Category: farming/gardening

Maybe Read This: Experiments with Plants, 6th Edition

As a farmer and a researcher, I am constantly reminded that agriculturalists from earlier times are often the best teachers. Experiments with Plants (6th ed.) written in 1911 by Harvard Associate Professor of Botany Dr. W.J. V Osterhout, is a good example of this… Continue Reading “Maybe Read This: Experiments with Plants, 6th Edition”

Save Water! Use Seedling Flats!

Or: How to feed an extra person and still save over 5,000 gallons per year. It may be a little late in the season for this post (at least in this hemisphere), but we just had a series of storms that would feel right… Continue Reading “Save Water! Use Seedling Flats!”

The World is Filled with Solutions: A Guidebook to Healing Spices

It is wonderful how the Earth gives us an abundance of delicious, beneficial, healing plants that we can grow and use to make our lives better. I have so many favorite books, and Healing Spices – How to Use 50 Everyday and Exotic Spices… Continue Reading “The World is Filled with Solutions: A Guidebook to Healing Spices”

Who’s A Good Boy? The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Dogs and Cats

The doctor's book of home remedies for dogs and cats book cover

Living in a rural area, it’s not always possible to get to the vet in an emergency, and we must do what we can with what we have. Example: a friend had to google “dog Heimlich maneuver” when her dog started choking – and… Continue Reading “Who’s A Good Boy? The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Dogs and Cats”

Can You Dig It? How Deep Soil Preparation and Structure Makes All the Difference to Your Plants

These images are from the section “Living Quarters for Plant Roots—A Picture Story of How Soil Conditions Determine Root Development” by Henry C. De Roo

So, here’s another post about roots. This time, I want to talk about how deep soil preparation (double-digging) works to increase the health and yields of plants by giving them room to spread out. Did you know that the average carrot puts down an… Continue Reading “Can You Dig It? How Deep Soil Preparation and Structure Makes All the Difference to Your Plants”

“Pricking Out”: Greatly Increase Plant Health and Yields by Transferring Seedlings from Flat to Flat Before Final Transplanting

“Pricking Out” Greatly Increase Plant Health and Yields by Transferring Seedlings from Flat to Flat Before Final Transplanting

Spring has sprung, and it’s time to get your seedlings in gear for a productive year! In keeping with the season, I thought that this would be a good time to discuss the benefits of pricking out your seedlings before you transplant them. Many… Continue Reading ““Pricking Out”: Greatly Increase Plant Health and Yields by Transferring Seedlings from Flat to Flat Before Final Transplanting”

Old Ways, New Farmers: How Native Wisdom Can Help Us Create a Better Future

Old Ways New Farmers - How native wisdom can help us create a better future

Sustainability isn’t a new concept.   For almost 50 years I have worked to create a form of agriculture that helps all people grow abundant nutritious food and fertile soil, in harmony with this beautiful earth. I know that I have been helped and… Continue Reading “Old Ways, New Farmers: How Native Wisdom Can Help Us Create a Better Future”

Haybox: The 18th Century Slow Cooker

Haybox: The 18th Century Slow Cooker - Using "retained heat" cooking to have fun and safe energy.

These days, everyone seems to have a slow cooker to make life easier. But guess what? There’s a simpler, less expensive alternative that’s been helping rural people cook food and conserve fuel for at least 200 years! According to Wikipedia, a haybox is a… Continue Reading “Haybox: The 18th Century Slow Cooker”

Feed the Soil

Feed the Soil - little-known soil-building legumes and other crops, as well as enhanced descriptions of well-known ones

In the 1980s, Ron Whitehurst of ACRES U.S.A. wrote: “Central Florida is being mined down sea level for phosphate clay; and spiraling natural gas prices are making synthetic nitrogen fertilizer exorbitantly priced. Even using all the solid and liquid wastes from the cities, there… Continue Reading “Feed the Soil”

Urban Farms Podcast! And Gardenerd! And TUC Radio!

  423: John Jeavons on Biologically Intensive Gardening & Farming (Part 1)   More recent podcast interviews with John: Online: John Jeavons is featured on TUC Radio John Jeavons was featured as a part of a TUC Radio mini series on Soil, a response… Continue Reading “Urban Farms Podcast! And Gardenerd! And TUC Radio!”