Nearly every afternoon for the last two months, curious drivers have noticed two people meandering through a pasture, following a narrow pathway formed by two lengths of string tied to fenceposts. It’s us! Thanks to COVID 19, we are no longer able to go the gym for a workout so like many other gardeners we … Continue reading A tale of two weeders – lessons in managing aggressive, perennial weeds
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
The concept of sustainable agriculture is not new and the idea of sustainable gardens is likely just as dated. Sustainability as a concept can be applied to soil, farms, gardens or life in the biosphere. The second law of thermodynamics says that all systems tend toward thermodynamic equilibrium where there is maximum entropy (randomness). In … Continue reading Sustainable gardens?
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
Gardeners often struggle to grow plants in containers. You may feel that you have a really black thumb at times when newly planted seedlings fall over dead or fail to thrive. The problem may not be disease or poor gardening acumen but rather your container media otherwise sold as “Potting Soil”. A trip to one … Continue reading Potting Soil Poison
Many gardeners, myself included, have that stash of old seed packets or saved seeds from garden seasons past, just waiting for the right time to be planted. They may be shoved in a drawer, a box, or in the fridge/freezer. Maybe you’re pulling some out of storage to start this spring – will they even … Continue reading When Good Seeds Go Bad: How long can you store seeds?
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might remember that I got rid of our lawn (getting rid of your lawn post) at our Seattle house . It took too much water to keep it green in the summer, and the resulting ornamental landscape was more ecologically diverse and aesthetically pleasing for … Continue reading Standing up for (and lying down on) the environmentally sustainable lawn
[This blog post has been provided by Bec Wolfe-Thomas, an administrator for the Garden Professors blog group on Facebook.] Woodpeckers (Picidae) frequently get a bad rap from gardeners. It’s often their impression that the birds irreparably damage trees, but this is untrue. Most woodpeckers are insect eaters; they can hear insects under the bark and … Continue reading Woodpeckers: Friends or Foes?
Gardeners that read this blog understand that minerals are absorbed mostly by plant roots as ions, and are essential for plant growth and development. Some minerals are required in parts per hundred, and are macro-nutrients while others are only required in parts per million or parts per billion, and are considered micronutrients. As long as … Continue reading Fertilizer—Friend or Foe to disease causing organisms?
Last month I shared some basic info on the major techniques for growing plants without soil, namely hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics. With such interest in these topics, I thought it would be good to dive a little further into the technologies used. I’ll provide a bit of basic information about each type of system used … Continue reading Hydroponics, Aquaponics, & Aeroponics, Part Deux
