4 Simple Steps to Grow a Hundred Pounds of Potatoes in a Barrel Container gardening isn't only for savvy urban gardeners and folks with limited space to grow, it can also be for folks who want to maximize their yields in a controlled environment. Not only does growing potatoes in a barrel reduce the amount of weeding and exposure to pests and fungi, you don't even have to risk shovel-damage to the tender potatoes by digging them out of the ground when they're done, just tip the container over! After extensive research to plan my own potatoes-in-a-barrel, I've boiled all of the recommendations down to 4 simple steps to a winning potato harvest. 1. You'll need to pick out a container such as a 50-gallon trash barrel or one of those half whiskey barrel planters. Good drainage is critical for the cultivation of healthy potatoes so you'll want to cut or drill a series of large drainage holes in the bottom and bottom sides of your container. 2. Fill in the bottom of your container with about 6 inches of loose planting mix and compost. 3. 4.
Vertical Veg – how to grow vegetables – salads – herbs in containers – small spaces Top 10 Common Plants that Repel Mosquitoes and Other Insects - InfoBarrel 1) Citronella Grass – Or Cymbopogon nardus is a clumping grass that belongs to the lemon grass family and is the source of the will known Citronella oil that is used in a number of commercial insect repellent products like citronella candles and tiki torch oil. It also has many other uses including being used in household disinfectants, as a fragrance in soaps and is popular in aromatherapy. Citronella grass is a perennial that is native to Southeast Asia. It can be grown here in the United States just about anywhere but will usually die off during the winter unless you live in USDA climate zones 10-12. Citronella grass grows best in full sun, requires lots of water and can grow 5-6 ft tall. 2) Marigolds – To get the mosquito repelling properties that you are looking for from your marigolds they must be the African or French variety. Marigold French Sparky Mix 500 SeedsAmazon Price: $0.01 Buy Now(price as of Jul 13, 2013)
Learn2Grow 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. Here are the strategies we used which enabled us to greatly increase our garden yield, while requiring less time and less work. 1. With ‘no-till’ gardening, weeding is largely eliminated. 2. Gardeners are always on the lookout for free sources of clean organic mulch to add to their garden.
No dig growing |No dig gardening| www.charlesdowding.co.uk Many gardeners are discovering the benefits of growing healthy food without any soil cultivation. As well as saving the effort of digging, rotovating, 'forking through' or whatever, you will find that weeds eventually grow much less, that vegetables grow just as well, or better, and that soil sticks less to your boots - which may seem a small point but it makes a big difference to the pleasure of being out in the plot. This comment from Steve Jenkins in Lancaster reflects that: I attended Charles' one day course last September and even though I had been allotmenting for many years (or perhaps because) it was an inspiring and transformative experience. Here is a comment from Mark Burge, gardener at Barnsley House in Gloucestershire: "No matter how many photos you see, nothing can compare with the real thing, it was amazing to see your veg 'zinging' with health and vitality and no weeds in sight, although you did manage to find one hiding in amongst your brassicas." WEEDS and MAINTENANCE
30 Unexpected and Unusual Things You Can Compost | Green Composting isn't just for food, silly! You'll be surprised at all the strange, random junk you can toss in the compost bucket. Don't draw the line at peach pits and coffee grounds - start chucking the following items into that bucket and watch your garbage bill go down while you create top-drawer dirt (and help the planet, of course). 1. Bills - because somehow it's a lot more satisfying shoving bills in with melon rinds and egg shells than the recycle bin. Trust me. 2. 3. magazines 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. cereal boxes 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. matches 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. It may seem like weird science, but all of the above objects are fully compostable. Sources: Cheap Like Me, Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano ALSO CHECK OUT: 5 Steps for Better Recycling10 Bearable Alternatives to Indoor Composting12 Clever Ways to Reuse Coffee Grounds10 Things You Can't Recycle Images: johndan, theseanster93, pawpaw67, laszlo-photo
Tree of Life Web Project The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists and nature enthusiasts from around the world. On more than 10,000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about biodiversity, the characteristics of different groups of organisms, and their evolutionary history (phylogeny). Each page contains information about a particular group, e.g., salamanders, segmented worms, phlox flowers, tyrannosaurs, euglenids, Heliconius butterflies, club fungi, or the vampire squid. ToL pages are linked one to another hierarchically, in the form of the evolutionary tree of life.
No dig gardens - how to grow vegetables by gardening without digging or tilling DIY Greenwalls Venelin.Petkov said... "Can you post a list of the plants you used and what nutrients are you using (I imagine you are not using pure water, since there are no minerals in the felt substrate). Thanks" Llazar said... "It would be great if could list the plants you used. Also, isn't there a problem of light? People have asked me a few times now what plants I used and how I care for them. Each wall builder will need to decide how much light, water, and nutrients they want to provide. Light I have pretty good light in the room but I decided to add some supplemental light from compact fluorescent bulbs. Water I water my wall 4x a day for 10 minutes a day (by drip tube on a timer). Nutrients I added fertilizer to my wall once in the time I have had it (just because a friend gave me some to try). Work with your local plant dealer to determine the plants that are right for your wall. Here's a partial list of plants I have on my wall listed in order of quantity. Philodendron (35%) Pothos (35%) Ivy (5%)