http://manuredepot.com Embracing Our Interdependence With Nature Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:29:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [gallery]One Saturday morning I was tending my booth at The Downtown Ft. Pierce Green Market, and while I was listening to a woman talk about local food it occurred to me that although we all throw the term local food around a whole lot we don't spend much time exploring ... http://manuredepot.com/sustainability-on-local-food-and-community/ Most Saturday mornings you can find me in the worm booth at the Fort Pierce Downtown Green Market, but this weekend, February 6 and 7, 2010 you will find me and my associate Pat Brown at the Vero Beach Gardenfest at the Riverside Park. There are excellent plants for ... http://manuredepot.com/gardenfest/ [gallery]It is winter time, January in South Florida, and a two week cold snap finished off the last of my Bitter Melon or Bitter Gourd plant. I wrote about this crop while I was growing it in the article In The Garden: Growing Bitter Melon. I want to share what I ... http://manuredepot.com/harvests-more-on-the-bitter-melon/ Here are some pictures to go along with the article Everything Manure: Making Your Own Manure Compost [gallery] http://manuredepot.com/everything-manure-making-your-own-manure-compost-pictures/ [gallery]I heard from a customer that while he was out shoveling manure off of a pasture (not his own) his children were out there running around barefoot in that pasture. Manure is an excellent garden and compost additive. It will bring biological life, tilth, micro and macro nutrients to your ... http://manuredepot.com/everything-manure-more-on-manure-handling/ I have written quite a few articles about making your own compost using your kitchen garbage, manure, leaves and other carbonaceous wastes. In my last article Composted Cow Manure and The Commando Garden I wrote about composted cow manure and how to use it as a stand in when all ... http://manuredepot.com/everything-manure-making-your-own-manure-compost/ Composted Cow Manure is an excellent garden amendment. In the garden we focus on the soil a great deal. We work to make great compost, and if it goes in your garden the way it goes in mine you will run out of your home made compost before your compost ... http://manuredepot.com/garden-amendments-composted-cow-manure-and-the-commando-garden/ [gallery]In the garden nematodes can be a blessing or a curse. Nematodes in compost are voracious eaters in natures great cafeteria. They consume bacteria and other invertebrates in the compost pile and help to prepare nitrogen for plant consumption. Compost nematodes also consume plant nematodes when they are together in ... http://manuredepot.com/garden-pests-nematodes/ [gallery]In the garden it is important to create support for your climbing vegetable plants. Pole beans, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes benefit from good support systems. In the case of tomatoes, and for our region specifically, a tomato support system should be designed to also support coverings like tarps or sheets, ... http://manuredepot.com/in-the-garden-creating-support-for-your-vegetable-plants/ [caption id="attachment_839" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="An Organic Farm"][/caption]The USDA has launched a new website dedicated to better connecting consumers to their small and mid sized local farmers and ranchers. Know Your Farmer Know Your Food is the website. I have to hope that this is an earnest push toward sustainability by ... http://manuredepot.com/sustainability-know-your-farmer-know-your-food/ [gallery]In previous posts I have mentioned growing bitter melon in the garden. For many years I have enjoyed eating this unusual asian bitter gourd. While working in Chinese restaurants I had the good fortune to eat food that Chinese chefs do not make for their American clientele. Each day the chef ... http://manuredepot.com/in-the-garden-growing-bitter-melon/ [gallery]It is late September in the garden. The new moon has just passed. The last day of summer is past, and it is snowing in Colorado. It is still wicked hot here in South Florida, but fall weather is right around the corner. This is a good time to put ... http://manuredepot.com/late-september-in-the-garden/