Manure Depot » Home Grown Vegetables

Harvests: This Summer In The Garden

Adina — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 01:27:08 +0000

This summer has been a whirlwind for me. I picked up some part time work at a local organic farm last winter and the job lasted way into the summer. A couple of months before the farm job started I began volunteering at the Community Vegetable Garden at Heathcote Botanical Gardens. Just as the farm Continue reading →

Inner Life: Shelling Peas

Adina — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 02:11:38 +0000

How is it, you may wonder, that shelling peas could have anything to do with our sacred inner life? Two summers ago I had lots of Black Eye Peas in my garden. I passed a big bag of peas to my rancher friend Linda from Crazy Hart Ranch. The following week, as she smacked her Continue reading →

Friends’ and Clients’ Gardens: My Brother’s Garden

Adina — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 03:20:33 +0000

“I prepared my bed, just as you instructed when we discussed preparing my garden. The soil was in pretty good shape already so I simply raked-out compost I prepared over the winter and then spread straw on top of that to keep down the weeds. When I planted my vegetables, I sprinkled the bunny and Continue reading →

Friends: Heathcote Botanical Garden’s Community Garden

Adina — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:47:43 +0000

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 Continue reading →

Friends’ and Clients’ Gardens: My Neighbors’ Fabulous Garden

Adina — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 04:18:59 +0000

My neighbors grow in compost not because it is the organic or no till or healthy thing to do. They grow this way because it fosters the most vigorous plant growth and the most flavorful vegetables, in a place that once seemed much less hospitable for growing food.

In The Garden: Growing Legumes

Adina — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 01:21:55 +0000

Many growers have forgotten about legumes as nitrogen fixers, or have forgotten how to use them to help build garden soil. This would be unforgettable information except that it is easier to buy a bag of fertilizer. The bag of fertilizer method is easier for sure, but it is more expensive, hard on soil, and is a potential pollution threat to our water ways. Legumes lock up nitrogen for future use. Plants know how to tease nutrients out of soil, and how to attract and make deals with bacteria, fungi, and protozoa for the nutrients they hold in their bodies. Growing legumes enriches the soil and the microbes in the soil with nitrogen that plants are able to use.

The No Till No Dig Way: Revisiting The Lasagna Garden Mound

Adina — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 02:50:17 +0000

The concept of this no dig bed is simple. You don’t till or disturb the soil below, and you create a mound that roughly approximates a balanced pile of stable scrapings. This is a great way to start quickly and these mounds feed the soil below as the growing season progresses attracting beneficial insects and microbes to your growing area, and you won’t have to fertilize the plants growing in these mounds.

In The Garden: Companion Planting

Adina — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:19:33 +0000

I have been studying companion planting in the garden. With a single google search you or I can come up with myriad charts for companion planting, so I see no reason to repeat that arrangement of information. Rather I am going to write about how I am grouping the vegetables I am planting this year Continue reading →

In The Garden: Summer 2009

Adina — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:12:22 +0000

Here’s what’s going on in the garden this summer of 2009. I am growing okra, black eye peas, peanuts, green peppers and sweet potatoes as well as my perennial, asparagus. Long Beans have just quit, and new long beans are in the ground. It is perfect timing for some new seeds, so I put in Continue reading →

In The Garden: Growing Sweet Potatoes

Adina — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:23:08 +0000

This is a great time to be growing Sweet Potatoes in the garden. They don’t mind the weather this hot,and as long as they are in well drained soil they can take whatever rain we are getting. Sweet Potato slips planted now (July) here in S. Florida would be ready in time for Autumn dinners, Continue reading →

Harvests

Adina — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:56:29 +0000

This growing season has been fabulous so far. Great food has been coming into my kitchen from the garden everyday, and there has been lots of surplus to sell off or share. We are deeply grateful.