garden

Attracting Beneficial Insects to Your Garden

June 12, 2013 by Susan Vinskofski 20 Comments

As an organic gardener, your goal is not to eradicate all insects from your garden, but rather to create a natural environment of balance where “good” insects are eating or parasitizing “bad” insects to keep them under control. A great way to do this is to provide plants which attract beneficial insects to your garden.Continue Reading

5 Culinary Herbs That Grow in Partial Shade

June 10, 2013 by Susan Vinskofski 15 Comments

Herbs, in general, prefer full sun. Their flavor will generally be stronger when grown in sun, but there are several culinary herbs that do just fine in partial shade.Continue Reading

A Sustainable Landscapes Tour

June 2, 2013 by Susan Vinskofski 16 Comments

Mike and I recently hopped on a bus to take a “Sustainable Landscapes Tour” in a neighboring county. Over an 8 hour period, we made 6 stops at a variety of sites including parks, offices, a community garden, and a farm. It was encouraging to see that even in the middle of a shopping center district, individuals and organizations are taking the time to build and landscape in a way that reduces energy use, and conserves and cleans water. Here are a few highlights of our day.

This rain garden captures water from the parking area. Note that the parking area is gravel, which also allows water to penetrate the ground.

10 Great Benefits of Using Alfalfa in Your Garden

April 14, 2013 by Susan Vinskofski 57 Comments

Using Alfalfa as a Supplement in Your Garden

Alfalfa, a perennial flowering legume, is mainly known as an animal feed. But I love it because it there are so many benefits to using alfalfa in the garden.Continue Reading

Peat Moss and the Sustainable Garden

February 16, 2013 by Susan Vinskofski 25 Comments

peat moss

Noun

A large absorbent moss (genus Sphagnum, family Sphagnaceae) that grows in dense masses on boggy ground, where the lower parts decay.
A lowland peat bog.

Have you ever explored a bog? It’s a beautiful, eerie, sort of place. The first time I visited a bog, there was no boardwalk on which visitors could walk. Our guide directed us just where to step. It was strange to be walking on top of floating mounds of sphagnum moss.

I immediately fell in love. I feel the same way about marshes and swamps. They are beautiful places but are often drained for commercial purposes. Draining bogs in order to harvest peat moss is just one of those purposes.Continue Reading

Harvesting Broccoli Early Summer Through Fall (& a Recipe)

September 9, 2012 by Susan Vinskofski 11 Comments

Broccoli, to me, is one of the unsung heroes of the garden, providing a harvest early summer through fall, even tolerating a light frost. Broccoli seedlings are set out in late April/early May in NEPA and generally produce a large head ready for harvest in about two months. But then they continue to produce side shoots right up through October. Continue Reading