Search Results for: label/soil

220 results

Garden Amendments as Placebos

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Soil, Thoughtstylings
9 Comments
I just finished writing an article for Urban Farm Magazine on the subject of aerated compost tea (ACT for short). It proved to be one of the most contentious subjects on which I’ve ever tried to, as Mark Twain liked to say, “corral the truth.” It got me thinking about other controversial soil additives popular in organic gardening and farming circles right now such as rock dust, mycorrhizae additives, and biochar. Now I pr...

Continue reading…

Dry Farming

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening, Water and Power, Water Conservation
19 Comments
...A dry farmed wheat and alfalfa field in Wyoming from Dry Farming Other than the advice to till frequently (tilling, among other things, destroys beneficial fungal networks), Dry Farming has some good tips: Maintain soil fertility  Plant deeply Plant varieties adapted to dry farming Know when to plant Pay attention to soil structure The main takeaway for us home gardeners will be the development of drought tolerant veggies. Native See...

Continue reading…

Our New Earth Oven and How We Built It

Mr. Homegrown
Appropriate Technology, Design, Water and Power
5 Comments
...sand/mined clay mix with just a bit of chopped straw thrown in for stability seemed to be about right for making adobe bricks. There’s no recipe for building with earth. You have to get to know the clay content of the soil you’re working with and test how much sand to add to it to make a solid brick. Ben and I made quite a few test bricks to come to this formula. Then I made 100 adobe bricks using just a simple wooden frame as a mo...

Continue reading…

Composting at the NATO Protests in Chicago

Nancy Klehm
Composting, Gardening
6 Comments
Have you ever gone to a concert or a convention or some other large event and marveled at the staggering amounts of waste generated? I’ve been particularly wishing more of that waste was composted. And what do you know? Just as I was thinking about this, guest Root Simple blogger Nancy Klehm happened to send me a post on this very subject. If only every event had a compost tsar! Here’s Nancy: I am obsessed with urban soil health,...

Continue reading…

Adventures in Gardening Series: Wrap up on the Hippie Heart: Growing lentils and flax

Mrs. Homegrown
Garden Design, Gardening
10 Comments
...e future, though, I’d consider planting lentils from real seed, because the plants are compact and attractive. A cover crop option? Here’s a side thought–being a legume, lentils help draw nitrogen into their soil via the roots. If you want to boost the nitrogen in your soil, you can plant legumes, then cut them down when they flower, leaving the roots with their nitrogen nodules in the soil for the next crop to feed upon. (If yo...

Continue reading…

Stirred, Not Shaken

Mr. Homegrown
Biodynamics, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
27 Comments
...involves the “preparations”, a specific set of substances made of manure, silica and herbs that are buried in cow horns, bladders and skulls. After a few months they are unearthed, ritually stirred and applied to soil and compost piles. Steiner has the biodynamic farmer spray these preparations on soil, plants and compost piles to act as a kind of homeopathy for the land. While we did not make our own preparations in class (it’...

Continue reading…

Pot o’ Goodness: Low, Low-Tech Water Conservation

Mrs. Homegrown
Water and Power, Water Conservation
16 Comments
Mrs. Homegrown here: Continuing on the greywater theme, on big cooking days, when I’m doing a lot of boiling, steaming, soaking and rinsing, I collect all that used water in a big pot and take it out to the garden to water the plants. It’s full of nutrients, and won’t cause any blackwater* problems as long as you: Use it immediately. It will turn foul if left to sit too long. Pour it straight into the soil–don’t s...

Continue reading…

A Self-Watering Container in a Pot

Mr. Homegrown
Self Watering Containers
1 Comment
The serendipitous discovery of two three-gallon margarine containers behind a dodgy local bakery has led to the yuppification of our self-watering container (SWC) garden. We posted earlier on how to make these handy containers, which have a reservoir of water at the bottom that keeps the soil at a uniform moisture level. We also made a video about them that we’re amused to report has been “favorited” on Youtube by pot growers....

Continue reading…

Nursery Customers From Hell

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Thoughtstylings
19 Comments
...30;but The Gringo still needs some therapy because of the mean woman. We’ll work on that though. Speaking of nutrients, this next comment proves just how good that staff is at Sunset Nursery–they suggest getting a soil test. A bad nursery would never pass up the chance to sell fertilizer. This Yelp commenter doesn’t appreciate this: Upon entering the office area and asking for some help (I was the only person in the nursery), a...

Continue reading…

How To Design a Garden Step III: Pathways

Mr. Homegrown
Garden Design, Gardening
14 Comments
So you’ve set your goals and have a scale drawing of the land you plan to garden. What’s next? Paths! Paths keep you from compacting soil and lend visual interest to your garden. Some tips: Establish a path hierarchy Create wide paths with smaller branching paths. Think of the human circulatory system: Or fractal patterns found in nature, like tree branches: Now our property is so small that, when I’m done re-doing the back...

Continue reading…