The Benefits of Mulch in the Garden
I seriously couldn’t imagine gardening without mulch. Even before transitioning to a no-dig garden, we mulched, mulched and mulched some more.Continue Reading
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I seriously couldn’t imagine gardening without mulch. Even before transitioning to a no-dig garden, we mulched, mulched and mulched some more.Continue Reading
Welcome to my Pennsylvania garden! Be sure to scroll to the bottom to get a tour of 11 other gardens. How fun is that?
The June garden, for the most part, is a young garden. While the cool weather plants like onions, peas and broccoli have been in the ground for a month or two, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and okra were planted just a few short weeks ago.Continue Reading
Rhubarb, or Rheum rhabarbarum is a tasty spring and early summer treat. But only the stalks are edible. The level of oxalic acid is so high in the leaves that they are poisonous and cannot be eaten.
But that doesn’t mean that they need to be tossed in the trash. Here are 7 great ways to use rhubarb leaves:Continue Reading
Manure. You know what it is. Animal waste. It will often include the straw, hay, or wood shavings that are used as bedding for the animal and has absorbed the farm animal’s feces and urine. It’s been used for centuries as a slow-release fertilizer for farms and gardens.
Using manure in your garden builds organic matter, adds nutrients to your soil, and helps to increase microbial activity. It improves soil structure, drainage, and moisture retention.
The nitrogen in manure is not all immediately available. When soil organisms begin the decomposition process that nitrogen then becomes available. It’s a win-win situation with soil organisms and manure. They love each other.Continue Reading
Several years ago, we had to have an ash tree in our yard cut down. We asked the arborist to chip the smaller branches, and we used those wood chips in our garden to mulch the paths. A year later, we discovered the documentary, Back to Eden, about Paul Gautschi and his method of wood chip gardening.
We were intrigued, and as I looked at the paths in our garden I noticed that as the wood chips mulch was decomposing, the soil was becoming black and gorgeous. We’ve been mulching our garden with hay, leaves, and grass clippings for many years, but thought that it might be worth experimenting with garden wood chips.Continue Reading
Did you know that you can train your plants, and reduce the need for irrigation in your garden? It’s not a matter of the plants needing less water, but a matter of conserving the water they are given by reducing evaporation, retaining water, and watering in a way that encourages their roots to go deep.Continue Reading
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