Your cart is currently empty!
Category: [04-Plants]
Perennial and annual wonders that are all around us
-
How Small Farms are Feeding the World
In the April 2017 issue of The Lancet: Planetary Health, researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia report that small (defined here as up to about 50 acres) and medium-sized (defined here as about 50 to 250 acres) diversified farms currently produce more than half of the world’s micronutrient-rich foods (farms over 250 acres produce a larger proportion of sugar crops, oil crops, and cereal grains).
The team evaluated data concerning the production of 41 major crops, the nutrient contributions of those crops, and the size and diversity of farms producing them from around the world (the study summarizes results into 9 geographic regions).
Farm Size
You may be surprised to learn that large farms are not the biggest crop producers in North America – they are only the largest producers in South America (50%-80% of all crops produced) and in Australia and New Zealand (80%-90% of all crops produced). In North America, about 80%-90% of the production of most types of crops (vegetables, sugar crops, roots and tubers, pulses, oil crops, fruit, and cereal grains) is split about equally between medium-sized and large farms. Small farms produce the rest, leaning a bit more toward fruits, vegetables, and roots and tubers in North America.
In sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and China, the pattern is reversed, with small farms producing about 75% of all crops. In Europe, West Asia, North Africa, and Central America, all sizes of farms contribute more equally to the total.
Crop Diversity and Nutrition
The researchers found that in general, the smaller the farm, the greater the diversity of crops produced. Farms with higher diversity also tended to produce crops higher in micronutrients (large, non-diversified farms tended to produce more volume of fewer crops, and typically produce more crops that are higher in calories and lower in micronutrients than small farms do).
The Role of Organic Food
Organic farms tend to be smaller than conventional ones in the U.S. (according to the USDA’s 2012 Census of Agriculture, the average size of a farm in the U.S. was 434 acres, and the average size of an organic farm was 285 acres in 2008). Organic farms also tend to grow a wider range of crops, often those that are high in micronutrients. Supporting organic farmers by buying organic food and beverages helps keep the existing farms sustainable.
Organic management techniques are often highly appropriate technology for small farms and farms with more labor equity than cash to spend on off-farm inputs, making organic farming knowledge a powerful tool to help small farmers around the world succeed and boost their yields.
Small Farms and the Future
The report goes on to stress that maintaining the existing small farms and adding new ones will be critical in meeting the world’s expanding food requirements going forward, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and China, where they account for such a sizable portion of current production.
Supporting the needs of small farmers with issues such as access to land and spreading appropriate knowledge and small-scale technology must be an important part of any effort designed to support food security and sustainability. According to the World Bank, land issues are critical as almost three-quarters of the world’s population lacks registered legal titles to the land they use – a huge problem for farmers in developing countries. In developed countries, the cost of buying, owning, or leasing land for farming is more of a problem.
Consumers can help keep small farms and organic producers financially sustainable by shopping locally as much as possible and by choosing organic as much as possible. It is also important to support the work of groups that are helping farmers get access to land and the education and tools they need to run financially sustainable operations. Make sure your elected officials understand that we need small and organic farmers!
http://blog.naturespath.com/how-small-farms-are-feeding-the-world
On – 09 Aug, 2017 By Jean Nick
-
How Small Farms are Feeding the World
In the April 2017 issue of The Lancet: Planetary Health, researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia report that small (defined here as up to about 50 acres) and medium-sized (defined here as about 50 to 250 acres) diversified farms currently produce more than half of the world’s micronutrient-rich foods (farms over 250 acres produce a larger proportion of sugar crops, oil crops, and cereal grains).
The team evaluated data concerning the production of 41 major crops, the nutrient contributions of those crops, and the size and diversity of farms producing them from around the world (the study summarizes results into 9 geographic regions).
Farm Size
You may be surprised to learn that large farms are not the biggest crop producers in North America – they are only the largest producers in South America (50%-80% of all crops produced) and in Australia and New Zealand (80%-90% of all crops produced). In North America, about 80%-90% of the production of most types of crops (vegetables, sugar crops, roots and tubers, pulses, oil crops, fruit, and cereal grains) is split about equally between medium-sized and large farms. Small farms produce the rest, leaning a bit more toward fruits, vegetables, and roots and tubers in North America.
In sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and China, the pattern is reversed, with small farms producing about 75% of all crops. In Europe, West Asia, North Africa, and Central America, all sizes of farms contribute more equally to the total.
Crop Diversity and Nutrition
The researchers found that in general, the smaller the farm, the greater the diversity of crops produced. Farms with higher diversity also tended to produce crops higher in micronutrients (large, non-diversified farms tended to produce more volume of fewer crops, and typically produce more crops that are higher in calories and lower in micronutrients than small farms do).
The Role of Organic Food
Organic farms tend to be smaller than conventional ones in the U.S. (according to the USDA’s 2012 Census of Agriculture, the average size of a farm in the U.S. was 434 acres, and the average size of an organic farm was 285 acres in 2008). Organic farms also tend to grow a wider range of crops, often those that are high in micronutrients. Supporting organic farmers by buying organic food and beverages helps keep the existing farms sustainable.
Organic management techniques are often highly appropriate technology for small farms and farms with more labor equity than cash to spend on off-farm inputs, making organic farming knowledge a powerful tool to help small farmers around the world succeed and boost their yields.
Small Farms and the Future
The report goes on to stress that maintaining the existing small farms and adding new ones will be critical in meeting the world’s expanding food requirements going forward, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and China, where they account for such a sizable portion of current production.
Supporting the needs of small farmers with issues such as access to land and spreading appropriate knowledge and small-scale technology must be an important part of any effort designed to support food security and sustainability. According to the World Bank, land issues are critical as almost three-quarters of the world’s population lacks registered legal titles to the land they use – a huge problem for farmers in developing countries. In developed countries, the cost of buying, owning, or leasing land for farming is more of a problem.
Consumers can help keep small farms and organic producers financially sustainable by shopping locally as much as possible and by choosing organic as much as possible. It is also important to support the work of groups that are helping farmers get access to land and the education and tools they need to run financially sustainable operations. Make sure your elected officials understand that we need small and organic farmers!
http://blog.naturespath.com/how-small-farms-are-feeding-the-world
On – 09 Aug, 2017 By Jean Nick
-
How to Plant Efficiently With Permaculture Principles
The term permaculture is being passed around fairly frequently in agricultural circles these days. To make a complex idea quite simple, when it comes to growing things, permaculture seeks to do it as efficiently and low-impact as possible. Where organic gardening could still be cultivating rows of single crops, permaculture looks for ways of mixing useful plants to create beneficial relationships that craftily replicate nature.
Think about it this way: When you see a natural forest, left to its own devices, the plant (and animal) life is healthy, abundant and diverse all own its own. There is no need for fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or whatever else because the symbiotic relationships between the flora and fauna, including insects, regulate themselves such that the entire ecosystem maximizes its functionality.
With permaculture, often referred to as lazy farming, practitioners seek to mimic these natural systems. Rather than tilling up soil, planting in rows and weeding like mad, trees, vegetables, bushes, herbs, vines, tubers and even weeds can all (and have for millennia) grow well without so much human effort to keep them separated and meticulously groomed.
Good Guilds! What an Idea!
In fact, all of this grooming is contrary to how it’s supposed to happen, which is why gardening has the reputation of being such a laborious undertaking. It doesn’t have to be. With the right ideas and planning in place, several different species can be grouped in such a way that they not just work in harmony but actually fulfill each other’s needs. These groupings are called guilds.
The most commonly recognized guild for many is the trio used by Native Americans: corn, squash and beans. But, why did they do this? Well, these plants help each other out, in turn all yielding better crops. Corn provides a pole for the beans to grow on. The beans provide nitrogen to soil (the main ingredient in most fertilizers), with sugar from the corns’ roots to feed the nitrogen bacteria. The squash grows along earth, covering the ground so that weeds are minimized, insect-devouring animals have a place to hide and the soil stays moist, protected from the sun.
This trio, though, is quite a simple sample of the relationship complexities guilds can actually maintain. In fact, guilds can be composed of a dozen or more different perennial plants (those that don’t require annual cultivation), including multiple trees, an entire harvestable crop of vegetable bushes, greens, flowers, herbs, and roots. They can, in essence, be the beginning of an entire self-sustaining eco-system.
How to Make a Your Own Mega-Productive Permaculture Guild
Now, observing the fact that nature produces its own recurring plant groupings over time, with the slow unfolding of particular plants and animals gathering into wonderful little extended families, permaculturalists try to replicate similar relationships, only they do so with plants that are also useful to humans.
While coexisting corn, beans and squash is a great concept, full-on guilds have much more going on. Specifically, there are seven layers to think about. Forest guilds are centered around a large tree (overstory), often a fruit or nut tree, surrounded by smaller trees (understory) interspersed with shrubs, such as berries. Below that, plants get green and herbaceous, including culinary herbs and salad greens, and there will need to be something covering the soil (groundcover). Then, there are vines, climbing up things, and tubers growing under things.
