Over the last couple of months I started a series on raised bed gardens, focusing on materials and preparation. In this final installment, I’ll focus on maintenance activities to avoid in your raised bed systems and remind you of three things you should always do. Terrible traditions We’ll start with some practices that damage soil … Continue reading Tools, tips, and terrible traditions for raised beds – Part 3
Last month I started a series on raised bed gardens, focusing on materials and designs. Today I’ll mention some of my favorite tools and materials for putting everything together and getting ready to plant. Getting your soil ready for raised bed use Tools and materials: shovel, wheelbarrow, tarp, soil screens If you’ll recall from my … Continue reading Tools, tips, and terrible traditions for raised beds – Part 2
Location To grow most vegetables, you need direct sunlight at least six hours per day, and more is better in terms of productivity. That means full, unfiltered sunlight, so that your seeds and plants get the entire light spectrum. You’ll need to take into account seasonal changes, like the sun’s angle and the appearance of … Continue reading Tools, tips, and terrible traditions for raised beds – Part 1
One of the things I miss (and sometimes don’t miss) after my move from West Virginia to Nebraska is writing my weekly garden column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail newspaper. It was a great way to always keep thinking about new things to talk about and a great way to connect with the public. After I … Continue reading A Raised Bed Rebuttal: In defense of a common garden practice and soil health
You might have heard of the concept of crop rotation, or even have had someone tell you that you should be practicing it in your home garden. But does this practice developed for use on large-scale farm fields work for small-scale home gardening or backyard farming? And if so how do you even do it? … Continue reading Crop rotation makes the garden go ’round
Four years ago we moved to the family farm (where I grew up) and we’ve enjoyed restoring the 1 acre landscape around the farmhouse. Given that the residential part of this farm is surrounded by pastureland, there is a continual influx of weed seeds into our managed beds. While our thick applications of arborist wood … Continue reading Backyard biocontrol – using natural enemies to wipe out invasive weeds
We all know that water is essential for life and that we have to ensure our landscapes, gardens, and houseplants all have a sufficient supply of the stuff. Forget to water your garden during a hot, dry spell and it could mean disaster for your plants. But water can also create issues for plants, usually … Continue reading Water: Garden Friend….and Foe? – Water, Relative Humidity, and Plant Diseases
Last month in my blog My Soil Is Crap Part I, I tried to dispel the myth that you can diagnose soil problems by just looking at your soil. While the color of a soil does impart some diagnostic qualities, most soils are not easily analyzed without a soils test. A complete soils test will … Continue reading My Soil Is Crap, Part II
My Soil is Crap! Or is it? Over several years of teaching basic soil science to arborists, master gardeners and students something started to coalesce into a trend. If I ask my students do they have “good” soil, many say no. I have heard Master Gardeners complain their soil is terrible or that a certain … Continue reading My Soil is Crap
One of the popular arguments against mulching landscape and garden soils is that mulch delays soil warming and thus retards plant growth. Given that a well-chosen mulch will moderate temperature extremes – both hot and cold – is this an argument supported with evidence? In today’s post, I’m reporting the data I collected in visiting … Continue reading To mulch or not to mulch? It shouldn’t even be a question.
