This is a nice interview with plant breeder Dr. John Navazio, which spawned some thoughts about seeds, saving seeds, and propagating plants that do well in your garden.
If you’re a relatively new gardener (and even if you’ve been doing this a while), this time of year you’re being inundated with seed catalogs. How do you [...]
I just ran across an interesting site called Window Farms. The idea is to use the light and space of a vertical window to raise food plants in:
Their blog is quite fun to read, and gave me some ideas about what to do with a couple of windows in my house.
We’ve had a run-in with the flu here (unusual for us), but everyone seems to be on the mend.
I’m still shaking my head at the hype about all this. So far this has got to be the mildest flu season as far as deaths in history (perhaps 4000 overall so far compared to the “normal” [...]
Gas prices are going up again, and it looks like that small spike in crude oil production back in 2008 is still holding as the peak of global oil production. (the little star on the black line of reality is what I’m referring to in all that speculation) Are we at the top of the [...]
Take a look at this four-part (actually set up as six short videos) video series by Eric Toensmeier, author of Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles (which I just happen to have at home). Seeing what can be done in urban Massachusetts, [...]
Sharon Astyk’s post reminded me about Independence Days, which I had thought about in the “oh yeah I need to be doing this” but not in the sense of “oh yeah I need to do this NOW”. Thanks for the nudge!
So we’re back on. She has altered the rules a bit … every day you [...]
Fact sheets about home vegetable gardening from the Tulsa Master Gardeners at Oklahoma State University.
Some of the sheets are specific to Oklahoma, and since I haven’t read all of them I can’t guarantee that their recommendations are all organic (so check out any disease treatment or fertilizer recommendations before using). But if you’re looking for [...]
If you want to learn the basics of permaculture and how to set up a food forest, take a look at this video. (1:22:27, safe for work/children). It’s really fascinating, and he gives the specific plants he uses to set up his system.
I just found a great website that shows what plants look like if your soil is deficient in a particular nutrient. Here’s the pictures for tomatoes, but if you scroll down you can find links to mineral deficiencies in a whole list of plants.
So if you had trouble last year growing something, or your seedlings [...]
Here it is March already.
I’ve been out planting peas and potting up tomato seedlings and baby aloe vera plants this week. The bunny has opened her eyes (at least, I think it’s a female) and she’s a red-eyed white. Very pretty.
Check this out: Weather.com’s planting map! I have this set for early April (which is [...]
I haven’t posted for a while on what I’m doing, so I thought I wouldÂ
Planted snow peas today … been repotting some of the many tomato seedlings on my kitchen windowsill … spun some handpainted salmon-colored roving (no, I didn’t paint it, I got it from the farmers’ market last year) … did [...]
Where? From the grocery store.
I do this all the time. Sometimes the seeds sprout, sometimes not. If not, you haven’t lost anything. But if they do, you have a wonderful harvest.
Rotten tomato? Save the seeds. Turnip or potato sprouting? Stick it in the ground (or in a pot of soil if it’s too cold out). [...]
I like the idea of not wasting stuff.
People talk about how much restaurants and supermarkets throw away. I stood in Brahm’s yesterday and watched the people behind the counter throw away three orders of fries and an order of chicken strips that fell on the floor, then a whole waffle ice cream cone – just [...]
Been busy!
For those of you in the OKC area: I’ve started a group about buying land. Been out looking at some too. That’s a whole other post.
I’m working on a report entitled, “Have a Year-Round Garden in an Hour a Day“. More to come on that later.
Lots of seed starting. I got my tomato plants [...]
Patti Moreno and Mel Bartholomew have started a series on what you should be doing each month in your garden. Here’s their video for January!
(youtube video, should open in a new window … sorry, I can’t embed videos here, it messes up the formatting)
Here’s a link to Patti Moreno’s newest video about her hydroponic system. She gets 700 seedlings every three weeks! In the video, she says that translates to $1400 in sales at her market stand.
That particular video is an overview of her set-up, but she has this other video showing her setting it up. Looks like [...]
The lettuces that I planted on Dec. 9th are sprouting.
Had a little scare with mold over the top but the seeds seem to be ignoring it, and it mostly went away.
The stats program for this blog is different from most, in that it doesn’t seem to let you know what people were searching for to find this place. But it does have the top most read (meaning you clicked on that link to read/comment/send the link to someone else) pages, which I find very interesting.
These [...]
I’ve been gone a while, haven’t I? Didya miss me?
This week I went to a wedding, went back to playing World of Warcraft (my whole family got copies of The Lich King), and have been having fun on chess.com
And it’s supposed to snow today! Yippee!
But Sharon posted her Independence Days update the other [...]
Just ran across this site, which has a list of seed exchanges. These are like clubs, where people save and trade various types of seeds. Some are big institutions, others are small and very informal, just a group of friends who swap seeds in the spring. Many seed exchanges (also called seed saver clubs or [...]
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