Mulch, mulch, mulch!

...ng stuff fall and lay there. This, by the way, entirely contrary to common gardening practice, which seems to believe that if a surface isn’t covered in turf or cement, it must be swept as clean as a kitchen floor. I see a lot of dead soil in my neighborhood, dry and exposed and baking in the sun–but ever so tidy. Insulating the soil provides the conditions necessary for life to bloom in the soil. Mulch helps retain soil moisture (which lessens th...

Read…

Plant Vegetables!

...n one of my worst blog posts, “Homesteading Heresy: On Giving Up Vegetable Gardening,” in which I announced that I was no longer planting vegetables. While we have plenty of avocados and eggs it would be nice to have some greens other than volunteer nasturtium and nettles. I had two seasons of failed vegetable gardening but that should have prompted a redoubled effort rather than the defeatism that I offered. I’ve taken the step of deleting that p...

Read…

136 Garden Fundamentals with Robert Pavlis

On this 136th episode of the Root Simple podcast we talk to author and gardening expert Robert Pavlis about how to improve your soil, how to start seedlings in the winter, how to take care of houseplants and much more. Robert Pavlis lives on 6 acres of land that he has developed into a large private garden he calls Aspen Grove Gardens that contains around 3,000 perennials, grasses, shrubs and trees in southern Ontario, Canada. He is a Master Gard...

Read…

There is Something Beyond the Straw Bale

...of a greater context. What applies to literature also applies to vegetable gardening. You can’t grow vegetables without also considering their relationship to other plants, creatures and human beings. Bale, pomegranate tree and mess I need to clean up. Please note the raccoon poop zone on the slightly subterranean garage roof. Our vegetable garden right now is just one straw bale in the process of conditioning and our philosophy has always been th...

Read…

Baker Creek Invites and Un-invites Cliven Bundy to Speak

...announcement for Bundy’s appearance. This week the sedate world of edible gardening saw an unusual burst of controversy not related to either double digging or the use of Miracle Grow. Baker Creek Seeds found themselves at the center of a social medial firestorm after inviting Cliven Bundy to speak at their Spring Planting Festival on May 5th and 6th at their headquarters in Mansfield, Missouri. Bundy is the patriarch of a family at the center of...

Read…