Of course, this not just a random collection of plants but rather a careful puzzle-plotting of pieces that perform well together. Each guild can be composed a different components when growers understand what roles each plants are playing and what is needed in return.
Here’s a basic fruit tree guild, something that could actually be created in most suburban backyards:
- At the guild center is an apple tree.
- Around it, you’ll need nitrogen fixers, which can come in the form of ground cover, such as clover, maybe even some small legume trees, like pigeon pea, spaced around the edges. These fertilize everything, provide ground cover, mulch, and yield more food. Maybe throw a hazelnut tree in there.
- Inside the mix, incorporate pest-deterring plants, such as chives, basil and mint, and on the edges, use pest-distracting plants like dill and sunflowers.
- Next, it’s important to have a weed deterrent, which usually equates to a plant with big leaves, like squash or cucumber, or a guilder’s favorite: comfrey, which has deep taproots to pull nutrients up from the depths, medicinal uses, and nutrient dense leaves for mulching and fertilizing.
- Include vertical and underground elements, like wild yams, which are shade tolerant vines that supply edible tubers.
Different plants work better in different climates, so find out what’s growing in your area. Once it’s all going, the lazy farmer more or less just gets out of the way, visiting for a harvest here and there, occasionally chop and drop mulching the place to keep the organic matter thick and nurturing. But, in fact, the guild can take care of itself and you.
Lead Image Source: Renaud Camus/Flickr
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/how-to-plant-efficiently-with-permaculture-principles/
On – 15 Oct, 2016 By Jonathon Engels
-
Growing Shiitake Mushrooms
We got involved with Shiitake Mushrooms through our Agricultural Cooperative Extension Agency. (This is a great resource for any farmer. Make it a point at least to visit your local office and see the different programs they have going on for the farmer.) Back in 2003, our local office started helping traditional tobacco farmers transition into some other type of crop. They proposed growing both edible and medicinal Mushrooms.
By growing both, a farmer has two ways to sell mushrooms. You can grow edible mushrooms and sell to farmers markets, restaurants and health food stores. With medicinal mushrooms, you can pursue the herbal stores and sometimes you can reach out to acupuncturists’ offices. A diversified farm would do both!
Dr. Omoanghe Isikhuemhen of North Carolina A&T State University led the program. They proposed this deal: the school would provide the enough organic mushroom spore to inoculate 25 logs (3-4 ft. long x 4-8 in. diameter) in exchange for data collected by the farmer on how well the mushrooms produced. The farmer had to agree to keep approximately 200-250 logs for research.
The farmer would be given bags of spore with batch numbers only. When giving their data information, the farmer would refer to the batch number. This was, and is ongoing, research to see which strains of shiitake do best in which areas of North Carolina.
Alan and I signed up right away. That is how The Mushroom Hut @ Fox Farms was born! This was our first experience of Non-Traditional Forest Products (NTFP).
We always stress, when starting out on a new venture, to start out small and don’t invest a lot into the project until you see it will work for you. Everything sounds good on paper!
After signing up for the program, we were shown how to inoculate our log and how to care for it while waiting for the harvest—and that would be a very long wait. It can take from 6-12 months for the first fruiting after inoculation (most often 12 months).
Now we’ll show you how to get started.
Equipment And Supplies
- Drill
- Drill bit
- Food-Grade Wax
- Brush/Dauber (to apply the melted wax)
- Spawn
- Logs
- Containers for soaking
You can order most of these supplies from major mushroom spawn and equipment suppliers (examples: Field and Forest, Fungi Perfecti).
Assuming you already have a drill, total cost for all these supplies will be around $100.
Then, you have to scare up a log. If you have trees on your property, you can cut your own as a last resort. You may contact local loggers regarding logs that are too small for lumber—sometimes they’re sold for firewood. Or you can go into the woods and find a candidate that’s already on the ground.
Location For Your Log Yard
Find an area suitable for the production of the Shiitake. An area that is naturally shaded by trees is an ideal area for your log yard. If you are going to force fruiting, you will need access to water so this will be a consideration when deciding where to put your logs.
Best Trees For Mushroom Cultivation
Red and White Oaks and Sweetgums are the best trees for mushroom cultivation. These trees will produce longer than other trees due to their high wood density and strong bark.
Here at the farm we have also used Maple, Beech, Ash, Cherry and Birch. Ash takes longer to produce fruit. The others are good producers, but the bark doesn’t hold up long. Experiment to see what works for you and keep records (a regular calendar is great to write your notes on.) Make sure your tree’s bark is in good condition before you decide to use it.
When To Cut Down Trees For Mushroom Cultivation
The trees should be cut in late fall to late winter (Early Spring only if sap is not up). Be careful not to scuff up the bark. Ragged bark can allow other fungi to invade the bark.
Also, this will allow moisture loss and could slow down fruiting or keep it from fruiting at all.
The Proper Size Of Logs For Mushroom Cultivation
Use logs 3-4 ft. long and 3-8 in. in diameter. Keep in mind you will be moving the logs around. After cutting the logs, if you are not going to use them for a few weeks, make sure they don’t dry out.
Keep them out of direct sunlight, watered if it is unusually dry, or loosely covered if it is too rainy. Make sure there is air circulation.
When To Inoculate
Here in Western North Carolina, we start in March and complete by late April. Contact your local agricultural extension office for suggestions about timing in your area.
Ideally, you’ll use the trees as soon as possible after cutting. Production will be much better if moisture content is high. If you order your spawn before you are ready to use it, you can store it in the bottom of your refrigerator.
The Inoculation Process
Set up a work station for each task:
- Find a location that will be suitable for an electric drill (if you’re in a remote area make sure you have extra batteries).
- Space the holes 6-8 in. apart in rows along the length with 2-4 in. between rows. The holes should be placed in a staggered diamond pattern. (Closer spacings increase the rate of colonization and more rapid production but the spawn won’t go as far). Use your own judgement.
- Using your thumb inoculator, punch it down into the bag of spawn until the inoculator is full then, put it over the hole in the log and using your thumb press a couple of times to release the spawn into the hole. Make sure the drilled hole is completely full of the spawn.
- Now comes the waxing. You can have the wax slowly melting (on low) while you are doing steps one and two—a slow cooker on low will work. Make sure the wax never gets too hot. Use a natural bristle brush or wax dauber to apply the wax completely covering the spawn/hole. air bubbles. Go over it a couple of times if you need to.
Stacking Your Logs
After you have finished inoculating your logs it is time to stack your logs and wait for fruiting. Fruiting time can be anywhere from 6-12 months from time of inoculation. There are three methods of stacking:
- Low stack: this method is simple. All it involves is leaving your logs on the ground. However, it’s best to lay the logs on top of a pallet or cinderblocks to keep ground fungi from invading the logs.
- Crib style: stacking logs on top of each other, with horizontal layers of logs laid perpendicular to each other.
- Lean-to: lean logs up against a fencing, rail or wire.
During this time, make sure the bark/logs do not dry out. If it is unusually dry, you can use an overhead sprinkling system, watering hose, or soak the logs in a container. If soaking in a container, soak between 24-78 hours. This can also be done to force fruiting.
Know your water source! Do not use water from a creek, branch or river that has horses upstream of your mushrooms. E-coli has been found in water from this type of source. Test or filter your water to make sure it is reasonably clean.
Harvesting Your Mushroom Logs
Logs can fruit anywhere from 6-12 months from inoculation, due to reasons like the moisture content in logs, strain of mushroom, air temp, humidity, rainfall and light.
When you see the logs begin to fruit, you can help the fruiting by watering or soaking. It can take about three days for the mushroom to be large enough for harvest. Look under the cap of the mushroom for bugs/snails and brush off with a brush, baster, or plain paper towel.
Collect the mushrooms in box, basket, or stainless steel container. Store them in refrigerator or cool area immediately to preserve their freshness.
Treating The Logs After Harvest
Put the logs in a designated area where you will know these logs have fruited. Keep notes on a calendar as to when you have a fruiting so you can keep up with forcing of these logs.
Only force logs every 6-10 weeks. If these logs have not started to fruit again, you can put them in containers to soak and force another fruiting. After soaking, you can shock the log with a rubber mallet. To do this, just strike the ends of the logs several times. This helps to stimulate the mycelium.
Preventing Pests And Insects
Try to keep leaves raked away from your log stacks. This is a good hiding place for snails and other bugs that love to eat on the mushroom.
You can put out snail baits (saucers of beer) for the snails to drown in. Otherwise you have to pick most of the other bugs off the mushrooms as being picked. There are beetles that like to eat into the wax/spawn. Squirrels may be a problem in some places.
Whatever your reason for growing shiitakes—food, fun or profit—here’s hoping your fungi fantasies are fulfilled!
