background preloader

Living

Facebook Twitter

Earth Gas Mask. Homesteading: Water. Grow Your Own Chocolate. By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter Around Valentine’s Day the worry of what to give that special person is throbbing in ones head.

Grow Your Own Chocolate

A nice dinner is always a great start to that special day dedicated to couples. Commercials show giving diamonds as a way of expressing ones love but I have another way that may take time but shows true commitment, love, and can address those cravings that we all have had some time in our lives. One may ask what could that be. Well the answer can be found in the candy aisle and it is . . . chocolate. Growing your own hyper-local chocolate is one way of showing how much you care for an individual.

Chocolate mint is one plant that any individual can grow that smells and tastes like the name states, chocolate mint. The cocoa plant is a challenge to grow for even the seasoned gardener. To start this project of love, either purchase cocoa plants from a reputable tropical plant dealer or start with the beans. Move the tree to a warm room away from direct sunlight. 7 No-Cost Ways To Grow More Food From Your Garden. When I wrote a post about products that help promote soil biodiversity, some commenters were skeptical about commercial products that are shipped long distances with all the packaging and waste that goes with them.

7 No-Cost Ways To Grow More Food From Your Garden

They may have a point. After all, the secrets of healthy soil usually start at home. And many of them are free. Here are some of our favorites normanack/CC BY 2.0 Compost everythingFirst and foremost, if you want to build healthy, lively soils, you first have to add food for the soil microbes that inhabit it. Mulch, mulch, mulchMulching is a great way to reduce water use, suppress weeds and protect soils from drying out or erosion.

Ivy Dawned/CC BY-SA 2.0 Use urine as fertilizerThis one is probably not for everyone, but if you supplement your plant's nutrients with shop-bought fertilizers of any kind (organic or not) you might want to consider a source closer to home. Girlingearstudio/CC BY 2.0 stylnpzzalvr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Louise Docker/CC BY 2.0. Worm Farming: A Guide On How To Set Up A Worm Farm. An Introduction to Worm Farming Go worm farming and explore vermiculture and have rich vermicompost within months.

Worm Farming: A Guide On How To Set Up A Worm Farm

Worm composting has great benefits for your gardens and vegetable gardens and keeping earthworms is how you do it. They are definitely a gardener's friend helpinf to build good soil through their tunneling actions and deposits of rich worm castings, and improving the soil in such a way that it maintains moisture for longer. With their castings, or processed soil that has passed through the gut and out the other end being enriched humus that has an almost zero pH level, this is the pefect food for your vegetables and plants.

Have you always wanted to keep earthworms, but didn't know how to go about it? Don't delay, read this article and start your worm farm today! However, more and more people nowadays are realizing how useful this little animal is. How Many Worms do you Need to Start a Worm Farm? How much do Earthworms Eat in a Day? Types of Earthworms Available.