This short video shows the latest update for my potatoes in grow bags that I had planted earlier. They are really doing well, and I hope to have lots of potatoes this year.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Container Gardening - growing onions
This video shows one version of a container garden which I am using to grow some onions. The container garden, or garden-in-a-bucket, is a simple method to grow plants and vegetables when without a traditional in-ground garden, or to simply augment your existing garden. It allows you to mix specific soil and nutrition blends which may be different depending on the types of plants or vegetables that you are growing, and as such will enable you to optimize the growing conditions to produce a higher yield.
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Friday, December 16, 2011
How to Set Up a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden
The raised bed vegetable garden system a great option for growing vegetables because, no matter where you live, you can use this system.
The raised bed vegetable garden can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish. As long as you use the principles associated with this type of garden bed then you can expect to get great results with a bounty of fresh healthy vegetables.
Growing Vegetables In Raised Beds
This type of garden is something similar to growing vegetables in containers only the 'container' can be so much larger.
For growing vegetables, the soil doesn't need to be very deep as most vegetables don't have deep roots apart from the root crop vegetables that is and then a depth of about 12 to 15 inches or 30 to 40 centimeters is mostly ample, potatoes are fine as you mound as they grow.
Raised Garden Bed Sizes
You only need your garden bed to be raised to about 12 to 15 inches. The length can be whatever length suits and the width needs to be a comfortable reach for you to the center from both sides without stepping into the bed.
The height of the bed should be whatever height suits you. If you don't want to bend over while tending your garden then build your raised bed to a comfortable height that will allow you to tend the vegetables without the need to bend your back.
Raised garden beds are ideal for those with disabilities or the elderly who find it difficult to kneel down and more importantly get up after kneeling down.
If you wish to build your own raised beds then your options are many. You can use timber, concrete blocks, retainer wall paver blocks, stone. If using timber, only use non-treated timber like a cedar as the treated timbers usually contain toxic substances that can leech out into the soil and you will run the risk of your vegetables taking up the toxins.
There are also kits and ready made raised bed vegetable gardens that you can purchase and save the time in building them yourself. Check out your local nursery suppliers or have a shop around online.
It is also possible to have this type of garden without solid sides. Start with a good layer of gravel for drainage and then mound up the soil you wish to use, make sure you loosen the ground underneath before putting down the soil.
As a surround for the bed you could use a thicker border of mulch as an edging. I would only do this if the pathways between the beds were not grass but a mulch or gravel so that weeds or grasses couldn't find their way into the growing area.
The pathways can be an attractive and low maintenance option too, especially if you use a wood chip or bark mulch or something like decomposed granite.
Advantages
Raised bed vegetable gardens are meant to be low maintenance. That means by using this system, that is, adding your own soil mix to the beds, the weeds, pests and diseases are all but eliminated.
Better drainage is another advantage as having the bed raised allows the water to drain away and not leave the plants water-logged.
Crop rotation is very important when growing vegetables. Simply put, crop rotation means not growing the same vegetable two years in a row in the same spot.
With raised bed vegetable gardens, you can have the beds whatever size you want. This size should be determined by the size of your family or your vegetable needs.
So if you are a person living on your own or have a family of ten, your raised vegetable garden can cater for your needs.
You don't need a big area to have a vegetable garden using the raised system. If you have a small yard or even a balcony then you can use the same principles to grow your very own vegetables.
The best advantage for you the gardener is, by using this system of raised bed vegetable gardening it has been shown, compared to the conventional vegetable gardens, to produce nearly twice as much in a smaller area.
As long as you follow the principles of raised bed gardening then you can be growing and eating your own vegetables in no time. That is the beauty of vegetable gardening, your wait is only a matter of weeks in many cases.
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Monday, December 12, 2011
Organic Gardening - Growing Potatoes in a Bag
www.HomeOrganicGarden.net Organic indoor gardening is not hard as what you think. Even if you're in a limited space, living in apartments or no vacant lot in your dwellings, you can still establish your indoor garden. If your house have lots of windows and there is an available sunlight at least 5 -6 hours a day or even without sunlight as long as you've a fluorescent bulb around you don't have to worry growing your plants, electric bulbs are also an energy source. Now a days, it's not hard to establish your organic indoor garden, because there are available supply of containers, some sources from your waste plastic containers, tin cans, foam, spare tires, and any materials you can use. Most vegetables and herbs can be grown with these containers mentioned. There are plants that are small and some are big. You can match your plants with the size of the container, large plants needs s bigger container, while smaller ones in a small container. http Regarding your supply for soil mix or soil medium, there are available supply in your garden stores. Just inquire from your local agriculture extension agent where to get these materials to purchased. There are also some prepared soil medium available with the complete soil nutrients needed by the plants growth from planting to harvesting. So, you don't have to worry anymore regarding the plant nutrition requirements. Each plant you decide to grow have each a specific soil nutrient needs, and this you should always ask for ...
Friday, December 9, 2011
Free Soul Food Recipes Inspire More Home Cooking
The cost of eating out continues to increase as restaurant owners pass higher food cost and overhead on to cash strapped customers. With the economic outlook growing more risky by the minute, more people with a craving for southern food are turning to the many free soul food recipes available online.
Soul food, considered one of the original American foods, dates back to the time of slavery when slave owners gave the food they couldn't or wouldn't eat to the slaves. This food ironically turned out to be some of the healthiest foods, judged by today's standards.
Most of the food consisted of green vegetables (known as greens), turnips, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, corn pone, and more. To survive the long and often hot work days in the sizzling sun, the black worker required food that was not only cheap in cost but filling and nutritious. Soul food provided the needed energy slaves needed to work the long hours.