Susan Tipton-Fox, along with husband Alan Fox, continues the farming and preserving practices passed down to her by her family. She runs on-farm workshops and overnights in Yancey County, North Carolina. Follow her on Facebook: The Mushroom Hut @ Fox Farms.
https://www.niftyhomestead.com/blog/growing-shiitake-mushrooms/
On – 13 Jun, 2017 By Nifty Homestead Community Submission
-
How To Create A Permaculture Garden That Supports Your Local Ecosystem
There is no set formula for developing this type of permaculture garden design, but there are some permaculture best practices:
1. Copy nature’s blueprint and enhance it with useful plants and animals. Think of the structure of a forest and try to mimic it with your plantings. A canopy of tall trees will give way to smaller ones, flanked by large and small shrubs and, finally, by the smallest plants. Edge habitats, where trees border open areas, are perfect for fruiting shrubs, such as currants, and for a variety of useful native plants, such as beargrass (xerophyllum tenax), which is used for weaving baskets. Mimicking these natural patterns with permaculture provides for the greatest diversity of plants.
2. Stack plants into guilds. A guild includes plants with compatible roots and canopies that might be layered to form an edge. As you learn more about your site, you’ll discover groups of plants that work well together. For example, pines, dogwoods, and wild blueberries form a guild for acid soil.
3. Make use of native plants and others adapted to the site (but defintely not these plants).
4. Divide your yard into zones based on use. Place heavily used features, such as an herb garden, in the most accessible zones. (Here are 7 backyard weeds that are actually medicinal herbs in disguise.)
5. Identify microclimates in your yard and use them appropriately. Cold, shady corners; windswept spots in full sun; and other microclimates present unique opportunities. For instance, try sun-loving herbs like creeping thyme on rocky outcroppings; plant elderberries in poorly drained areas.
On – 01 Mar, 2017 By
-
No dig, ditch back-breaking cultivation and grow great vegetables
Origins of no dig cultivation methods are not completely clear, but the benefits of having healthy soil, bountiful crops with minimal work is clear! Managing your allotment/home vegetable garden using techniques such as double digging are time consuming, labour intensive and damage the delicate balance which exists in soil between beneficial bacteria, insects and microbial content. All of which are vital to the health of your soil and by extension the health of your delicious crops.
Incorporating organic material into soil is not a new concept, worms, insects, fungi and microbes have been enhancing soils organic content whilst aerating and binding soil together without having to dig in composted green waste or similar materials by hand for millions of years. By studying nature we can find ways to create efficient systems which work and enhance the natural world.
Pioneers in the UK like Charles Dowding, have been growing crops such as salad leaves for years with the no dig method, ranging from small back garden operations to acres of crops, even mainstream shows such as Gardener’s World have started to see the benefits of permaculture and no dig, as shown by Monty Don. The main concept of the no dig garden incorporates the ideals and principles of permaculture by mulching your growing area with composted green waste, straw, leaf mould, composed bark chippings and similar material. These mulches help to suppress weeds whilst the worms, insects and microbes continue to break down all this lovely organic material, incorporating it into your soil.
For best results you can add other design elements alongside your no dig site to enhance biodiversity, attract beneficial insects such as predator beetles and pollinators and make the most of the water fall your site receives.
Some of the methods which you could use alongside your no dig patch are …
- Adding beetle banks
- Create insect hotels
- Companion planting
- Attract pollinators
- Create a mini wildlife pond
- Design for your lands water flow
Why not give the no dig style of cultivation a go and see what this wonderfully simple method can do for your garden/allotment this year. Wildlife & Eco Gardens can help you get started with your new gardening system or help with composting advice to get the best quality compost for your no dig beds.
On – 25 Apr, 2017 By
-
Tips for Terrific Tomatoes, from Soil Prep to Staking
Plump, sun-ripened tomatoes are indisputably the crown jewel of home vegetable gardens, and a successful tomato crop means giving them the best start possible. As with everything, getting the most out of your tomatoes is all about preparation.
Joining us again to talk tomatoes and more is the Organic Gardener Jeanne Nolan.
Not sure how to start your garden? With help from Jeanne Nolan and her team, we will guide you through the process from selecting a site for your garden to staking crops and everything in between.
Strategies for Container GardeningIf you’re one of the many Chicagoans living in an apartment or condo with limited outdoor space, growing your own food can seem like a challenge – but, Jeanne Nolan says, anything you can grow in the ground can be grown in a container with just a few adjustments.
Ask Jeanne Nolan and The Organic Gardener crew.
http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/05/25/tips-terrific-tomatoes-soil-prep-staking
On – 25 May, 2017 By Erica Gunderson
-
Permaculture Puts Organic Gardening on Autopilot
BY: TIM O’NEAL
Organic food and farming have seen a huge increase over the past ten years, and for good reason. Farming and gardening techniques that use fewer harmful, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are better for the environment and better for human health. Permaculture methods of growing food reach far beyond these benefits. Growing food organically is just the starting point.
According to a report from 2014 by Stephen Daniells titled US organic food market to grow 14% from 2013-18, 81% of American families reported buying organic food at least sometimes. For many people, the barriers to buying organic food are accessibility and cost. Growing organic produce at home overcomes both of those issues. Permaculture practices are a great way to achieve the best results.
What is Permaculture
Permaculture (permanent + agriculture) was developed in the late 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. It’s a set of principles and techniques for food production at any scale that focuses on mimicking natural systems, instead of competing against them. It puts humans into the system as engaged participants, departing from the conventional agricultural approach of conquering nature. The principles can be applied to container gardens on apartment balconies, large scale agricultural operations, and anything in between.
Practitioners of permaculture believe that it is more than a set of gardening techniques. It is the simplest and most direct way we can repair many of the global problems we face today – environmental destruction, poverty and food scarcity, water shortages, among others.
Co-founder, Bill Mollison, says, ““The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.”
From Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual, there are three core tenets:
Care for the earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. This is the first principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.
Care for the people: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence.
Return of surplus: Reinvesting surpluses back into the system to provide for the first two ethics. This includes returning waste back into the system to recycle into usefulness. The third ethic is sometimes referred to as Fair Share to reflect that each of us should take no more than what we need before we reinvest the surplus.As stated in the third tenet, one central element of permaculture is to return waste back into the system as a benefit. The most direct way to do this is to compost garden and food waste onsite to add nutrients and organic material to the soil. If done well, this can eliminate the need for fertilizers.
There is also a strong emphasis on providing habitat for pollinators, other beneficial insects, and birds. The idea is to mimic a forest setting, or some other mature ecosystem, where pests and diseases are kept in balance by a harmonious relationship among organisms up and down the food chain. With this approach, there’s no need for chemical pest control.
Permaculture concepts can be applied beyond a single garden or farm to include a neighborhood, village, or an entire city. A permaculture system is designed for resiliency. This means that if one element fails the rest of the parts can fill in to keep the overall system intact. A society designed around permaculture principles is built to withstand destructive forces.
While it is a relatively new approach to food production, permaculture relies on concepts from traditional approaches to agriculture. There are methods from all over the world that have been highly productive and sustainable over long periods of time. The revolution of industrial agriculture has worked to eliminate many of these techniques. Permaculture incorporates them back into the modern system to ensure resiliency.
Achieving a productive garden using organic practices is an important goal, for the health of both humans and the environment. Permaculture provides a tested, ethical method for achieving that goal. It also assures us that the benefits of growing healthy food for ourselves isn’t limited to the space of our gardens.
As Bill Mollison says, “If we do not get our cities, homes, and gardens in order, so that they feed and shelter us, we must lay waste to all other natural systems. Thus, truly responsible conservationists have gardens.”
For a great introduction to some permaculture ideas, check out this video by Toby Hemenway.
https://thehomestead.guru/permaculture/
On – 21 Mar, 2017 By The Plaid Zebra
-
Fertilizing Corn In The Home Garden: An Organic Approach
As garden crops go, corn is among the heaviest feeders. To support tall growth and good ear formation, corn crops often need supplemental additions of nitrogen; there’s typically not enough of this nutrient available in garden soils to support such a large-statured crop. Fertilizing corn in the home garden is an essential summer chore, if you want a hearty crop of plump ears.
When To Fertilize Corn In The Summer
Test your garden soil every few years to ensure its pH is at the correct level to support the growth of most common garden crops, including corn. The best pH for most vegetables is between 6.0 and 6.5, and ensuring your soil’s pH fits in this range improves the availability of most nutrients to your corn plants.
That said, even when the soil’s pH is in the suitable range, supplemental nitrogen fertilizer is often necessary when growing corn. Adding yearly additions of well-composted manures and using legume cover crops will add a good bit of nitrogen to the soil, but when your corn plants reach two feet tall, it’s time for fertilizing corn in the home garden.
Organic Products For Fertilizing Corn
If you want to avoid using chemical-based fertilizers in your veggie patch, you’ll need to turn to organic nitrogen fertilizers to give your corn plants a boost. The following sources of nitrogen are plant- or animal-based and require soil microbes to break them down into a form of nitrogen the plants can use. Thankfully, upon adding one of these fertilizers to the corn patch, all the necessary soil microbes work very quickly to break down these products and release the nitrogen to your growing corn plants.
- Alfalfa meal: Made from dried alfalfa plants, this plant-based fertilizer is about 4 percent nitrogen. It’s often used as an animal feed supplement, too, and it promotes a balance of healthy soil microbes.
- Cottonseed meal: A coarsely granulated product made from the hulls of cottonseeds, cottonseed meal is about 6 percent nitrogen. Once in the soil, it rapidly breaks down and provides a burst of nitrogen to plants within a few days of application.
