Friends: Heathcote Botanical Garden’s Community Garden

Posted by Adina Photos by Nan and Adina Heathcote Botanical Garden recently decided to create a community garden. I was fortunate to be at the first meeting about a year ago, and I was able to get involved with this project at the beginning. This community garden is currently focused on growing for a Sarah’s Kitchen in Port [...]

Tags: Community Garden, Compost, Composting, Grow Food At Home, Growing Organic Vegetables, Heathcote Botanical Garden, Home Grown Vegetables, No Dig Garden, No Till Gardening, South Florida Vegetable Gardens

Garden Pests: No Problem If You Foster Soil Life, Diversity and Balance

Posted by Adina After I wrote the article Garden Pests: Nematodes I received a comment from Naomi. She wrote “Wow, mind boggling how many things can go wrong in a vegetable garden!” Her comment made me realize that I did not bring home the point of my article very well. While there are lots of potential problems [...]

Tags: backyard ecosystems, Balance In The Organic Garden, Composting, Grow Food At Home, Growing Organic Vegetables, Home Garden, No Till Gardening, organic insect control, South Florida Vegetable Gardens

The No Till No Dig Way: Why Soil Should Not Be Disturbed

Posted by Adina Many consumers and new gardeners are focusing on Organic food and on Organic growing principles for the first time. This is a good start. Unfortunately many growers who are learning about organic principles miss the point and simply switch to organic fertilizers and organic pesticides while adhering to their familiar conventional garden and soil managment [...]

Tags: Composting, Growing Organic Vegetables, Microbes and Invertebrates of the Soil, No Dig Garden, No Till Gardening, Soil Food Web, Soil Organisms, South Florida Vegetable Gardens, Sustainability

Garden Amendments: Composted Cow Manure and The Commando Garden

Posted by Adina 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 needs are met. Composted Cow [...]

Tags: composted cow manure, Composting, No Dig Garden, Preparing for Planting

For The Best Composting Materials Learn to Scrounge Around

Posted by Adina [/caption] Now that you are composting you will probably look at your world differently. Many people who come talk to me when they first start composting say they are having trouble finding carbonaceous composting materials. For the best composting materials you have to learn to scrounge around. That [...]

Tags: Composting, The Compost Pile

Manure: An Earthworm Inoculant for Compost?

Posted by Adina Eventually when I speak to people about their compost piles and bins the inquiry turns to earthworms, and whether they should *buy worms to add to their compost piles. I always say “Put your compost on the ground, and the earth worms will come.”. That, it seems, has always been true for me, or has [...]

Tags: Composting, Earthworms, Manure

Invertebrates of the Compost Pile

Posted by Adina This is an excellent article from the Cornell Waste Management Web Site. I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to run right out and see how many of these invertebrates I can find in my compost heap. Invertebrates of the Compost Pile Written by Nancy Trautmann, Cornell Center for the [...] SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Invertebrates of the [...]

Tags: Composting