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Using Every Nook and Cranny

1/27/2019

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When you look out at the typically suburban lawn what do you see?

​Some see a beautiful manicured space that is great for playing on lounging on and gives your house great curb appeal.  
Whiles others like me see a mostly wasted, severely underutilized space that could be put too much better uses like growing food and creating pollinator habitat.




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No Till Gardening

1/20/2019

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Unless you have been asleep for the last decade or maybe you're just really out of touch you are bound to heard of the No Till movement that is sweeping the nation in both the farming and gardening sectors of agriculture.  Like the term implies no till is a method of growing crops on both large and small scales without tilling the soil. To those of you that have been raised in what became industrial farming/gardening this idea of not tilling the soil will seem just backwards and potentially a waste of your time.

​

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Update to the 2018/2019 Indoor Garden

1/19/2019

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Just wanted to drop a update on how the indoor garden is doing this winter.  So far its been about a 50/50 split in how successful it is.  While I manage to get good success in growing everything I did make one glaring mistake in my tomato species selection.  I had though I had planted a variety that I thought would self pollinate without the aid of bees or other other pollinators but I was wrong.  I have had several sets of blossoms come a go and not s tomato to be seen.  I  always have the option to pollinate by hand but I am not sure if I will make the effort.  I am however going to try turning  and leaving a fan on them to try and get the pollen to to drop into the blossoms.

But as you can see from the pictures on the left I have had some good success growing the lettuce and the spinach for consumption and have not been able to keep up with how fast it growing. 

I think in the future I will only grow things that don't require any form of pollination and I will stick to the leaf and root crops.    
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3 Reasons You Should Grow Perennial Garden Crops

1/13/2019

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Picture2018 Garden
When people think of a garden they most likely think of the annual garden standards,

·         Tomatoes
·         Peppers
·         Lettuce
·         Beets
·         Corn
·         Etc.

But that thinking is missing out on great resource that they can use to reduce work, fertilizer inputs, watering needs and did I mention work.  For me the reduced work is a big seller when it comes to gardening and the amount of work it can take depending on your techniques can be staggering.  That is why I am a big fan of perennial crops in place of annual crops wherever possible.

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What is Sheet Mulching?

1/6/2019

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Sheet mulching defined in its simplest terms is the layering different types of organic materials on top of the ground in order to establish a garden plot without tilling the soil.  This technique can be applied to existing lawns, areas with poor soil or even over concrete or solid rock to create “soil” for growing things in. ​

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Planning for the Summer Garden

1/1/2019

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I know right….
It’s January and I am already talking about the summer garden.  But if you are a serious gardener like me you need to start planning this early because before you know it the early cool season crops can be going in the ground.
The winter is perfect time to look back on your garden and figure out what you did right what you did wrong and what you want to change before this next season begins.  In my case some things that went right this last summer would be the following,
​
  • I tried pole beans for the first time and it worked really well.  But I am going to use more fencing and less single poles because it was easier to harvest from the fence beans vs the ones on the poles.
  • I also made an A frame trellis and grew cucumber and acorn squash (accidentally) on this trellis and it worked great.  I will definitely be doing that again next year but I am going to move where the A frame is in the garden beds.
 
Things I did wrong…
  • I really got behind on the weeding and pretty soon it was too far gone for me to fix without hurting the garden plants.
  • I tried growing jack o lanterns in place of pie pumpkins because I figured I would get more pumpkin for my effort and the flavor wouldn’t be too different.  Boy was I wrong the flavor was subpar and I didn’t get enough pumpkins to make up for it.
  • Trying watermelon for the fourth time no more will I waste garden space on them.
 
Planning for next year

After you have had a chance to reflect on the previous year you can now plan better for next year.  Things that you should figure out now would include,
  • Plan the rotation of plants to break disease cycles cycle nutrient around the garden beds. 
  • Selecting new varieties you want to test or getting ahold of old favorites you want to grow again. 
  • How much of each plant you want to grow for the next year.
  • Planting schedule (i.e. two crops in the same spot at different times such as radishes and pole beans)
So the moral of the story is that now is the time to be planning the next summer garden because planting season will be on you before you believe it especially if you live in the southern part of the United States or any other warm climate.
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    Author

    Hello my name is Josh Larson and I am the creator of the Green Living Library.  Here on the blog you will find updates to content found in the Green Living Library as well as stories from those living the sustainable life already.  

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Photos used under Creative Commons from andrew_ross, Scrap Pile, USDA NRCS South Dakota, mikecogh, mikecogh, rmkoske, UnitedSoybeanBoard, naturalflow, Rennett Stowe