- Blood meal: Derived from dried blood from slaughterhouses, blood meal contains about 12 percent nitrogen. It acts quickly in the soil and begins to provide nitrogen to plants almost immediately.
- Feather meal: Another animal byproduct from slaughterhouses, feather meal contains approximately 14 percent nitrogen. It’s inexpensive, though it takes a bit longer for the microbes to mineralize than some of the other organic nitrogen sources discussed here.
- Soybean meal: With a nitrogen content of about 7 percent, soybean meal is another option for fertilizing corn in the home garden.
- Fish fertilizers: Liquid fish fertilizers as well as granular fish-based fertilizers are good nitrogen sources for the corn patch. Though they can smell bad, fish-based fertilizers are mineralized by soil microbes very rapidly. Depending on the formulation, they can contain between 5 percent and 10 percent nitrogen.
How To Fertilize Corn
Adding nitrogen to your corn plants is as simple as side-dressing the rows at the recommended application rate shown on the product’s label when the plants are approximately two feet tall. Lightly scratch it into the soil’s surface so the soil microbes can quickly access it, and then water it in.
A word of caution: it is possible, of course, to overfertilize corn plants. Do not add any more fertilizer than recommended on the label. A single application is all that’s necessary, except in the case of extreme nitrogen deficiencies. Conduct a soil test every few years to ensure all essential plant nutrients are in the proper balance.
http://www.hobbyfarms.com/fertilizing-corn-home-garden-organic/
On – 22 Jun, 2017 By Jessica Walliser
-
Transitioning the Vegetable Garden from Spring to Summer
— Gardening Tips —
This is the time of year when I transition the vegetable garden from its spring crops into summertime. It’s the time of year when we never seem to have enough room in the raised beds nor enough time to do all of the work we set out to do in a given day.
In the vegetable garden, the broccoli rabe is at its peak, and the lettuce is, too. The beets will be ready for harvesting, pickling, and canning in about three weeks or so. Strawberries for jam are just starting to arrive and are protected thanks to the bird netting that keeps my nemesis, the local crow murder, from eating the harvest before I get to them. Peas twin on the Vine Spine Linking Trellis and start just starting to flower. Onions and garlic are maturing and the radishes are almost finished.
Newly planted carrot and parsnip seeds peek tentatively above the earth. Tomato plants expelled from hothouse splendor now wave from behind the safety of their cages. And waiting on the porch for truly hot weather are the flats of sweet potato plants who need heat and plenty of it to be happy.
Among the herb garden plants, the catnip is ready for harvesting, and I’ve already cut and dried another pint of oregano. I have cinnamon and Genovese basil plants ready to set outside and parsley and dill have been moved from the safety of their flats to the garden beds. I mix parsley and dill into the herb garden, the butterfly garden as food for hungry caterpillars, and in the vegetable garden so there is always plenty for us all.
We’ve been busy weeding all of the flower beds in the perennial garden. It is hot, dirty work. Last year, I got behind in the weeding and the weeds took advantage of my laziness to creep into every nook and cranny among the plants. Hubby and I have worked out a system whereby I week from 7 to 8:30 each morning and then he mulches the area afterward. When we finish the entire garden in about two weeks I will start again, tidying up the areas we’ve already done.
Our goal this year is to keep the garden in top shape as long as we can. The heat is always a problem and keeps me from gardening longer, but I have learned the hard way that a little sustained daily effort accumulates into success.
May is a busy month, but I have found time to update the monthly gardening tip sheets available free here at Home Garden Joy. I have also started a new short gardening book that I think you will enjoy! Stay tuned, be sure to join our email list for the latest information, and keep gardening and growing!
http://homegardenjoy.com/site/2017/05/transitioning-vegetable-garden-spring-summer.html
On – 18 May, 2017 By Jeanne
-
Planting a food forest: Proposal for Springside Park would help connect people to the land and to food
PITTSFIELD — An edible landscape, dappled with fruit, vegetables and nuts. That’s part of a vision for a food forest in Springside Park.
A local permaculture design company has applied for a $25,000 grant to support the idea. Now through April 19, people can vote daily for that idea, one of hundreds of proposed projects, on the Seeds of Change website.
“Food isn’t just something we eat,” reads the grant application. “It’s our history, culture, family and memories. It is our medicine and fuel.”
A food forest is a gardening technique that imitates a woodland ecosystem by bringing a number of crops that can help support each other into one area. The vision for a 1-acre plot of Springside Park includes edible trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals.
Matt Lamb and Jay Allard, owners of Berkshire Earth Regenerators, applied for the grant. They have studied the park for six months and developed a food forest plan on land near the Springside House.
“My goal is to get as much diversity into the plan as possible,” Lamb said. “There’s so many different things we are trying to correct with this project.”
He said the additional plantings in the proposed food forest would improve stormwater runoff and help cut down on carbon emissions. He said the plan could be expanded to as much as 40 acres of the park.
Allard said their concept for the park could yield thousands of pounds of food, which would be distributed to area residents and community organizations.
“A lot of people in the community are having a hard time getting food at all,” he said. “This is a very local situation it keeps food from traveling far distances.”
In addition to being a source of fresh food for the community, the forest would be used as a living classroom, where people learn to garden, and it would provide some job opportunities.
“As people take interest in these plantings, they become more invested in their community,” Allard said. “We want to be able to reconnect people with that.”
Springside has become a place for education in addition to recreation.
Regular garden workshops and interpretive walks are offered from the spring through fall. There’s also a weekly membership-based learning program at the park’s greenhouse.
Joe Durwin, a longtime resident of the Morningside neighborhood, and a parks commissioner, said the proposed plan is overdue.
“A food forest at Springside Park is an extraordinary way to honor a robust heritage of agriculture at this very historic park site, while updating it for the needs and expectations of neighborhood residents and other park users in the 21st century,” he said in a written statement.
Last year, the city received a grant from the Kresge Foundation to study how growing food could help revitalize the Morningside neighborhood.
Named Morningside Up by the city and community partners, the project envisions a “community-led food system.” That means residents would be involved with food production, processing, distribution, and consumption as well as waste management, said Jessica Vecchia, director of Alchemy Initiative, which is managing the Kresge grant and working in partnership with Morningside Up.
Allard and Lamb said they are excited by the impact the food forest could have.
“This will help educate people on how we can use public space to do greater things for ourselves, our families and our community,” Lamb said.
The food forest concept is among nearly 600 ideas submitted by groups from across the country to Seeds of Change. A total of $310,000 will be awarded to groups by the California-based organic seed company.
The top 50 vote winners advance to the finals in April. And grant winners will be announced May 8, according to the website.
The Downtown Pittsfield Farmers Market, another of Alchemy’s programs, was awarded a $10,000 grant from Seeds of Change last year.
Reach staff writer Carrie Saldo at 413-496-6221 or @carriesaldo.
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/planting-a-food-forest,503487
On – 05 Apr, 2017 By Carrie Saldo
-
Planning for summer food – MY FRENCH COUNTRY HOME
planning for summer food
Apr 11, 2017
We’re not in the summer yet, not by a long way, but the spring does seem to be in a hurry to move forward here. Consequently I’m having to decide very quickly what to plant in our kitchen garden this year. Since I created the no-dig beds a couple of months ago, I haven’t had time to plant anything, and the only plant showing is the rhubarb that just refuses to give up.
We don’t have a big kitchen garden, it’s as much about looking pretty as producing food. But the few crops that we manage to harvest have to be ideal for summer eating and entertaining.
That’s why this year I shall be growing a lot of basil for making delicious pesto sauce for our pasta;
plenty of tomatoes, zucchini and aubergine or eggplant for our stuffed vegetables
and hopefully this year some coco de Paimpol, or white beans which are quite divine as a summer salad. They can actually be bought all year around as dry beans, and the recipe below can be adapted to using dry beans in case you don’t have the possibility or indeed the wish to grow them yourself.
To make a salad of Coco beans for four people as a main dish or for eight people as a small appetiser with a glass of rosé before the meal, you will need:
350 g / fresh white beans preferably the variety Cocos de Paimpol
one onion with a clove inserted for cooking
one finely chopped onion (I prefer to use a violet onion)
sprig of thyme
3 large spoons of olive oil
2 spoons of balsamic vinegar
Cover the freshly shelled beans with cold water, and drop the onion with the clove and the sprig of thyme into the water Bring to the boil and simmer for about 25 minutes or until the beans are just tender.
Strain, rinse in cold water and leave to cool. Chop the violet onion finely, and prepare the vinaigrette then pour the beans into a deep salad bowl and add the onion and vinaigrette with a little chopped chives or basil to taste. Some people like to add some small cherry tomatoes cut in half, but the beans are delicious without.
All this beautiful food was prepared and shot at the Château de Moissac, photos by Franck Schmitt for the book My Stylish French Girlfriends.
