Indoors
One of the fastest growing and popular ways to compost indoors is through vermicomposting or composting with worms. This method is relatively maintenance free, easy, convenient, and stink-free. Setting up costs less than most people spend on soil for flower beds, pots, or … [Read more...]
Tips For Indoor Composting
Most people aren't aware that composting isn't just for outdoor gardeners with plenty of space to create a compost pile. Nor is it a nasty, stinky, messy process. Composting is easy and can be done indoors without fear of filling your home with a nasty garbage stench. There … [Read more...]
Using Manure as Fertilizer for Gardens
Fertilizer is a combination of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium used to add nutrients to soil and plants. Fertilizing increases the quality and quantity of a plant’s production. Processed fertilizers usually come in either liquid or granular form. But the oldest form of … [Read more...]
How to Know if You Have Quality Topsoil
Topsoil is one of our most important natural resources. It takes up to 500 years for one inch of topsoil to be created by nature. Topsoil is generally the first 6 to 12 inches of looser soil that you will find in your yard and garden. It is becoming a scarce commodity due to … [Read more...]
How to Use Compost
Compost is also known as black gold due to its value in the garden. It is commonly known that compost can be used as a soil conditioner by being dug into the soil. Compost adds valuable nutrients and microbes to the soil but can only be dug in as finished compost, or that which … [Read more...]
How to Compost Coffee Grounds
Most people who think about composting think about their yard waste and maybe some kitchen scraps. Few think of coffee leftovers as compost material. Coffee grounds are an excellent addition to the compost heap. If the filters used are natural fiber, biodegradable filters (most … [Read more...]
Soil Preparation for the Fall
The best time to prepare the soil for spring is in the fall if you are not going to be planting winter crops. The final chore of the growing season is not just to clean up the garden, but also to get things ready for the next. This makes for less work in the spring when there are … [Read more...]
Tips for Using Garden Fabric
In the eyes of the avid gardener, gardening fabric has to be one of the greatest inventions in the world. This wonderful black mesh makes life easier for those who like their gardens neat and weed free. Although nothing in life is guaranteed, landscape fabric will help your … [Read more...]