Brassica oleracea is a single species that encompasses the vegetables we know as kale, collards, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi. It’s hard to
I started growing mushrooms as a farm crop one full year ago. In this article, I share all my experiments, mistakes, and triumphs throughout the past year as I journeyed from total mushroom neophyte to… reasonably successful intermediate level grower! 🏆 This is a good one, you probably want to read the whole thing. Click the title to begin!
Growing potatoes is a great way to produce a substantial meal from your garden. Potatoes serve a multi-functional role in the garden rotation, smothering weeds as you hill them up, loosening compacted soil with their tenacious roots and tubers, and providing you with an opportunity to deeply amend your soil when you dig them at harvest time. Grocery store potatoes are limited in quality and variety, but if you grow your own potatoes you can choose from many different size, color, and flavor options. Click on the title to read the full article.
Did you know there’s an Irish Black Honeybee? I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw these tiny Guinness-colored beauties pollinating flowers in the park during my recent travels! It inspired me to learn more about the diversity within honeybees throughout the world.
Rest in peace, my last three little old farm hens.
In the indigenous gardening method known as The Three Sisters, squash plants are used as a border around the growing space to deter animals who might cause damage. So much focus is placed on the two sisters (corn & beans), that it’s easy to overlook the third sister (squash!). Almost by accident, I created a squash border around my bee garden this summer, and it has worked magic for my raccoon problems. Read all about it in this article!
This may be the happiest article I have ever written. It’s mid-April, and my bees are thriving! I changed almost everything about the way I keep bees last year, and it worked. Finally, I have a year-old hive.
Through the years, I have found that the effort it takes to produce the best possible compost in the fastest possible way just isn’t worth it for my purposes. Instead, I’ve developed my own minimum-effort composting style. I no longer compost like a scientist, taking precise measurements and producing a perfect, predictable outcome. I now compost like the forest. I’m after making the largest quantity of compost possible with the smallest amount effort possible. And so I have evolved (devolved?) into a chaos composter. Read this article to learn all about chaos composting and how it may benefit your garden or farm!
This is my newest little garden. It’s also a compost pile. And, it’s a grave. When a few of my (very elderly) chickens recently passed away, I decided to do something a little different to honor their lives. Read all about it in this article!
I always plant my potatoes early, except for this year. This year, circumstances beyond my control prevented me from planting my spring garden until summer. My seed potatoes shriveled and sprouted in the window sill as the weeks went by. Even as my hope waned, I wondered how late is too late to plant potatoes. On the advice of a friend, I planted my seed potatoes in June. Here’s what happened.
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