•
http://sharonsantoni.com/2017/04/31027/
On – 11 Apr, 2017 By
-
8 Reasons to Include Rosemary in the Garden
Growing food at home is much more than vegetables alone. Culinary herbs are not only one of the easy crops to cultivate, but they improve the flavor, as well as the nutritional content of the dishes we cook. What’s more is culinary herbs have tremendous functional quality within gardens, as well as medicinal qualities, especially preventative measures, within our bodies. Dried or fresh, if we are producing herbs in the garden, we have easy access to them for much less cost.
Rosemary is a familiar culinary herb, one that pairs particularly well with potatoes and artisanal bread. It also often works its way into holiday dishes, like stuffing or gravy, and those with rosemary plants at their disposal regularly use it as an air freshener or home decoration. Along with basil, oregano, thyme and mint, rosemary is nearly a standard in even the most rudimentary herb and spice cabinets, so it only makes sense that we include it in our home gardens.
But, there are so many more reasons…
1. Flavorful Harvest
Rosemary performs well in the kitchen, and a little bit can go along way to elevate dishes. It pairs particularly well with starches and works wonders on squashes and stews. Inventive mixologists also utilize it in drinks, like lemonade, and innovative chefs have accented with it in desserts.
2. Health Benefits
In addition to enhancing the flavor of many of our favorite dishes, rosemary also delivers a wallop of health benefits. Like most culinary herbs, rosemary is loaded with anti-oxidants and vitamins, and it contains natural compounds that are anti-inflammatory and anti-septic. It is also a notable source of minerals, such iron, potassium, manganese, copper, magnesium and potassium.
3. Perennial Plant
Perennial plants are great additions to food gardens because they can provide food but don’t require that we cultivate them year in and year out. Many culinary herbs are perennials, and rosemary is most certainly one of those. Other advantages to having perennial plants is that they help to stabilize soils and feed soil life, and they prevent gardens from looking empty when the annual crops have been removed.
4. Lovely Aroma
Larisa Blinova/ShutterstockRosemary has a very distinct and powerful aroma, one that we readily identify in cooking and often in air freshening. Within aromatherapy circles, the scent of rosemary is known for being stimulating, helping sniffers remain alert and retain memory. In direct contrast, rosemary is also known to have relaxing effects that decreases stress levels.
5. Pest Prevention
Once again, culinary herbs can be somewhat lumped together in that nearly all of them are great for pest control in the garden. Rosemary is particularly powerful because of its aroma, which distracts pests from finding the plants that they want. Essentially, the more smells we can add to our garden, the more confusing it is for pests to hone in on specific plants.
6. Pollinator Attraction
While pests are being confused by rosemary, beneficial insects and animals, such as hummingbirds and bees are attracted to rosemary when it is in bloom. Rosemary flowers in late winter/early spring, which means it provides pollen when not many other plants are. This makes it attractive to wildlife looking for an early start.
7. Drought Resistance
Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean climate, which is why we find it so often in Italian food, but as gardeners, this tells us that it is able to sustain itself in a climate without an abundance of rain. It grows very well in Southern California, but for those of us not in this climate or one’s like it, it can make a low-maintenance pot plant or easily cared for garden addition.
8. Heat and Cold Tolerant
Maren Winter/ShutterstockRosemary is more or less a desert plant, hence the drought resistance, but that also indicates that it can handle both hot and cold temperatures well. Deserts have the reputation for being hot, so rosemary’s ability to withstand sizzling conditions should be no surprise. On the other hand, deserts are also notoriously cold at night, when the sun stops baking them, so rosemary is remarkably resistant to cold weather, well below freezing, as well.
All of these benefits come without even acknowledging that rosemary is a beautiful, evergreen plant that will keep the garden looking good year-round. It comes in both upright and creeping varieties, making it available for hedges or hanging over garden walls. It’s a great addition for both aesthetic and culinary gardens. Now would be a great time to get one going.
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/reasons-to-include-rosemary-in-the-garden/
On – 10 Apr, 2017 By Jonathon Engels
-
Vegetables – Grow top-quality carrots
Carrots are important root crops in commercial and home gardens for vegetable production. Here are some pointers for cultivating them.
Carrots (Daucus carota) are members of the Apaceae family and are grown for the edible root, which can be eaten raw or cooked. They are rich in carotene (vitamin A). Carrots grow well in cool conditions, as long as there is enough moisture, and they are fairly resistant to cold and frost.
SOIL
Carrots need deep, well-drained sandy loam to sandy soil, and the texture is very important because it affects how smooth and well-shaped the roots will be. Avoid heavy, compact soil which will discourage growth. Soils high in fresh organic matter can result in hairy, forked and malformed roots, and stony soil can also produce poor root shapes. The optimum pH (H20) is between 6,0 and 6,5.
TEMPERATURE
Carrots are cool-weather plants, but growth slows down if the temperature drops below 10ºC.
Although not usually sensitive to frost, severe frosty spells can damage the leaves. Roots can be damaged if the soil temperature drops below 0°C, especially if the plants were irrigated the preceding afternoon.
The temperature and soil moisture influence the colour, shape and quality of carrots. Growth is optimal at 18 – 23°C, although some cultivars can withstand a great deal of heat. High temperatures (above 29°C) affect emergence and quality negatively, causing poor colour and thicker centres.CROP ROTATION
Rotating crops helps to improve the quality of the soil and keep down soil-borne pests. Carrots make good crop rotation partners for cabbage, lettuce, pumpkin and tomatoes. If rotated with leguminous crops, such as peas and beans, they improve the soil’s nutrient levels.
CULTIVARS
Try these varieties:
Kuroda, which offers an excellent yield and has a good shape. It’s 11 – 15cm long and has a thin kernel. Can be produced in warmer seasons.
Cape Market is cylindrical, 12 – 17cm long and produced in warmer seasons.
Scarlet Nantes, Flacoro, Fancy and Duke are good choices for autumn planting.PREPARING THE SOIL
Loosen the soil thoroughly by ploughing (or using a fork, hand hoe or spade) to a depth of 300 – 400mm to allow for good root aeration, root penetration and drainage. Crush all clods with a rake or cultivator to obtain a deep, fine tilth. Remove stones because they can cause poorly shaped carrots. It would be even better to build and prepare a raised bed. Remove all weeds before sowing because carrot seedlings are very fine and cannot compete with weeds.
SPACING
Allow 25 – 35cm between rows. Thin out at one to two weeks after emergence, when the carrot seedlings are about 4cm high, and again one to two weeks later. This should result in a spacing of 4 – 5cm within the row (80 – 120 roots/m²). Do not thin out later than four weeks after emergence. If the crop is not thinned out, the carrots will be small and malformed. Thinning should take place in the afternoon, and when soil is moist.
APPLYING FERTILISER
Broadcast about 1 000kg/ha (100g/m2) of a fertiliser mixture such as 2:3:4 (30)+Zn or 1 100kg/ha (110g/m2) of 2:3:2 (22)+Zn just before planting and work it into the top 10cm of soil.
Apply a top dressing of 10g LAN per metre of row at three weeks and again at six weeks after emergence. Sprinkle on both sides of the row, 2 – 10cm from the plants (do not sprinkle on the plants). It would be a good idea to remove all the weeds before applying LAN in order to avoid their competing with the carrots for fertiliser. Work into the top 2cm of the soil, using a flat-tined fork. Water well. In areas known to have a boron deficiency, apply 10 – 20kg/ha borax after planting.
Do not use manure and compost for carrots, because they can cause malformation of the roots and decrease the marketable yield. If manure needs to be dug in, do so with the crop preceding carrots (see crop rotation).HOW TO SOW
Rake the soil surface to a fine-tilth seedbed before sowing the small carrot seeds directly in the soil – carrots cannot be transplanted.
Put the seeds in the palm of one hand, take a substantial pinch with the fingers of the other hand and rub between finger and thumb as you move your hand forwards and backwards along shallow (1,5cm deep) furrows, until the desired sowing rate is achieved. Another method is to mix one teaspoon of seed with 10 teaspoons of sand and then sow it. Seeding requires some experience and practice.
After sowing, cover seed with fine soil to ensure better germination. In the warmer months, mulch the rows with dry grass to keep the soil cool and moist, as this will assist germination. Remove the mulch after the seedlings have emerged. (If it is kept on too long, the seedlings will become leggy and the sun will burn them easily.) Emergence may take 7 – 14 days depending on the cultivar, the weather, soil type and season important You will need 3 – 4kg seed. For smaller plots, allow 1g (1 teaspoon) per 2m of row.
IRRIGATION
Keep the soil moist after sowing the seeds to ensure good germination. Water carrots regularly throughout the growing season, but take care not to water too much. As a general rule, carrots need about 30mm of water per week. Water every five days if the weather is warm and dry.
MANAGING THE CROP
Start off with a weed-free plot so that the carrots do not have to compete with them for nutrients and water. Then weed carrots regularly to keep them free of weeds. If you see any weeds appear, remove them immediately. Being weed-free has a substantial effect on the yield – and your profits. Be particularly careful to remove perennial weeds because they can grow between the roots and will result in poor-quality carrots.
