Food Inc.

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June In The Organic Garden, S. Florida

It is June now and everything in my S. Florida organic garden is changing with our weather. The rainy season has commenced, and that means high temps and high humidity. Rain brings some wind and cooler temperatures and if the sun doesn’t come out again it will stay comfortable outdoors. If the sun comes out Continue reading →

Predaceous Insects: More On Organic Gardening and Insect Pests

Organic gardening is not about doing nothing to help your garden thrive and wishing for results while accepting unreasonable losses. It is about employing naturally occurring systems present in our environment so as to eat without doing damage to our ecosystem. It is about fostering interdependence with our world rather than conquering and ultimately destroying it. This is not mumbo jumbo new age magic, it is solid science with practical applications, it is stuff we knew once and forgot along the way. You can do this too.

Tags: Organic Gardening, organic insect control, Predaceous Insects

The Story Of Lettuce The Frog

A month later when my brother and his eldest daughter came to visit Florida they packed Lettuce the frog into a bag of organic lettuce, put the lettuce bag into her backpack, and that night Lettuce the frog was release back into the garden from which he came. He had traveled a total of 2,000 miles, spent several weeks in a terarium in a zone 5 town in February, and survived to return to the land of his hatching.

Tags: Add new tag, Frogs in the Garden, South Florida Frog

Greenbrier

Greenbrier, Catbrier, Horsebrier, Smilax from the family Smilacaceae is edible. Not just edible for my rabbits, it is also edible for me. Better than edible it tastes great. I have heard it called wild asparagus, and I have found pieces so vigorous and large that they resembled asparagus tips a little. Like asparagus the part Continue reading →

Tags: Add new tag, Catbrier, Edible Weeds, Greenbrier

Yellow Queen Palm Experiment

I have a very small Queen Palm or Cocos Plumosa in some of the whitest soil on my property. That poor palm has been yellow for as long as I can remember. Over the course of many years I have done very little for it. I am sure that at least once I have put Continue reading →

Tags: Cocos Plumosa, Palm Nutritional Deficiencies, Palm Yellowing, Queen Palm, Soil Health

Why Soil PH Matters

In my previous post The Master Gardeners Program I wrote about all of the new information I was assimilating. Being a long time gardener in South Florida I possess a bit of knowledge about all sorts of gardening, but there were some persistent mysteries for me. One particularly irritating gap in my knowledge was concerning Continue reading →

Tags: Acidic Soil, Alkaline Soil, Soil PH, Soil Test

Palmpost

My property is full of resources for my gardening. Yours may be too. It has always been important to me to find the things that the earth provides for us. Palmpost is one of those excellent provisions. Palmpost is the insides of a palm log or palm tree once it breaks down or composts. Over Continue reading →

Tags: Compost, potting soil additives

The No Dig Garden Box

I chose the no dig style of gardens for my new gardens so that I could get my extra planting started right away. The no dig garden box is a quick and easy way to get an excellent outdoor garden started right away. You don’t dig this garden you simply build it up. This No Dig Garden is often called a Lasagna Garden. It is built up in layers.

Tags: Lasagna Garden, No Dig Garden

Path To Freedom

I was checking into Joel Salatin, well respected practitioner of sustainable farming when I found this video. I have been agonizing over whether I have space enough on my property for more than gardening. Now I feel certain I do. Check this out, no matter how you feel about your garden this [...]

Tags: Home Garden

Organic Gardening and Pest Control Issues

The longer I garden naturally the more I understand that there are just a few hard fast rules for how one manages or lives with the garden. The rest is fluid, not so rule bound. If it works right your organic garden is a part of your property’s micro-ecosystem. The rules I have chosen to Continue reading →

Tags: organic insect control

Pest Control?

I made the acquaintance of a lovely lady tonight. I am sure we will be fast friends. I was a guest in her home and I brought her a plant from my garden for hers. She recognized a garden advocate in me and asked me about how she might control some pesky [...]

Tags: organic insect control