How to Build a GeoDome Greenhouse - Northern Homestead When it comes to gardening in colder climates, a greenhouse is almost a must have. It extends the growing season and gives the plants a lot more heat. With a greenhouse, we can actually pick ripe tomatoes here and grow some plants that we would not be able to without one. A greenhouse can also be a great place to hang out on those cool spring days and summer nights. When we started to look out for one to build, our expectations were very high. In a northern garden we have to deal with frost, nasty winds and hail, and also loads of snow in the winter. Very unique, lightweight structure Stable in wind and under snow Optimal light absorption Has the most growing ground space A unique hang-out place An eye catcher The GeoDome greenhouse seemed to be just what we were looking for. What materials to use? We looked at dozens of how-to instructions and even bought a pricy e-Book (with very little value). Here we share our GeoDome building experience for anyone who wants to build a GeoDome .
Gardening with Epsom Salt | SaltWorks® Epsom salt is a popular supplement in organic gardening. For those interested in “green” living, Epsom salt is an ideal component in an organic garden. Epsom salt is an affordable, gentle and green treatment for your well-tended plants—both indoors and out. With a chemical structure unlike any other, Epsom salt (also known as Magnesium Sulfate) is one of the most economic and versatile salt-like substances in the world. Epsom salt has long been known as a wonderful garden supplement, helping to create lush grass, full roses and healthy, vibrant greenery. Ultra® Epsom Salt Why Epsom Salt Works in the Garden Composed almost exclusively of magnesium sulfate, Epsom salt is intensely rich in these two minerals, which are both crucial to healthy plant life. Magnesium Magnesium is beneficial to plants from very early on, right when the seed begins to develop. Sulfate Sulfate, a mineral form of sulfur found in nature, is an equally important nutrient for plant life. Epsom Salt for Houseplants
A Best-Practices Guide to Growing Tomatoes: Tomato Basics Attention to the basic needs of tomatoes goes a long way toward keeping them healthy and productive. If you’ve had problems with tomatoes in the past, the solution is probably in this list. Light. Plant tomatoes where they get 8 hours or more of sunlight daily. Any less will reduce the harvest. Soil. Spacing. Water. Mulch. Fertilizer. Crop rotation. Fall cleanup.
Are Coffee Grounds Good For Plants? You only need to walk past a coffee shop in any American city to see that our country loves java. With so much coffee being consumed on a daily basis, it’s encouraging to learn that there is a productive use for all those grinds. Next time you make a cup, save your coffee grounds and add them to the soil in your garden. For best results, use organic coffee if you will be consuming the fruits or vegetables you fertilize. Coffee Grounds as a Mulching Agent Coffee’s breakdown materials can be used as a mulching agent, as well as a fertilizing agent, for gardens. Coffee Grounds as a Compost Addition Adding coffee to your compost or worm bin is a great idea. Coffee as a Fertilizer As a fertilizer, used coffee grounds are slightly acidic and full of nitrogen, a mineral that aids vegetable and plant growth. Coffee as a Pesticide Coffee-ground mulch has the added benefit of deterring veggie and flower-munching slugs and snails. How to Use Coffee Grounds in Your Garden Where to Get the Grounds?
21 Epsom Salt Garden "Cheats" You Don't Want To Miss! There are many reasons to use Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) in the garden. It contains magnesium one of what growers call the “major minor” elements. It helps speed up plant growth, increase a plants nutrient uptake, deter pests, increase flavor of fruit and veggies, plus increase the output of vegetation. Read on to discover “other” ways to use Epsom salts in your garden. Before we look at the big three plants most gardeners use Epsom Salt on with wonderful results: Tomatoes, Peppers and Roses, let’s look at some general application practices and rates you can use with many plants. Applying Epsom Salt Below you’ll find basic general methods and rates to apply Epsom salt to plants and soil. Soil Incorporation – Broadcast 1 cup per 100 square feet, mix well into before planting. Pre-Planting Soak – Prior to planting, soak root balls in 1/2 cup of Epsom salt diluted in one gallon of water. Tomatoes A healthy growing tomato plant uses up lots of magnesium in the growing / production process.