HARVESTING
Carrots grow for 10 – 12 weeks from emergence to harvesting, depending on the cultivar and the temperature. In small gardens, harvest them as soon as they reach a diameter of 20mm but are still young and tender. Make sure the soil is wet when you harvest carrots, to make them easier to remove, either pulling out by hand or first loosening them carefully with a fork (start 15cm away from the base of the plants) and then pulling them out.
Harvest carrots when they are fully mature as this increases their shelf-life. Do not harvest early in the morning if the soil is cold, as this may cause the roots to crack horizontally. Do not leave carrots in the sun after harvesting – take them to a shady place as soon as possible.
STORAGE
Most horticultural crops are perishable and can only be stored for a few days. It is best to harvest carrots as needed for consumption or selling. Remove the leaves before storing, to extend shelf life.
Fresh carrots, harvested when mature, will keep for up to five days at room temperature (20°C), and for 7 – 21 days in a refrigerator.
WHEN TO SOW
The following sowing times are recommended for the different countries.
South Africa
Highveld: August to mid-March.
Middleveld (temperate climate zones): August to mid-April. In very warm areas, August to September and February to March.
Limpopo and Lowveld: February to April and July to August.
Free State and Northern Cape: August to October and end of January to March.
Kwazulu-Natal (midlands and coastal region): August to April.
Eastern Cape: July to April, but NOT in mid-summer in very warm areas. In very cold areas, August to April.
Western Cape: August to end of March.Zambia
Eastern province, and Sesheke and Shangombo districts: March to July.
Northern, Luapula, Copperbelt, Northwestern, and parts of Central Provinces: March to July.
Sandveld plateau of Central, Eastern, Lusaka and Southern provinces: March to July.Zimbabwe
Mashonaland East, Central and West: February to September.
Mashonaland west(Kadoma) and Midlands(Kwekwe, Gweru, Gokwe): February to September
Masvingo: February to SeptemberMalawi
Whole country: whole year
Botswana
Southern region: February to Septmenber
Gabarone regione: March to September
Central region: March to August
North east region: March to August
Ngamiland region: April to AugistDisease control recommendations
- Rotate crops.
- Plant in well-drained soil.
- Water early so that leaves can dry before nightfall.
- Do not over-irrigate.
- Burn diseased plants.
- Fertilise plants well.
- Control weeds in and around fields.
- Remove all plant residues from the field after harvesting.
REMEMBER: There are no registered disease-control chemicals for carrots.
On – 17 Aug, 2017 By Digital team
-
5 Keys To Growing Cucumbers – Grow A Banner Crop This Year For Pickles And More!
Growing Cucumbers! When it comes to backyard gardens, cucumbers are right up there with tomatoes as one of the most popular home-grown vegetables.
It’s not hard to figure out why. Is there anything better than a fresh cucumber sprinkled with a little bit of salt? And beyond that delicious fresh taste, they are, of course, prized for making pickles. In our house, pickles rule! (See our Pickle Recipe Page)
Whether its making a quick batch of our overnight garlic pickles, or canning bread and butter, dill or hot pepper-garlic pickles, we simply love them!
But to make a lot of pickles, you have to grow a big crop of cucumbers. I have to say, it took us several years to really perfect the art of growing a banner crop. We thought we would share 5 of our biggest tips we’ve found to help grow that perfect crop.
5 Keys To Successfully Growing Cucumbers
#1 Plant In A Sunny Location
At the top of the list, sunshine. Cucumbers need the sun, and a lot of it! Locate your crop in an area that receives at least 8 hours of sunlight a day. Much like pumpkins, gourds and zucchini – cucumbers rely heavily on the photosynthesis process to grow the strong vines needed to producing heavy fruiting. No sun, no photosynthesis.
Locating your crop in the sun also allows leaves and vines to dry off from early morning dew. This is a huge help in controlling mildew and blight. Avoiding both of those issues are big to keeping your crop healthy.
#2 Provide Rich, Fertile, Well Drained Soil
Cucumbers love rich, fertile, well-drained soil. The more you nutrition you can provide at planting time, the better. We add a few shovelfuls of compost, and a quarter cup of worm castings to each planting hill or container. It creates a rich soil for the young seeds or transplants to get off to a great start. The worm castings / compost combo has made a huge difference in the health and productivity of our plants!
When planting directly into the soil, we plant in slightly tapered hills about 18″ in diameter, 3″ to 4″ high. This helps keep the plant stems out of sitting water during heavy rains or watering.
We prefer planting transplants over seeds. The added growth and strength help give them a better chance to avoid dreaded cucumber beetle attacks. If you are planting transplants, use two plants per hill. If you seed, plant 3 and thin to 2.
Cucumbers, especially bush-style varieties, can be planted in containers as well. Again, be sure start off with a rich, well-drained soil mix to give plants the nutrition they need. Use only one plant per container to avoid draining the soil too quickly of nutrients. Product Link: Worm Castings
#3 Be Careful What You Plant Nearby
What you plant around your cucumbers can play an important role in their productivity. One thing to avoid for sure is planting cucumber crops near potatoes.
Potatoes release a substance in the soil that greatly hinders the growth of cucumbers. Radishes, on the other hand are great, as they help to repel harmful insects like cucumber beetles and aphids that attack tender cucumber plants. It is also easy to sow a few inexpensive radish seeds around plants. They germinate fast and really do help stave away the beetles.
Nasturtiums and Alyssum are also excellent to plant right alongside your growing cucumbers.
The nasturtiums will help repel and deter a whole host of nuisance insects, while the alyssum acts as a sacrificial plant to beetles, keeping them away off of your cucumbers.
One final note on where you plant. Be sure to practice crop rotation. You can keep soil-borne disease at bay by rotating your crops each year to a new location. Wait at least three years before planting them back in the same location. This allows the soil to recover, minimizes disease, and reduces the possibility for infestation.
#4 Provide Support
If you are planting a vining variety of cucumber, be sure to provide support in the way of a trellis, fence, or rope or wire. A folded piece of metal fencing will work great in open garden settings. By providing a place for the vines and cucumbers to grow, it keeps the plants and fruit off the ground and less susceptible to mold, blight and disease. It also helps support them during winds and heavy storms.
Compact, bush varieties can usually be grown without support, but even with these varieties, a little help in holding them up goes a long way. Seed Links : For canning we grow Boston Pickling and National Pickling. For fresh eating : Straight 8,.
#5 Harvest Regularly
Once cucumber plants begin to produce, you need to pick regularly to keep them producing well. If left on the vine too long, cukes get woody, full of seeds, and bitter. In addition, the plants will put their energy towards making the existing fruit larger, and not producing new blooms. Check plants daily, cukes can go from 2″ inches to 12″ in a day or two!
There you have it! Five of our favorite tips for growing cucumbers successfully. We hope you enjoyed this week’s gardening article. If you would like to receive our DIY, Gardening and Recipe articles each week, you can sign up to follow the blog via email in the right hand column above, “Like” us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. This article may contain affiliate links.
https://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2017/04/06/growing-cucumbers/
On – 06 Apr, 2017 By oldworldgardenfarms
-
The Easy Way to Grow Loads of Potatoes: In a Trash Can
Potatoes are one excellent staple crop to grow in the home garden, but isn’t there a lot of digging and back pain involved?
Not necessarily! You can grow loads of russets, reds, golds, and even sweet potatoes in a trash can or bucket with minimal work, space, and effort.
It’s common to get up to 25 pounds of potatoes using this method, and it’s really simple too! This takes container gardening to another level.
The perfect bucket for growing any type of potato will have some sort of drainage holes drilled into the bottom–or, you can even cut the entire bottom out. That way, instead of dumping the bucket out to harvest your potatoes, you can just lift it up and they’ll fall out.
A metal or dark-colored can is preferred, to retain warmth and keep sunlight away from the root zone.
The how-to is slightly different for sweet potatoes and regular potatoes, so I’ll talk about regular potatoes first:
Basically, any organic potato you’ve already got will work perfectly as a seed potato. Ideally, they’ll be a bit past their prime for eating, and will have some eyes starting to form.
Don’t cut the potatoes up to look for seeds inside, because you won’t find any! (I once met someone who did this; you’re not alone.)
Instead, cut them into quarters, ideally with at least one “eye” on each piece. Allow these to dry out on the counter for a day or two before planting them.
These potato pieces will be planted cut-side down into your trash can or bucket, and each one will start growing into a new plant.
If you’re growing sweet potatoes, you can buy some organic ones at the grocery store to start your plants with–maybe just one or two.
This time, you’ll want to begin by doing that toothpick-balancing trick that you probably did as a science project in grade school.
Spear the sweet potato around the middle with four toothpicks, and balance it in a glass or jar of water. The sweet potato should be at least halfway submerged. You’ll want to add more water every few days to maintain this level.
Eventually, your potato will sprout stems and leaves, and these are called “slips”.
You’ll cut off these slips with a small sliver of the potato attached, and plant the slips into your trash can or bucket.
How to plant your potato “seeds” and/or “slips”:
Fill your trash can or bucket with about 8-12 inches of compost, and add in your seeds or slips. For white potatoes, bury the seeds with about an inch of compost. For the slips, plant them sideways about an inch down, leaving a few leaves and an inch or so of stem exposed.
