Compost Tea I guarantee your reaction to drinking compost tea would not be the same as above. Love me some tea, but compost tea is a plants only beverage. You'll see why in a few minutes. First let's talk about what it is exactly. Most gardeners are familiar with what compost is. I wrote an in-depth article about it…
Become Independent and Save Money by Growing Your Own Food
Pickled Peppers
Pickled Peppers From Your Garden Late September is one of those grand times of the year. The season is changing, football is back and Fall is in the air. If you planted peppers, chances are you're getting a lot right now. With everything ripening up all around the same time you might be wondering what you can do with…
Cross Pollinating Peppers
Cross Pollinating Peppers Have you ever wanted to try your hand at cross pollinating peppers? Maybe this hasn't crossed your mind (pun intended). But it's a real possibility. If you grow peppers in your own garden, this might have already happened to you on accident. Especially if you grew them close together. In fact, it happened to me this…
We Need Young Farmers!
Fostering Young People to be Agricultural Entrepreneurs Greetings! I hope this article finds you well. Today I want to talk about a subject I'm passionate about. And there's a reason I am: because it's extremely important. Without it, life as we know it, especially in First World countries, could not exist. There would be no internet, movies, or TV. No…
Fall Garden Opportunities
Fall Garden: Savor the Flavor The approach of Autumn presents many fall garden opportunities. Hopefully you're planning well in advance. But if not, that's okay too because some plants can be ready quickly. Maybe late summer/early fall snuck up on you. One great benefit from cool fall weather is that many plants become sweeter and more flavorful. Frost has…
Compost Methods
Best Practices for Compost Methods Compost Methods Review In order to distinguish compost methods by living situation, I will break them up into the following categories: "Suburban Dwellers" and "Land Owners." Land Owner simply implies that you don't have the neighbor or property restrictions a Suburban Dweller would. In fact, a Land Owner can pretty much do whatever they want…
Hugelkultur Raised Bed
7 Reasons Why You Should Build a Hugelkultur Raised Bed First off, what is a hugelkultur raised bed? Hugelkultur may be a strange term if you've never heard of it. It's German in origin and translates to "mound culture." The technique is a permacultural concept that essentially mimics what nature does. What goes on inside a hugelkultur raised bed is basically the…
Amending Soil
Why Amending Soil Can Be Beneficial Amending soil in your garden may be your best option to improve its structure. "Why should I bother amending my soil," you ask? The answer is rather straightforward. Often times gardeners are not blessed with perfectly rich soil to grow with. Just because grass grows well doesn't mean other plants will. There could be many…
Testing Soil
Testing soil is a great way to begin your garden, especially if you're just beginning a soil building campaign. Without testing, you don't really know what to expect when planting. The main concern when testing soil is to determine the pH level. This will help you to know how to amend the soil for an ideal pH. Or you could…
Soil Building
Ideas For Your Own Soil Building Campaign Someone once said that there are more microorganisms in a handful of healthy soil than there are people in the world. That should tell you that healthy soil isn't just dirt; it's literally alive! Over the past few decades we have come to understand much more about soil building than we used to.…