Today soul food is a multi-million dollar food industry and growing. Now online sites offering free soul food recipes continue to rise. This is evidence of the growing popularity and demand for ways to cook soul food by a demanding market. Some of the more popular soul food dishes such as collard greens, black eye peas and gumbo have had a resurgence in popularity by young people, a group that had overlooked soul food for hamburgers, pizza and other fast foods.
Popular southern recipe desserts such as sweet potato pie, peach cobbler and sock-it-to-me cake have also grown in popularity by at-home cooks. Not only are soul food recipes growing in demand by new-school cooks, but also preparation techniques, shortcuts and time-saving kitchen tools experienced serious growth in the past six months.
Not only has the bad economy influenced more people to eat more meals at home, but the need people have for home cooked meals that are healthy and nutritious have increased. With the growing problem of obesity facing more people, along with diabetes and high blood pressure, more people are taking their health and diets into their own hands by preparing more meals at home.
More soul food lovers are taking to preparing their meals and taking them to work instead of going to a restaurant. This has been estimated to save many people hundreds of dollars a month. In addition, it's more notorious as well.
With the popularity of video, more free soul food recipe sites are offering video demonstrations to site visitors. This adds more clarity to preparing the recipes, offering a show-and- tell element for cooks to enjoy. Indeed these soul food sites are not your grandmothers recipe sites.
Yes, with the popularity of home cooking and soul food combined, the demand for free soul food recipes will continue to grow as the economy worsens. People are constantly looking for more ways to cut their food cost. More families are finding the best way slash their food cost is to prepare more meals at home instead of paying others to prepare it at restaurants.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
The Secrets of Planting Mixed Garden Containers
Most gardeners will plant a container with a particular type of plant, never mixing vegetables with flowers. Have you ever stopped and asked yourself why? Find out another secret of container gardening here.
In your own mind, like everybody else, you will probably tend to sub-divide your garden and the things in it, into small groups. These are flowers, those are herbs and vegetables, those are weeds. Here is wildlife, those are good and those are pests. This is the way we all make sense of of the world by "compartmentalising". We are more comfortable, cataloguing, making lists and filing everything away into its own little box. This gives us an illusionary sense of control, but a limited understanding of our surroundings. When it comes to planting up a garden or a garden container, it is no wonder that many people use the same methods.
As a gardener, you must try and remember that these are "false" divisions, in the sense they are entirely man made and do not really exist in nature. They are just our way of mapping the world. In reality, everything in the garden, the plants, the wildlife and even yourself, are part of a greater whole, that is not just the local environment but in turn part of the world environment. How does this affect container gardening you may ask?
Most sensible people now reject using chemicals and poisons and try to use more natural methods in their gardening. Over the years, we have made tremendous strides in practical gardening techniques with organic gardening, no digging, square foot gardening, self-watering containers, worm composting, etc. This has resulted in bigger crops and bountiful flowers, as well as adding to bio-diversity and a sustainable future.
Now, we also need to look at our long held attitudes to the plants and wildlife themselves. Using a more holistic approach, why not experiment with inter-mixing flowers, herbs, fruit and vegetables in your planting schemes. You must try not to choose the plant to use because of its type but rather make your choices depending on the plants needs of soil, moisture, light, etc.
The old traditional cottage gardeners knew how to do this when they planted up their wonderful "mixed" gardens. They interspersed their vegetables in their flower beds. Hidden from pests, the occasional cabbage would fall prey to cabbage white butterflies but unlike those modern day allotments, with their cabbages all planted in neat regimental rows, others would go unfound and unscathed. So also, with many other vegetables and their pests. For those old gardeners, also new that many flowers not only hide vegetables with they scent, but like marigolds, actively discourage pests. The same with the rare cases of disease which, unlike in those same neatly planted rows could not spread so quickly, with the plants so far apart. I say rare, because plants that do not have to compete with a near neighbour of the same type, for the same nutrients, are not so stressed and are more healthy and disease rarely attacks a healthy plant.
Sometimes this is referred to as "companion planting", but this is usually just done from the angle of our benefit. We must start thinking about the needs of all the other inhabitants of the garden, as well as our own. If space is is in short supply and garden containers are being used, especially in urban areas, the concept of mixed planting becomes even more important to the local environment.
If you are growing vegetables for your table, then make sure that there are flowers growing with them, that will encourage the pollinators and pest predators. Here is the important thing though, you must also make sure that these creatures have flowers to feed on, not only while you grow and harvest your crops, but also after you have gained your benefits, to sustain them in the months that follow.
Why not mix herbs in with your salad crops if they like the same soil and other conditions. Plant Basil with tomatoes and see how they thrive and the wonderful subtle change in their taste. Use any hardy tall plants, whether vegetables or flowers, to shelter smaller ones from bad weather. Try to attract wildlife to your garden by making sure they have water handy. All creatures from birds to the little bugs that scuttle around, (yes, even the pests!) breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. During the day when these creatures are most active, plants unlike us, breathe in the carbon dioxide, they need it to grow and repair themselves. Birds may be a nuisance thinning your young fruit but their usefulness far out weighs that with the service they provide in eating pests and depositing nutrient rich fertiliser.
Some vegetables like the globe artichokes, will become beautiful architectural plants. This is one of the great secrets of container gardening. Use them in garden containers with other flowers which will attract pollinators for them and also hide them from pests with their strong scents. How many times have you emptied the "spent" compost from a container after growing flowers in it? This soil may not have enough nutrients to grow anymore flowers or vegetables but many species of wild-flower will thrive in this poor soil.
You have to learn how to put the best plants in the best place for the benefit of everything, not just yourself. Do not be discouraged if at first the effects seem small. Over time they will add up. Everything is inter-connected and what benefits a small part, also benefits the whole.
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