As the plants grow, add more compost. You’ll want to keep burying the new growth until only a few leaves remain exposed, about 4-5 inches of compost for every 7-10 inches of growth.
Burying the stems forces plants to generate new root growth (in other words, potatoes!).
Keep them well-watered, and be patient. The whole process will take about four months.
When your trash can is full to the brim, simply continue to water it. The plants will eventually start to flower, and soon after, the whole plant will start to wilt, yellow, and die back.
Stop watering them at this point. This allows your potatoes to mature, which will take about two weeks until they’re ready to harvest.
With sweet potatoes, you’ll want to harvest them as soon as the leaves wilt and blacken from frost.
Then you’ll need to let the sweet potatoes cure for two weeks or more, in a dark, cool, dry place. This will ensure their sweet flavor, and allows them to be stored at room temperature for up to a year!
Incidentally, sweet potato greens are also edible and delicious when prepared like cooked spinach. They’re also pretty in urban landscapes!
Growing potatoes in this way can be a excellent supplement to your food bill, and a great DIY skill to learn.
https://thehomestead.guru/grow-potatoes-trash-can/
On – 05 May, 2017 By Krystal Trammell
-
Take a look at America’s vegetable garden, home to $5 billion worth of crops | PennLive.com
Days in the 60s and 70s, and nights in the 50s, all year long…
Rich, black, crumbly, well drained soil…
No winter freezes or brutal summer heat waves…
Plenty of fresh, clean water.
It’s the stuff of a gardener’s dream – the conditions that we clay-infested, erratic-weather-stressed central-Pennsylvania gardeners don’t have.
But there is a place where this plant nirvana exists.
It’s called Salinas Valley, Calif., and the people living there have had the good sense (so far) to exploit most of the acreage for astounding vegetable production.
This 90-mile stretch of Pacific Ocean coastline, about 2 hours south of San Francisco, produces a whopping 50 to 90 percent of many of America’s most-eaten vegetables.
Monterey County, where the Salinas Valley is located, churned out nearly 5 billion dollars worth of crops last year, making it the top-producing agriculture county anywhere in the world.
It’s where America gets the majority of its leaf and head lettuce, strawberries, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, spinach, artichokes, cabbage, and peas.
In short, it’s America’s vegetable garden.
See video of workers harvesting broccoli in California’s Salinas Valley:
Without it, we’d be hurting at the produce section – especially from winter through mid-spring.
This part of the central California coast specializes in cool-season crops, ones we have to cram into that narrow window between winter-frozen soil and early-summer heat.
But in the land of eternal pleasantry, crops such as lettuce, broccoli, spinach and celery can be grown all year. One crop follows another.
Fields of veggies sprawl like oceans of green for mile after mile – a football field of cabbage, then lettuce, then spinach, then cauliflower, then more lettuce, and on and on and on.
The only brown you’ll see are blocks just harvested and getting ready to receive the next crop.
“The goal is three crops per field per year,” says Evan Oakes, a Monterey County Extension educator.
Mountains flanking both sides of the Salinas Valley essentially make the area a huge walled-in vegetable garden.What makes that possible is the fortunate geography of the Salinas Valley. Mountains flank both sides of the valley, which opens up into the cool waters of the Pacific at its northern mouth.
The moist, moderating Pacific air funnels into the valley, which is essentially a nature-made walled garden.
“It never gets hot here,” says Oakes. “We can have days about 80 degrees and nights about 50 degrees for nine months of the year. Winter rarely drops below 40.”
Read George’s post on “What If We Didn’t Have Such Wild Weather Rides?”
The soil is also magnificent.
“There’s such amazing soil here that we don’t have to use much fertilizer,” Oakes says. “It’s so fertile. Topsoils are close to 100 feet deep in a river valley like this.”
The third key ingredient is water. That one is a little dicier since a single head of lettuce takes more than 3 gallons to grow and a crown of broccoli takes 51/2 gallons.
Monterey County gets only about 15 to 20 inches of rain per year, and most of that falls in the winter. Twelve inches of rain a year or less qualifies as a desert.
That forces Salinas growers to tap underground water and rely almost solely on irrigation to water the plants.
But the Salinas Valley is blessed again there with the Salinas River. Although 90 percent of it is underground, wells start hitting plentiful, clean supplies just 5 to 6 feet down.
The neighboring Carmel Valley with its Carmel River isn’t as fortunate. That source has been sucked down to the point where there’s now a moratorium on new wells.
Getting the crops from field to our tables is done with military-logistics efficiency.
Workers are harvesting broccoli in this Salinas Valley field.Some crops, such as spinach, lettuce and broccoli, are harvested with a combination of machines and people. Others, such as strawberries, asparagus and artichokes, are harvested by knife-wielding workers who bend over for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week.
It’s hard work, and few Americans are interested in doing it despite the pleasant weather and pay that can approach $20 an hour (plus full benefits).
Almost all of the labor is Mexican.
“This is the first time in our history where we’re having trouble getting enough labor,” says Oakes. “The Latino people are scared to death about coming over the border.”
He says companies typically find American workers do one day and decide that’s enough.
Assuming enough hands are on deck when a crop is ready, most veggies are picked and packed right in the field.
Those boxed strawberries you bought, for example, were touched only once before you opened them – by the picker/packer.
Lettuce and other small greens are the exception. They’re washed three times in chlorinated water before being packed.
“The goal is to pick the crop, pack it by hand in the field, get it to a cooler within an hour or two, and get it on the road,” says Oakes.
Cooling facilities throughout the valley are able to cool picked produce down to 33 degrees in as little as a half-hour. Refrigerated trucks line up outside these plants to haul it throughout the United States as fast as it can be boxed.
Besides cool-season veggies and strawberries, the Salinas Valley produces more than 44 million pounds of mushrooms a year, grows nearly 67,000 acres of assorted organic crops and 44,000 acres of wine grapes a year, and is California’s second-biggest producer of flowers, ornamental plants, and potted plants.
The variety is astounding, mainly because pretty much everything is happy growing in the Salinas Valley.
“When you have water, good soil and this climate, you can go crazy,” says Oakes.
See George’s photo gallery of 38 pictures from California’s central coast and valleys
http://www.pennlive.com/gardening/2017/06/americas_vegetable_garden.html
On – 15 Jun, 2017 By George Weigel
-
A gentle plea for field crops in the garden
Wheat in the annual border? Cotton blooming amongst the zinnias? Rice in the rain garden? Is that crazy talk? Field crop plants seem out of place in the home garden, but could it be we’ve undervalued them? I think we have, and we would all benefit from an occasional foray into growing them. I’m not arguing for everyone to pull out their roses and put in a patch of soybeans, nor am I advocating for everyone to turn survivalist and attempt to grow a year’s supply of grain. However, I have been growing small patches of grain and fiber crops in my garden for almost a decade now, and have found the exercise to have a multitude of benefits.
Teach your family where their food comes from
I never considered planting field crop plants in my garden until a fateful train ride with my son. First, a bit of back story: My father was an agricultural researcher, and considered identifying major crop plants in any life-stage to be an Important Life Skill. On any given trip through the countryside, we would have conversations like this:
Dad: What’s growing in that field?
Teenage me: Er…I don’t know…corn?
Dad: No, sorgum. You can tell because…(and here he launches into a few minute lecture on the agronomy and uses of sorgum)
Teenage me: Umm…ok. Why does this matter?
Dad: This is important! THIS IS WHERE YOUR FOOD COMES FROM!
Teenage me: Whatever, Dad.
I didn’t realize how unique a skill he had given me until years later. Fast forward a decade, and I am sitting with my, much less jaded, 2-year old son on a train.
Me: Look at the wheat growing in that field!
Son: Wheat!
Guy behind me: Oh, is that what wheat looks like? Hey, kids, look at the wheat!
Me (thinking to myself): Wait?!? This is the crop that made western civilization possible! How can a grown adult not know what it looks like? Has the general populace become so disconnected from farming that they don’t know what staple crops look like? I guess they have. Wait, I shouldn’t be so smug. Do I know how to grow any of these plants? I don’t! I’m a gardener; I should know. THIS IS WHERE OUR FOOD COMES FROM!
And from that moment on, I vowed to grow a small patch of a different grain or fiber crop in my garden each year to both teach myself and my progeny more about the crops’ life cycle and biology. You can do this too!
Test yourself, can you identify the plants in the picture below? Do you know how to grow them? If so, congratulations! You get bragging rights over most of your modern brethren. If not, consider planting a tiny patch yourself. If you have kids, or are a teacher, the little ones discovering where their food (and fiber) come from can be especially eye opening.
Become better connected to history
For much of recorded history, growing grain and fiber crops was what the majority of people spent the majority of their time doing. In fact, recorded history is arguably the direct result of the domestication of these plants. By growing them yourself, you will be quite literally be grounding yourself in a part of this history. Want a taste of life in ancient Mesopotamia? Grow emmer. Studying the Incas? Plant some quinoa. Want to learn about the Ethiopian empire? Try your hand at teff. Threshing and winnowing your own grains, while fun on a small scale, can also made make you appreciate the invention of the combine and other modern farm equipment.
