Give a Gift
The Best Type of Manure for Vegetable Gardens
My summer cookouts are not for the faint of heart. It's not that there's anything scary or bad. But conversations tend to skip the polite weather talk and get straight …
composting
Wandering in Place
In the quiet corner of my backyard in Westport, Connecticut, sits a humble compost heap—my ever-evolving monument to patience, decay, and renewal. Framed by upright logs and wrapped in garden …
The Do’s and Don’ts of Open Air Composting
Figuratively. There are things you'll want to know before you "figuratively" jump into open-air composting because I'm guessing you don't want to actually do that.
If you've read more than a …
Can Fertilizer Go Bad? And 5 More Facts About Garden Food
I think fertilizer companies have borrowed sales strategies from hotdog bun companies. There’s either too much fertilizer left over, or not enough to complete the task. I always seem to …
Composting A to Z
If healthy soil is the foundation of food gardening, compost is the mortar that holds it together. Compost feeds the microbes, balances nutrients, improves structure, and turns yesterday’s kitchen scraps …
The A-to-Z of Soil Health
Every gardener knows that when you start talking about soil, the conversation quickly fills with words that sound like they came out of a science lab: pH, humus, tilth, mycorrhizae. …
How to Create a 3 Bin Compost System with Recycled Materials
No, I’m really not here to make your composting life more complicated, even though it may seem like it. Composting is composting is composting, right? Well, yes, it is. But …
20 Gardening Myths Busted
Sometimes, gardening advice gets passed around like gossip. It could be gardening tips from your grandfather on your mother’s side or a neighbor’s anecdotal vegetable garden evidence. It’s easy to …
How to Avoid Salmonella in Compost
If your idea of a fun afternoon is reading academic research papers, just Google "Salmonella in compost." You'll get titles like Cascading effects of composts and cover crops on soil chemistry, bacterial …
Ways to Make Compost Break Down Faster
I know the feeling. You're excited about your compost pile; you've tried to keep the mix right between browns and greens. Finally, you're ready to get some finished compost and …
