Straw Bale Garden Part V: Growing Vegetables

...ooms indicates that well rotted straw bales are more like the kind healthy soil that supports a web of soil organisms that, in turn, help vegetables grow. Some of the plants, like this winter squash, I planted as seedlings. Others, like this cucumber, I sowed directly into the bales by making a little hole and putting in the seed with some home made seedling mix. Again, the vegetables in the bales are doing better than veggies in my two remaining...

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Free Biodynamic Composting Seminar in LA on November 16th

...ecycles animal manures and organic wastes, stabilizes nitrogen, and builds soil humus to enhance soil health. “This is recognized as the finest recipe for growing crops in the world,” claims Jack. “You don’t need any other fertilizer or pesticides. This form of agriculture is ahead of its time. It grows the best quality food known today.” Come and be amazed at what you can grow! The seminar will be 2 to 3 hours long, but feel free to come and stay...

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Hops in Southern California

...k of scraping and painting the front of the house. Planting it in terrible soil doomed it to failure anyways. We’re experimenting with growing both Cascade and Nugget hops in a big self irrigating planter with the hope that we can transfer them to the ground next year or the year after. In the meantime we’ll improve our soil with another application of “craptonite“. Some hops growing links: Hop Gardening A list of Hop varieties for all climates Ho...

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Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land

...right up into the present, humans have been cleverly managing their water, soil and plants to gather harvests from some of the most inhospitable places on the planet. We have much to learn from them. Over and over he points out that we’re not meant to replicate the exact methods of these desert farmers, but learn from them and adapt them to our own particular situation and climate. To help us do this, he breaks down the methodologies into conceptu...

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Rain- The Best Gift of All

...osquito issue, I use my harvested rain water as soon as possible. Once the soil has dried out, usually just a couple of days later, I attach a hose to the barrel and let it drain. I will set it in the garden and move it around to a few different spots. I have five 55 gallon barrels set up so far. Rainwater really helps flush out salts that can build up in the soil (an issue here in the West) and unlike tap water there is no chlorine. The plants ju...

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