Understand literature more deeply
From Little House on the Prairie, to the Little Red Hen, to the ancient sacred texts of the world’s major religions, staple crops are constantly referenced throughout literature. These stories will become much more vivid, and the references much more clear once you’ve tried your hand at growing these plants yourself.
Get crafty
Seed heads of wheat, broom sorghum, teff, and rice look great in fresh or dried flower arrangements. Cotton bolls give a southern charm to wreaths, and can be used to make a variety of Christmas decorations. Die-hard fiber nerds might enjoy trying their hand at growing their own cotton or flax for spinning (and simultaneously develop a firm appreciation for the invention of the cotton gin and modern retting processes).
Fill in “garden gaps”
Once I know how to grow a certain plant, this is usually my go-to reason for planting it again. Many agronomic plants make excellent, inexpensive place-holders. Warm-season grains like millet and broom sorghum can be used in landscape designs like other ornamental grasses. Pop a few patches of them in the back of the border to give quick vertical accents in the garden, or use them to foil the view of your neighbor’s shed while you wait for slower-growing perennials to fill in. Other plants can be used as “mini-cover crops” to suppress weeds in an attractive manner until you get around to planting something more permanent in an area. Wheat and rye work well for this in the fall and over winter. Buckwheat is an excellent temporary filler to plant during the spring and summer and, if allowed to bloom, is attractive to many pollinators and other beneficial insects to boot.
From educational value to practical uses, field crops have a place in any home garden. They connect us to history and literature, fill gaps in our over-ambitious garden projects, give us fodder for crafting, and yes, remind us of where our food comes from.
https://biologistsgarden.net/2017/07/16/a-gentle-plea-for-field-crops-in-the-garden/
On – 16 Jul, 2017 By biologistgardener
-
Vinegar—A New Way for Crops to Fight Drought?
Vinegar—A New Way for Crops to Fight Drought?
By Dan Nosowitz on July 5, 2017
We all know vinegar is a home and garden all-star. It can serve as a cleaner, as a pesticide, and has more uses.
But a team of researchers from RIKEN, a research institute in Japan, have just published a study that indicates vinegar could add another serve another purpose: drought-fighter. Vinegar, the study finds, might actually help plants survive in drought-like conditions.
The study began when the RIKEN scientists found a mutated strain of Arabidopsis—every scientist’s favorite plant—that was weirdly resistant to drought, and decided to investigate why. This plant, closely related to kale (and broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage—no wonder researchers love it), is not grown as a crop, but it was the first plant to have its genome sequenced and is extremely easy to experiment with because it shows changes very easily.
Research showed that the mutation of one particular enzyme was linked to the plant’s production of acetate, the main ingredient of which is acetic acid (read: vinegar). This led them to a discovery: plants have a switch that decides how they produce energy. Normally, plants like to break down sugars, but in times of drought, they switch to acetate. And plants that produce more acetate are able to deal with drought more easily.
From our partners atThat leads to another question: what if we boost the amount of acetate available to plants in said times of drought? The researchers set up an experiment, growing plants in simulated drought conditions and treating them with either vinegar or water. The plants treated with only water died, as would be expected of plants in a drought, but the majority of those treated with vinegar survived. The same experiment was run on non-mutated plants, too, and the results were the same—the vinegar treatment works on any plant.
This could be a hugely important discovery. To battle droughts, some scientists have experimented with naturally drought-resistant plants like pomegranate, while others are genetically modifying existing crops to stand up in times of less water. But vinegar could be extremely inexpensive and also allow farmers to retain their own crops, rather than tearing out their land and planting something new. The study will have to be attempted with other plants, and measured in larger-scale studies, before we start leaning on it as a potential life-saver, but it’s extremely promising.
http://modernfarmer.com/2017/07/vinegar-new-way-crops-fight-drought/
On – 05 Jul, 2017 By Dan Nosowitz
-
How to Prevent Late Blight in Your Garden
How to Prevent Late Blight in Your Garden
by | Gardening |
3 years ago I had big plans. I spent hours planting over 300 tomato seeds. I watered, I turned, I transplanted. I spent a week digging 300 holes and putting them into the ground.
I spent even more hours pinching off suckers and winding twine around the plants to tie them to their stakes. They were growing, heavy with green fruits and so close to turning red.
Aren’t they beautiful?
That’s when I found it. It started as black spots on the leaves and fuzzy white growth on the underside. We’d fought bacterial spot before. Early blight even. But this was different. I walked the garden and found more plants along the row- with blackened stems and even some of the fruits had a bruised look about it.
I knew what it was, but I snapped some pictures and sent them to my husband and sat down to Google. And my heart sank.
Late Blight.
I was devastated. We dug up all the plants we could find with signs. We started spraying the remaining tomatoes with an organic copper fungicide. But one by one my plants fell. Over the course of a month every. single. plant. was infected. We were lucky to get a few early tomatoes first, but all hopes of canned sauce were gone.
I wouldn’t wish that on any gardener! So what can you do to prevent late blight from destroying your garden? First let’s talk about what it is and how to spot it.
Signs of Late Blight
Late blight is not like other diseases that strike your garden. Most will cause a reduction of harvest, but not affect the entire crop. Late Blight, however, will take down the entire plant- and it is highly contagious and spreads easy. This means one plant will most likely turn to 2, which turns to 3, and so on and so on.
Technically speaking, Late blight is a fungus, Phytophthora infestans, to be exact. It spreads easily on the wind through spores and can travel quite a ways to settle on your plants. It affects both tomatoes and potates (Irish potato famine!). So be on the lookout on both crops.
Plants should be destroyed to that no infected plant matter remains in your garden, on your soil, or in your compost heap. We bagged ours up in trash bags. The good news is that late blight won’t live in your soil or on your tomato cages…but make sure you get all roots, stems, leaves, and potatoes out of the ground.
- Cooler, wetter weather will spread the disease quickly. It provides optimum conditions for blight to spread.
- The leaves are the first infected- usually lower on the plants. You will see blackened areas over the leaves. One of the easily identifiable signs is the white, fuzzy, fungal growth on the underside of these leaves.
- Stems will also start to blacked in random spots- usually at a joint.
- Fruits are usually the last to show signs- green fruits will get a browning tinge in areas and turn completely brown/black as it progresses.
How to Prevent Late Blight in Your Garden
That’s the way it is with most things, right? It is better to prevent late blight than to try and treat and save an infected area. So how can you prevent late blight?
Plant blight-resistant varieties. There are a few heirloom tomatoes that seem to have some natural resistance as well as some hybrids that can fight late blight.
Pay attention to proper spacing. I think one of the reasons my plants were so hard it was that I planted them too close together in order to fit them all in, that put together with a wet and cool June, gave me the perfect recipe for blight. Proper spacing will allow your tomatoes to dry faster and allow more air circulation.
Water the roots, not the leaves. This should be a rule for all plants. Wet conditions can breed a lot of disease- so keep the water on the ground and not on the leaves.
Learn how to build a PVC Drip Irrigation System for your garden with Online Gardening School- this system is the perfect way to water tomatoes and will keep your plants healthier! For a limited time The Free Range Life Readers can get this course for 50% off! Click here to get started!
Practice good crop rotation so that your tomatoes and potatoes are not planted in the same soil year after year. This will reduce the risk of plant matter accidentally being left from previous years- which may have spores still living on them.
Solarize your soil prior to planting.
Use organic sprays BEFORE you see signs of blight. Serenade is a biological fungicide that can help prevent late blight- along with organic copper fungicide. Spray to prevent, not treat.
What to do if Late Blight Strikes
In all my years gardening in East Tennessee, I never saw late blight. Now, living in Western North Carolina, it seems that it’s not a matter of if, but when we will see late blight. We live in an area that has a lot of commercial tomato farms- we live less than a mile from about 3 fields! So spores are on the wind- and without a hot dry summer- we fight the battle every year.
If you find yourself with infected plants, here’s what you should do.- Pull up infected plants immediately. The entire plant. Bag it up and set it out for the trash pick up.
- If you aren’t already spray products like Serenade or an organic copper fungicide on the remaining plants.
- Contact your local extension agent to report the infection. Remember late blight is extremely contagious and if you allow it to go rampant in your garden you are risking infecting your neighbor’s gardens as well.
- Don’t give up. Believe me, I know how devastating it is to loose you garden to a disease like this. Don’t give up. Rebound quickly and plant something in it’s place. A nice fall crop of brassicas or greens, beans, or other veggies that are good for the season.
- Plan ahead for next year. Prepare your soil ahead of time and plant a good variety of plants- including early varieties that you can harvest before any chance of late blight occurs.
The year we pulled up all of our plants, we also brought in a few hundred pounds of green tomatoes to attempt to ripen in our basement. Most of them succumbed to late blight and rotted before they ripened. And even though it was devastating, we continue to plan tomatoes every year- we just have to be extra careful and use as many prevention techniques as possible. Have you dealt with late blight in your garden? Let me know your experience with it in the comments!
http://thefreerangelife.com/prevent-late-blight/
On – 27 Feb, 2017 By Sarah
