I prefer not to use animal-based fertilizers, which means making my own. I bought the first four of these items to do that, but when I calculated amounts for a 5-6-5 fertilizer, they were very different from a recipe I found online (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2006-06-01/A-Better-Way-to-Fertilize-Your-Garden-Homemade-Organic-Fertilizer.aspx?page=3). Also, I don’t know how much compost to use in soil and by how much to reduce other fertilizers in it when I do, if at all.
Our home is landscaped with small trees, bushes, hostas, ferns and flowers. I may plant bulbs this fall and I would like to grow some vegetables in homemade self-watering containers next spring using the earthbox method (dry fertilizer mounded under a waterproof cover) and grow wheatgrass and dirt sprouts indoors (sunflower, buckwheat and pea).
For container soil I have coconut peat, some of which I mixed with regular peat and perlite. I prefer these materials because Vermiculite is hard to find, expensive and energy intensive to produce (I’d prefer not to use perlite either for the same reasons, but thought it neccessary) and I’m concerned about the depletion of peat from peat bog habitats, but thought the mix needed some amount of it. I welcome your suggestions for affordable, ecological, effective potting mixes, especially for self-watering containers.
I’m having mostly a veggie garden maybe a few fruit but i also want to know how to prep the soil? We usually use this area but we gave it two years to get back to the way it use to be. So to get it ready before summer and stuff what would be the best thing. Also I don’t want to use a lot of chemicals mostly just organic feeding and so on.
A) lead to mineralization.
B) deplete the soil of nutrients.
C) reduce the humus content of the soil.
D) protect the soil from wind erosion.
E) reduce infiltration.
I recently began converting myself, and my family to go green. I bought a really good book on green housekeeping, and another on organic gardening. The one thing that I seem to be having trouble with is my personal beauty products. I know that whatever is on your skin is absorbed into your body so I want to make sure that whatever I put in my body is 100% natural. Some products are misleading however, they might say natural but not be entirely made of natural and organic ingredients. What are some brands of makeup/beauty products that have all natural organic ingredients? And how can I be sure. I’m also looking for something affordable…
Ok, I’m just testing a theory that those of us in nature-based pagan paths may be closer to nature, so here’s a survey.
1. What is your religion, if it can be defined?
2. Do you feel a spiritual connection to Nature?
3. Do you celebrate the passing seasons?
4. Do your celebrations involve cooking foods?
5. Do your celebrations involve making crafts?
6. Do you place importance conservation, recycling or environmentalism?
7. Have you spent time in forests or parks specifically for spiritual reasons?
8. Have you made any lifestyle changes, such as vegetarianism or organic gardening/eating as a result of your religious beliefs?
9. Do you grow any of your own food?
10. Does your faith have an effect on your decision about where to live? ie: closer to other pagans, or maybe further into the country?
I have some experience with wild herbs and organic gardening. I just moved to a new house and property in Indiana that used to be a soybean farm. In addition to the remaining soybean plants are a myriad of wild plants (and/or weeds) that have encroached on the property in the former owners’ absence. I’d like to find a good resource to research, identify, deal with and perhaps even cultivate some of the plantlife in the area, organically and with as little damage to the newly developed local ecosystem as possible. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
In the spring, I’m going to be growing an organic vegetable garden. Since it is organic, I don’t want to be spraying any fertilizers or pesticides. I’m also huge into recycling, so I want to start a compost. However, I don’t really have the resources to do so. I was thinking about taking some pure topsoil, putting it in a large garbage can, and mixing it with food scraps and such. Then, I would spread it over my garden, and rot-a-till it to combine and enrich the soil that is already there.
Would this work?
Michelle Obama
Mike Krumboltz - Sludge in the Garden
by Mike Krumboltz
New homes are full of questions and possibilities. What color to paint the walls? How to arrange the furniture? What to plant in the garden?
The Obama family must have asked a lot of those same questions when they moved into the White House. However, the first lady’s dreams of growing an organic vegetable garden have been dragged down by a previous resident that refuses to leave: sludge.
Various sources within the Buzz are reporting that Michelle Obama’s organic garden has been besieged by icky goo in the ground. As a result, the veggies aren’t quite what the first lady had in mind.
According to Daily Finance, the National Park Service tested the soil in the vegetable patch and found highly elevated levels of lead due to sewage used as fertilizer.
So the question is: Who to blame? While dumping sewage into the ground sounds like a crime worthy of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons, the actual perpetrators were none other than the Clintons. Yep, back when Bill and Hillary were living it up in the White House, their gardening team used sewage sludge for fertilizer. The fiends!
Sounds gross, but it’s actually fairly common. However, it does mean that the highly touted organic garden will never attain organic status. The certification process doesn’t allow the use of sludge as a fertilizer substitute. And there’s another problem: If Malia and Sasha weren’t into eating their veggies before, it’s going to be that much harder to get ‘em to eat ‘em now.
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92869?fp=1
I am ordering organic compost from my local recycling facility and I am curious as to how to make and apply compost tea to my veggie garden. What are some good resources, or techniques you have found? Thanks!
I’m working on a newspaper story about organic gardening and I’m trying to get an overview of the history of corporate farming in the U.S. and some of the big-name corporations normally associated with corporate farming, since it seems that the increasing emphasis on organic gardening and farming is, to a large degree, a reaction against corporate farming. Any resources anyone could point me to would be greatly appreciated.
