Will Technology Make Community Gardens Obsolete?
With each passing month, a new indoor gardening gizmo or system leaps into existence, a vacant lot or rooftop farm is born, or an indoor agriculture operation starts its inaugural hydroponic crop. One might wonder what will become of community gardens with all the personal agriculture options out there today, along with food banks, soup […]
University Gardens that Give Back by Growing
In recent years, unused land on campuses scattered across the US has been turned into sustainable university gardens that produce organic fruits and vegetables. Not surprising, given the developing importance of super fresh, locally grown food, urban farming, and community engagement. Harvard University Created in 2009 by an undergrad group, the Student Garden Club manages and […]
How to Grow a Vegetable Garden from Kitchen Scraps
Several kitchen scraps can be regrown in the garden to make an encore appearance back in the kitchen. Kitchen scraps or future snacks? Plants are a part of a healthy human diet, and while it is common for them to start in the garden and end in the kitchen, here are a few of my […]
8 Tips for Healthy Crops in Pots
Edible container gardens can provide you with a continual abundance of homegrown vegetables, herbs, and fruit. With these tips for healthy crops in pots, you can save money and improve your health with delicious, freshly picked ingredients. Tuck in! 1. Watering Adequate moisture is essential. It’s easier to kill your plants by overwatering than underwatering. […]
Keyhole Garden: Growing & Composting Combo
A drought-tolerant garden is a must in places where it’s consistently hot and dry through the summer months, making a keyhole garden of huge interest to people in the southwestern US! But there are more benefits to building this kind of garden, like saving precious water and creating perfect organic fertilizer. A keyhole garden is […]
5 Tips on how to Grow an Olive Tree
How to Grow an Olive Tree A garden is a place to escape to; full of color, peace, love and hard work. It’s many homeowners pride and joy, and with countless dreamy images of beautiful gardens filling Pinterest; gardeners have a wealth of inspiration to draw from in order to keep their garden looking good […]
What Are Seeds?
Seeds are amazing storage containers that allow a plant to travel through space and time. Inside each protective casing is a tiny plant held in status until it is exposed to conditions that initiate development and growth, along with some stored energy (endosperm) for the plant to get started with. Seed Leaves The miniature plant […]
Diary of an Indoor Grower: Hydroponics Garden Evolution
The only thing that hasn’t changed in my hydroponics garden is its dimensions. It is just over 70 Sq feet (6.6 X 11.2).with 8-foot ceilings. Otherwise, it is in a constant state of flux. Lights, systems, nutrients, fans, controllers, you name it I have changed it. Part of the reason is that I have, especially […]
Cannabis Education at Oaksterdam University
Oaksterdam University¹ is a cannabis cultivation and industry educational institution located in the “Oaksterdam” section of Oakland, California. Inspired by the Cannabis College of Amsterdam; Oaksterdam University was founded in 2007 by Richard Lee, and the current Executive Chancellor is Dale Sky Jones. Despite being targeted by the government, and weathering a raid in 2012; it […]
Making the Best Compost
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.7″ header_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_2_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_3_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_4_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_5_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_6_font=”Special Elite||||||||”] Composting is one of the greatest things you can do for the Earth and your plants, but gardeners must pay special attention to the ingredients they use and the process they follow if they want to make perfect black […]
Totally Natural Indoor Garden System
Imagine an indoor garden system that is more like an outdoor garden. As in, you simply prep for planting, make sure the soil doesn’t get too dry, and soon you’re harvesting great tasting fresh food and herbs. Sans the weeding, of course. And no matter what the weather is doing, you can garden year around. Yes, […]
Straw Bale Garden: Take 2, Scene 1
It’s the second year that I’ve planted a straw bale garden. Spring is always highly anticipated in a cold climate, but this year it couldn’t get here fast enough. I was chomping at the bit to see if what I learned from the first time around would make for a better outcome. Twelve months is […]
Growing Ginger: Biker Dude is King
Hugh Johnson will tell you that he’s just a dirt farmer from North Carolina, but you do need dirt for growing ginger. Technology has changed things dramatically, allowing for growing in coir with disease-free seed, making Biker Dude Hawaiian Organic Ginger cream of the crop. A brand with such a reputation for quality in the U.S. that […]
Food from Rocks? Gravel Gardening
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.91″ background_layout=”light” header_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_2_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_3_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_4_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_5_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_6_font=”Special Elite||||||||”] Now you can grow vegetables in gravel… without any fertilizer input. Geological agriculture. That’s the fancy definition. It’s really gardening in gravel. Sedimentary gravel and water. Therein lies the secret. No soil is involved, and no nutrient inputs. […]
India’s New Urban Farm Project
While still in planning stages, this exciting new urban farm community is more than just some ambition concept. The incredibly beautiful Hyperions garden towers will be built in Jaypee Sports City near Delhi and completed by 2020. It’s a residential development that features all kinds of ecological attributes and was designed with full sustainability in mind. Instead […]
Make Your Own Sugar
Until last week, I never really thought about how to make sugar at home. It all started when we were digging through antique books, and I ran across the merits of growing beets for homesteaders. Not that I didn’t know that most sugar used in home cooking in the US comes from sugar beets… but […]
Old Wisdoms: Gardening Tips from Ghosts
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.91″ background_layout=”light” header_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_2_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_3_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_4_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_5_font=”Special Elite||||||||” header_6_font=”Special Elite||||||||”] Not all the best garden tips are new. Borrowing from the past has been known to provide some gems. Take biodynamic garden methods, for instance, these are from 1924. Three sisters planting we got from the gardening methods already […]
Compost: Making Super Garden Soil
It’s hard to envision while you stand there pondering the rotting mass of a compost pile that the wheel of life is turning inside there. Yesterday’s weeds, clippings, vegetable peelings, and the lot are transforming through death into the fuel for future life. There’s magic happening in there you’ll never find in any bag or […]
The Importance of Homemade Fertilizer
It’s pretty convenient to rip open a bag, pop the top on a sprinkle canister – and deliver a perfectly measured dose of plant nutrition in the garden. Things will soon drastically change. You, the every gardener, flowers or backyard veggie patch, even container growers, might want to discover how to make your own fertilizer. […]
Keeping Deer Out of The Garden
Thousands of people a week look for the solution to this dilemma… how to protect plants from deer. It isn’t easy, especially in the city where deer have very little to eat buy your veggies, flowers, and landscaping. But the hardest of all of these to stop deer from damaging or eating completely is your […]