DIY $2 self-watering garden bed - Grow produce easily, even in the toughest drought conditions - NaturalNews.com Thursday, June 26, 2014 by: Carolanne WrightTags: self-watering garden bed, sustainable agriculture, drought conditions (NaturalNews) "When life gives you lemons, share them with neighbors!" enthuses the Food is Free Project, a grassroots organization based out of Austin, Texas. It all began as a single, front yard organic vegetable garden with a sign explaining that the food was free for the taking. The founders of the project realized that most people don't grow their own food because of financial considerations, as well as the time it takes to maintain the plot. A zany video demonstrating how to build the raised bed, along with a wealth of other gardening resources, can be found at the Food is Free Project website. As wisely observed by Buckminster Fuller, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. Sources for this article include:
Choosing The Best Indoor Plants For Your Interior It’s no secret that I’ve been a wee bit obsessed with plants lately. After taking a good look at my interior and realizing that multiple areas of my home are a bit bare, I’m convinced that a few houseplant purchases will help breathe new life into my living room, bedroom, powder room and home office. I’m fairly good at keeping plants alive, but when I get busy, I tend to be forgetful about watering. And sometimes I water all of the plants the same way, without paying attention to their individual needs. Okay, so maybe I’m not the best at tending to my plants! Succulents in a light-filled window For starters, several of my favorite blogs have recently featured posts on caring for houseplants. Today I thought I’d share some tips and tidbits for choosing and maintaining the best indoor plants for your interior. Indoor Plant Ideas I thought I’d begin by sharing a few houseplant ideas that experts consistently recommend as sturdy indoor greenery. Fiddle leaf fig in a woven pot 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Extra kick med gödselvatten | Skillnadens Trädgård | Sara Bäckmo Vissa grönsaker behöver lite extra näring under sommaren för att trivas riktigt bra. I nya klippet från trädgården visar jag hur jag tillverkar och använder gödselvatten. Största delen av köksträdgården får den näring den behöver genom täckodlingen. Men vissa delar behöver lite extra, till exempel odlingslådor och andra ytor som jag haft svårt att täcka av olika anledningar. I veckans klipp från Skillnadens Trädgård visar jag hur jag gör gödselvatten av bland annat ogräs och jag delar också några bra tips som underlättar vattningen. Om du har svårt att se klippet i spelaren ovan finns det också på YouTube: Tillverka och gödsla med gödselvatten. Växter som gillar lite extraJag vattnar alla slags växter, både grönsaker, sommarblommor och perenner, med gödselvatten. RotselleriVitlökRabarberKål Majs Purjolök Gurkväxter Kronärtskocka Tomat Sparris (efter midsommar) I min trädgård odlas många bäddar med flera vändor grönsaker, de avlöser alltså varandra under säsongen.
Recycling animal and human dung is the key to sustainable farming © Illustrations in red & black: Diego Marmolejo for low-tech magazine. The innocent looking water closet breaks up a natural cycle in our food supply. Basically, it turns extremely valuable resources into waste products. This is problematic and unsustainable, for three main reasons. Secondly, we need artificial fertilizers to keep our soil fertile. Water closets are energy-intensive Fresh water production, the construction and maintenance of sewers, the treatment of sewage (and sewage sludge), and the production of inorganic fertilizers are all energy-intensive processes. Potassium and phosphate have to be mined (up to depths of several thousands of feet) and transported. Moreover, while potassium is widely distributed and abundantly available (we have enough economically obtainable reserves to last 700 years at our current consumption rate), phosphorus is not. A sign of civilization The existence of the water closet and the accompanying sewer system is seldom questioned. Dung traders
100 years ago, people were eating things that most of us will never taste. So what happened? Narrator: In 1905, a book called The Apples of New York appeared. It featured hundreds of Apples with names like Westfield Seek-No-Further or Esopus Spitzenburg, a favorite of Thomas Jefferson. If it wasn't for preservationists for like Ron Joyner in Lansing, North Carolina, most apples including the Virginia Greening, an apple dating back to the 1700 with thick green skin and yellow, coarse, and sweet flesh would no longer exist. It isn't just apples. In the last, century nearly 75% of our agricultural crops had disappeared. Vandana Shiva is a global ambassador on a mission to save seeds around the world. To learn more about seeds swaps and seed sovereignty, visit www.lexiconofsustainability.com. THE LEXICON OF SUSTAIN ABILITY www.lexiconofsustainability.com There may be small errors in this transcript.
