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 …
composting
How to Keep an Odor Free Compost Bin in Your Home
Composting used to scare me. I should say, compost bins used to scare me. I had heard all the great things about composting: that it was a super sustainable and …
Digging Deeper: A Conversation Between Author and Alter Ego
Don Nicholas (DN):
Good afternoon, readers! I’m Don Nicholas, your intrepid gardening reporter—and today I have the extraordinary pleasure of interviewing someone quite… unique. He’s a globe-trotting gardener, a grieving widower …
13 Deadly Vegetable Garden Pests
I’m just going to say it: There is a lot that can go wrong with a garden. Somehow, we humans have cultivated vegetables for about 10,000 years. But a few …
What to Do When Your Compost Smells Like Ammonia or Sulfur
If you've read much about compost, you know it shouldn't have too much of an odor. And if you've been composting for more than five minutes, you also know that …
Identifying Mystery and Volunteer Onions in Your Garden
Maybe you've experienced this before. You're innocently weeding your garden bed, humming whatever song has been stuck in your head for three days, when suddenly you spot them. Mysterious green …
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 …
Unexpected But Edible: 10 Weird Things You Can Actually Eat From Your Garden
As a kid, I played this game with my friend where we’d blindfold each other and take random food or condiments from the fridge and get the other person 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 …
5+ Soil Additives to Improve Drainage in Soggy Gardens
After a rainstorm (or even a heavy watering), does your vegetable garden resemble day three of Woodstock? Soil drainage may be an issue! The good news is that there are …
