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Companion Planting

Companion Planting

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{how to} Cold Storage 101 I’ve pretty much wrapped up harvesting crops on Silly Goose Farm. Apples are done, tomatoes are done, and all that’s left to put-up is a couple of cabbages, a few rows of rainbow carrots, and a whole bunch of pears. The pear trees on our farm are over 100 years old and positively drip with fruit. Gardening Resources, Cornell University Most people think of plants as very passive organisms. They grow almost unperceptively, and only once a year do they flower or produce edible products. However, plants are very active in ways that are not so obvious to the casual observer. For example, plants change the chemistry of the soil, and influence the types of microorganisms that grow there. They actively compete with other plants for space. Some will poison their neighbor's offspring to maintain a competitive advantage, while others change the environment in ways that benefit other species.

Guide to Growing Vegetables Some general considerations for growing vegetables: Sowing Tips When sowing seeds, a good general rule of thumb is to sow to a depth of approximately twice the thickness of the seed. Some smaller seeds require light to germinate and should not be sown too deep; otherwise they may never germinate or break through the surface of the soil. Tips on how to properly store fruits and vegetables Mon. Dec. 23, 2013 by Linda Kordich (NaturalHealth365) Whether we are juicing, blending or eating fresh fruits and vegetables, there’s nothing more frustrating than to witness our produce going bad, either because we forgot about it, or we didn’t store it properly.

How to Grow an Edible, Vertical Garden in Five Steps - Cities It’s hard to believe but, yes, spring is on its way. And with it all kinds of wonderful green things like arugula, celery, and cherry tomatoes. If you’re a gardener, you’ve probably already started your seedlings (or at least have an order in for black seeded Simpson lettuce, Astro Arugula or sugar snap peas).

Organic Gardening – How to Start an Organic Garden Getty Images You've been trying to eat more organic foods, both to decrease the amount of pesticides you and your family consume and to help protect the environment. But take one look at your grocery store receipt and you know that buying organic can get very expensive, very fast. How to build My 50 Dollar Greenhouse First off – you really can build this thing very cheaply, but to do so you have to recycle, freecycle, and scrounge. If you just go out and buy new everything it will probably cost over $200 – still not bad all in all.This Article is featured in Jan 2010 issue of Birds and Blooms Magazine!Want to find out if this thing works before you read all this?

Amend soil with rock phosphate April 28, 2002|By Dennis Bishop | Dennis Bishop,Special to the Sun Q. We are planting asparagus in our community garden plot and it was recommended that we incorporate rock phosphate into the soil before planting. What is rock phosphate? A. Phosphate rock or rock phosphate is highly recommended by organic growers. 5 Secrets to a ‘No-work’ Garden It took over 20 years of gardening to realize that I didn’t have to work so hard to achieve a fruitful harvest. As the limitless energy of my youth gradually gave way to the physical realities of mid-life, the slow accretion of experience eventually led to an awareness that less work can result in greater crop yields. Inspired in part by Masanobu Fukuoka’s book, One Straw Revolution, my family experimented with gardening methods which could increase yields with less effort. Fukuoka spent over three decades perfecting his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort.

Building Fertile Soil - Organic Gardening Building fertile soil means learning how to feed the soil to feed the plants. It's a fundamental axiom of organic gardening and farming, and once you understand what "feeding the soil" means to building fertile soil, you'll also understand why organic methods, and no-till techniques in particular, work so well. Even though you can't see most of it, a complex soil food web lives in your garden; it's teeming with earthworms, mites, bacteria, fungi — all kinds of mostly microscopic, interdependent organisms that release mineral nutrients and create the loose soil structure crops need to thrive. Beneficial mycorrhizal fungi (see "The Magic of Mycorrhizal Fungi," page 24 in this issue) grow in and around plant roots, mining subsoil for nutrients and water to share with your crops. Other microorganisms prevent diseases and help plants withstand insect attacks.

Vegetable and Herb Companion Planting It’s the time of year when you should start thinking about planting your fall vegetables. Actually, we might be a week behind for some vegetables, but if your neck of the woods is anything like mine, summer came late, so hopefully we’re okay. A great way to get a good harvest is to “companion plant.” That is, plant two different types of vegetables in close proximity to one another to create a symbiotic cultural environment.

Personal Finance News & Advice If your thumb is even slightly green, a home garden can go a long way to cutting your grocery bills. The National Gardening Association estimates you’ll get a half-pound of vegetables for each square foot in your garden, or roughly $600 in produce over the course of a season for the average 600-square-foot plot. Growing it all could take as little as $70, they estimate.

5 New Solutions For Growing Healthy Produce Indoors Jeffrey GreenActivist Post An increasing number of people are moving into urban environments and away from traditional agriculture. As a consequence, those who have a mind for self-sufficiency can find themselves falling short. Storable foods are of course an important part of every emergency prepper's pantry, but storable foods are not a sound long-term solution that contain optimal nutrition. Even produce from farmers markets and store-bought organic food will lose peak freshness faster than one might imagine. Alanna Ketler from Collective-Evolution explains: How to Grow 100 Pounds of Potatoes in 4 Square Feet On many occasions, we've been tempted to grow our own potatoes. They're fairly low maintenance, can be grown in a pot or in the ground, last a fairly long time if stored properly, and can be very nutritious (high in potassium and vitamin C). Here's more incentive: according to this article, you can grow 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 sq. feet.

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