Organic Lawn Care For the Cheap and Lazy Lawn care in a nutshell: Must do: Set your mower as high as it will go (3 to 4 inches). Water only when your grass shows signs of drought stress and then water deeply (put a cup in your sprinkler zone and make sure it gets at least an inch of water). Optional: Fertilize with an organic fertilizer in the fall and spring. I recommend the Ringer brand. Have the pH of your soil professionally tested. Now for the verbose details on lawn care: A little knowledge makes it so damn near anything can qualify for the "cheap and lazy" label. The key to the lawn care game is competition. lawn care must do: mow high There is a fight for sun. MYTH: "If I mow short, it will be longer until I have to mow again." If you have a serious weed infestation, consider mowing twice as frequently as you normally do. Finally, when mowing, be sure to leave the clippings on the lawn. Mowing higher gives the following perks: Check out this pic. lawn mower My lawn care mower of choice? Update! Lawn Care Fertilizer:
66 Things You Can Grow At Home: In Containers, Without a Garden" Growing your own food is exciting, not only because you get to see things grow from nothing into ready-to-eat fruits and veggies, but you also don't have to worry about the pesticides they might contain, and you definitely cut down on the miles they—and you—have to travel. As it turns out, with pretty minimal effort, anyone can be a gardener. My boyfriend and I are essentially first-timers this season and so far have the beginnings of strawberries peeking out, tomatoes are on their way, the basil's about ready for a big batch of pesto, and once the last frost hits, the peppers, kale, spinach, chard, and mesclun will be on their way, too. All on a tiiiny little terrace (with the help of a little DIY carpentry). WATCH VIDEO: World's Greenest Homes: Rooftop Garden If you're up to the challenge—and it really isn't much of one—growing your own food can be so rewarding. Here's a starter list of all the crazy things even urban gardeners, without space for a garden, can grow at home. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Small-Scale Beekeeping My PeakProsperity username is the Latin name of the common honeybee ( “Apis mellifera” ). So it should come as no surprise that I'm a beekeeper. I started keeping bees about seven years ago, long before I had any awareness of "Peak Everything" or the three E's. And I enjoy keeping bees more than just about anything else. Why Keep Bees? The stock answer for why to keep bees is because bees make honey, and fresh, raw honey tastes much better than what passes for honey in the supermarket. Also, bees pollinate fruit trees and nearby crops. Bees emerging from an older inner cover. But if I'm perfectly honest, none of this is really why I keep bees. Disclaimers If you or someone in your family has a serious bee allergy, you shouldn't keep bees, of course. There's a saying among beekeepers: "Ask three beekeepers, get five opinions." Some Basic Bee Biology (the Ultra-Condensed Version) A strong beehive can have over fifty thousand bees. Note how fuzzy the workers' bodies are. Small-Cell Beekeeping
Create a Garden Journal - Guest Post Today's guest post comes from Karen at Chicken Sense. Karen blogs about gardening, cooking, sewing, and living in the country. Below she shares some resources to get you started on creating a garden journal. A great rainy day project is to begin a garden journal. A garden journal isn’t just a diary, it’s important information to help you get the most from your efforts. You won’t find a better source of growing and gardening tips for next year than the ones you write yourself this year. Your garden journal can be as simple as a notebook, blank paper, and pencil; or free printable garden journal pages found online; or you can purchase software garden journals; or buy spiral bound garden journal books. Free Garden Journal Pages to Print Garden Journal Software and Books to Purchase Would like to see your post featured here?
half sweet vanilla Do it Yourself & Page 2 It’s approaching the end of summer and rather than saying good-bye to your herbs why not go inside and try an indoor vertical herb garden? But, if you live in an apartment and have space restrictions a permanent vertical herb garden might just be the solution for you – where you can have herbs inside all year round. You may also like to get creative and add colour by adding succulents. When growing any vertical garden indoors or outdoors the biggest consideration is choosing the wall and analysing how much light you will get. What should you grow your herbs in? The best solution when growing herbs inside is to use woolly pockets as they provide the right environment for growing herbs and vegetables. Top Herbs To Grow Inside on Your Vertical Garden Walls Which Don’t Get Much Light If your wall doesn’t get much light there are herbs which will have a better chance of survival indoors. Sun Loving Herbs Greek oregano is a very sun loving herb insisting on at least six to eight hours of sun.
Comment élever des poules ? Peu contraignant, rentable, ludique et écologique, l’élevage des poules est sans doute l’un des premiers pas vers le retour à la nature. Traditionnel s’il en est puisque 70 % des familles françaises avaient un poulailler avant l’exode rural, cet élevage vous apportera d’énormes satisfactions pour bien peu d’investissements en temps ou en argent. Aubonsens se propose de donner les fondamentaux pour conduire un petit élevage familial avec succès. Pourquoi élever des poules ? Pour l’économie Les oeufs Un œuf de qualité acceptable se vend 30 centimes pièce [1]. La viande Du poulet industriel « élevé hors UE » au poulet de plein air certifié agriculture biologique, le prix varie entre 3 et 12 € par kilo. Pour l’écologie Les déchets En une année, chaque français produit 400 kilos de déchets qui seront apparemment taxés d’ici 2014. Les conditions d’élevage des animaux de l’industrie Plus de 8 œufs sur 10 sont produits par des élevages d’intérieur en batteries ou en volières. Pour la qualité de vie
Garden furniture, outdoor furniture and patio furniture at Garden Furniture World! The UK’s No 1. Garden Furniture Garbage Gardening Down below this jungle of tomato and snap pea plants lies layers of organic waste and lots of composting worms busily converting the materials into rich vermicompost. As I mentioned a while back (and written about recently on Red Worm Composting), I’m involved in a pretty sizable restaurant food waste composting project this year. In a nutshell, I am receiving hundreds of pounds (per week) of fruit and vegetable waste from a very popular local restaurant and have been composting these materials on my property. Given the quantity of wastes, I’ve had to get a little creative with my methods, and I’ve certainly discovered some methods that really work well, and others that…well…don’t work quite so well! Most of my efforts have focused on various forms of vermicomposting. One simple technique that seems to be working quite well for me is what I refer to as ‘Garbage Gardening’ (although this name could actually be applied to much of what I’m doing in my backyard this year).
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