Search Results for: label/pests/2011/04/making-it

498 results

July Linkages

Avatar photo
Miscellaneous
1 Comment
...ks in the series, “Home Dairy” and “Beekeeping”, will be available in April 2011. Hopefully we’ll be having English on our new Homegrown Evolution Podcast that will debut when we can get our computer, seen above, to record audio. A few blog posts ago we answered a question about soil testing. Visiting journalist Michael Tortorello tipped us off to the University of Minnesota’s Soil Testing Laboratory that will test out of state samples for their r...

Read…

Lead in Backyard Eggs: Don’t Freak Out But Don’t Ignore the Issue

Avatar photo
Animals, Bees, Lead
3 Comments
...elevated lead levels in our soil when we did a series of soil tests back in 2011. Thankfully our egg results came in at 1.02 ug, just under the average level in the study. You’d have to eat a lot of eggs as an adult to go beyond the Federal Drug Administration’s maximum recommended lead intake level, though you could bump up against it if a child ate more than three eggs a day. I’d suggest that if you live in an older urban location, next to a gas...

Read…

Coffee Grounds in the Garden

Avatar photo
Composting, Gardening, Pests, Vegetable Gardening, Vermiculture
10 Comments
...where you are starting seeds. Despite rumors, coffee grounds do not repel pests. Let coffee grounds cool before adding to compost bin so you don’t kill beneficial microbes. And don’t let coffee grounds amount to more than 20% of your compost pile. Don’t add coffee grounds to vermicomposting bins. If you’re using coffee grounds as a mulch Chalker-Scott has two suggestions: Apply a thin layer (no more than half an inch) of coffee grounds. Cover wit...

Read…

The Green Cone

Avatar photo
Composting
...mpost piles due to the fact that they smell bad while decomposing, attract pests, and could possibly transmit Salmonella and E. coli bacteria if used on food crops. The green cone is, however, not a composter and the end result should not be used as garden compost due to the fact that home compost piles usually can’t generate enough heat to kill the bad bacteria in meat and animal waste. For the reasons you shouldn’t put meat products in compost p...

Read…