Aquaponics and Aquaculture How-to has been taking up a lot of Rick’s time. Below Rick tells us what he has learned about how to build an aquaponics system. Eric I haven’t been around the Gardenfork site very much, been busy in the greenhouse. But for the last few days rain and, particularly, mud has kept [...]
Growing mushrooms in my yard, instead of having to go foraging for mushrooms, is a goal of mine. Mushroom growing is not rocket science, but for mushrooms to grow, the environment must be perfect for that particular kind of mushroom. On our hike yesterday, I came across a dead oak tree full of oyster mushrooms, [...]
This is why we grow as much as we can ourselves, grow them organically, and grow heritage varieties. If we don’t grow our own food ourselves, we know the people who grow it for us. Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become … – Scientific American Apr 27, 2011 … Because of soil depletion, crops grown decades [...]
You can hear the discussion I had with Eric on “Tom Sawyer Composting” here on Gardenfork Radio. Here’s the leaf composting bin I created just yesterday. 106 bags of leaves (mostly 30 gal. bags) gathered from around my neighborhood, shredded with a mower. Add a bit of high nitrogen fertilizer before the rains this [...]
A couple of weeks ago Eric and I were talking on Gardenfork Radio about his new DIY Cold Frames video, and I mentioned winter gardening in hotbeds. I’d seen some hotbeds in the garden in Colonial Williamsburg, where they still garden the way colonial people did. Hotbed are like Eric’s cold frames with glass on top [...]
You’ve signed a two-year lease on what? Have you taken full-moon-French-leave of your senses…again? I can tell…She, Who Must Be Obeyed, is intrigued with the idea of my going into business for myself. “Well…technically I’m extending my Melissa Bee Farms business into new areas, opening new markets, joining the green revolution,” I counter. “Besides, last year we [...]
She, Who Must Be Obeyed, wanted “a-big-mess-o-greens” last night…and cornbread. “Fine. You pick’em, I’ll cook’em.” So a while later she comes back with a big-mess-o-mess. “What have you done?,” I ask as I sort through the bale of leaves She dumps on the counter. Collards, fine. Chard, fine. But what’s this? “Honey, that’s one of [...]
Tomorrow’s trash day and metal scavengers are already circling the neighborhood, but I’ve found GOLD! Gold, I tell ya’. My neighbors do all the work of sweeping and bagging these leaves for the trash guys. I just roll around the neighborhood picking up free compost material. Mulch, then re-bag with the mower, and 6 bags [...]
Planting a few rows of garlic in your home garden is pretty straightforward. To plant garlic for a market grower is a bigger deal. I was asked by a neighbor who sells garlic to help him plant seed garlic before the coming snow storm, which dumped 20″ of snow on this field a few hours [...]
If you want to keep deer from eating your plants, plant plants that the deer don’t eat. Ruth Rogers Clausen, author of 50 Beautiful Deer Resistant Plants, joins us to talk about how to keep deer out of your yard by choosing plants that are deer resistant or deer proof. Did you know that acorns [...]
Last fall I helped a neighbor dig a bunch of potatoes, and we were given a few bushel baskets of potatoes for our efforts. The potatoes were pretty darn simple to harvest, as the garden soil was nice and loamy, it dug easily with a garden fork. The hardest part was not hitting the potatoes [...]
This hasn’t ever happened before, but all our apple trees are blooming this spring. Usually there are a few that don’t bloom. At least two of our trees bloom biennially. Here is the oldest tree in a view from our house. Last weekend was rainy with fog, so it looks great in the yard.
I had dug up a few sage plants last fall and managed to get them thru the winter in the greenhouse. The trick I’ve discovered is to not let the soil dry out. Even though the greenhouse is not heated, it can get pretty warm in there on sunny days, so paying attention to the [...]
It was pretty toasty in my greenhouse yesterday, and while cleaning up I ran across this mouse nest inside a terra cotta garden pot. The mice had moved out, but this shows how industrious they are when building a nest. All sorts of materials in this nest to make it cozy.
But it’s slowly melting. The black plastic will warm up the raised beds quickly. Yours?