Coffee Grounds & Gardening: Using Coffee Grounds As Fertilizer By Heather Rhoades Whether you make your cup of coffee daily or you have noticed your local coffee house has started to put out bags of used coffee, you may be wondering about composting with coffee grounds. Are coffee grounds as fertilizer a good idea? And how do coffee grounds used for gardens help or hurt? Composting Coffee Grounds Composting with coffee is a great way to make use of something that would otherwise end up taking up space in a landfill. Advertisement Composting coffee grounds is as easy as throwing the used coffee grounds onto your compost pile. If you will be adding used coffee grounds to your compost pile, keep in mind that they are considered green compost material and will need to be balanced with the addition of some brown compost material. Coffee Grounds as Fertilizer Used coffee grounds for gardening does not end with compost. Many people feel that coffee grounds lower the pH (or raise the acid level) of soil, which is good for acid loving plants.
How to Grow an Endless Supply of Garlic Indoors Other than being one of the healthiest food out there, garlic is also easy to be grown indoors. It is also a much cheaper way than buying it at the grocery store, and of course much healthier. You’ve all heard of the amazing benefits of garlic and all the things it can do for your body, so let’s just jump to how to grow it in the comfort of your own home. How to Grow Garlic Indoors Things You Will Need A head of garlic Potting soil A container Instructions To grow garlic indoors, all you need is one good garlic head. Cover all the cloves with soil. Place the pot in an area that gets plenty of direct sunlight. Source: livingtraditionally.com Be Sociable, Share! Hydroponics NASA researcher checking hydroponic onions with Bibb lettuce to his left and radishes to the right Hydroponics is a subset of hydroculture, the method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent.[1] Terrestrial plants may be grown with only their roots exposed to the mineral solution, or the roots may be supported by an inert medium, such as perlite or gravel. The nutrients in hydroponics can be from fish waste, duck manure, or normal nutrients. History[edit] In 1929, William Frederick Gericke of the University of California at Berkeley began publicly promoting that solution culture be used for agricultural crop production.[3][4] He first termed it aquaculture but later found that aquaculture was already applied to culture of aquatic organisms. Reports of Gericke's work and his claims that hydroponics would revolutionize plant agriculture prompted a huge number of requests for further information. Techniques[edit] Static solution culture[edit]
Free, Homemade Liquid Fertilizers Many organic gardeners keep a bottle of liquid fish fertilizer on hand to feed young seedlings, plants growing in containers and any garden crop that needs a nutrient boost. But liquid, fish-based fertilizers are often pricey, plus we’re supporting an unsustainable fishing industry by buying them. So, what’s a good alternative? MOTHER EARTH NEWS commissioned Will Brinton — who holds a doctorate in Environmental Science and is president of Woods End Laboratories in Mt. Vernon, Maine — to develop some water-based, homemade fertilizer recipes using free, natural ingredients, such as grass clippings, seaweed, chicken manure and human urine. Why and When to Use Liquids Liquid fertilizers are faster-acting than seed meals and other solid organic products, so liquids are your best choice for several purposes. Water-soluble homemade fertilizers are short-acting but should be applied no more than every two weeks, usually as a thorough soaking. Making Your Own