Earthworms – The Unseen Workers Of Vegetable Garden Soil
The next time you venture out into your vegetable garden, you might want to make a quick check of the health of your garden soil. One very easy way to do this is to see how many earthworms you find lurking in the soil.
Take a garden fork
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8 Unusual Items For Fertilizing Tomatoes
Just about every tomato grower has a secret weapon for growing those perfect tomatoes. There are just about as many different methods that people use to grow tomatoes as there are tomato varieties. Organic gardening methods have brought about many homemade tomato (all vegetables really) fertilizers and techniques – not to mention the plight to be more frugal. Here are eight strange things that I have used, seen, read, or heard about for fertilizing tomatoes. Some of these are fairly common in vegetable gardening, while there are a few that just seem plain weird. Continue »
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Compost Can Improve Your Soil’s Health
August 15, 2009 by Tee
Filed under Composting
Adding compost to your garden soil will help to improve just about any soil type – whether it is clay, sand, or silt. There are two things that unhealthy soils lack: microorganisms and organic materials. Truthfully, you need the organic materials in order to attract the microorganisms.
Remember the movie Field of Dreams? “Build it and they will come” Continue »
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Understanding Soil Nutrients – Potassium
This is the third entry for the Understanding Soil Nutrients Series. Today we will focus our attention on a very important soil nutrient – potassium. If you missed the first and second entries to this series, here they are:
Understanding Soil Nutrients – Nitrogen
Understanding Soil Nutrients – Phosphorus
Why Potassium is Important To Your Garden
Potassium (K) is generally called potash when used in forms for a soil fertilizer. The name comes from the collection of wood ash in metal pots when the soil benefits of this material were first recognized centuries ago. Hence, the name “potash” came to be. Continue »
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Understanding Soil Nutrients – Phosphorus
This is the second entry for the Understanding Soil Nutrients Series. Today we will focus our attention on a very important soil nutrient – phosphorus. If you missed the first entry to this series, here it is:
Understanding Soil Nutrients – Nitrogen
Why Is Phosphorus Important To My Garden Plants?
Plants need phosphorous for strong root growth, fruit, stem and seed development, disease resistance, and general plant vigor. Phosphorous doesn’t move in the soil as easily as nitrogen does so you don’t have to add it as frequently. Continue »
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Understanding Soil Nutrients – Nitrogen
This is Part One of a four part series titled, Understanding Soil Nutrients. Each day this week will bring a new article on soil nutrients, with Thursday being the final article.
The first part of the Understanding Soil Nutrients series will be on nitrogen. As vegetable gardeners, nitrogen can play a key factor in whether our vegetables grow successfully or are doomed for failure. Too much nitrogen can mean big, bushy plants that have brilliant foliage, but little or no fruit. Not enough nitrogen causes browning foliage, and plants with stunted growth.
In most cases there is a fine line between too much and not enough nitrogen levels. Having your soil analyzed by a soil test is very important in determining how much nitrogen content is in your soil. The test results will inform you whether you need to add nitrogen, or dilute nitrogen levels depending out what you intend to grow. Continue »
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How Fertilizers Harm Earth More Than Help Your Lawn – Scientific American
July 26, 2009 by Tee
Filed under Gardening In The News
Dear EarthTalk: What effects do fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides used on residential lawns or on farms have on nearby water bodies like rivers, streams—or even the ocean for those of us who live near the shore?
– Linda Reddington, Manahawkin, NJ
With the advent of the so-called Green Revolution in the second half of the 20th century—when farmers began to use technological advances to boost yields—synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides became commonplace around the world not only on farms, but in backyard gardens and on front lawns as well. Continue »
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How To Plant Turnip Greens
Turnip greens are my favorite kind of greens, but don’t get me wrong I love them all. The wonderful thing about turnips is you get the best of both worlds – a tasty and flavorful root, and the delicious green tops. Growing turnip greens is not very hard as long as you give them the correct amount of water, and provide nutrient-rich soil. Here is how I plant my turnips. Continue »
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Using TerraCycle’s Garden Fertilizer
While shopping at my local Home Depot Saturday, I came across a very interesting product – TerraCycle Garden Fertilizer. It stuck out as an interesting product because it was packaged in what looked like two reused 20 oz. soft drink bottles. After reading the label on the bottles, I realized that this is a wonderful idea. They were indeed two reused soft drink bottles that contained liquified worm poop to be used as a flower or vegetable garden fertilizer. Continue »
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All About Compost Toilets
July 12, 2009 by Tee
Filed under Composting
Compost toilets have been around for quit a while and are becoming more and more popular. I will be the first to admit that the sound of a compost toilet does not sound very pleasant, but are a great money saver for the frugal gardener. Compost toilets
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