Survival Gardening for Pandemics

The Basics of Cold-Weather Gardening

Depending on where you live, it may be too late to start on a winter garden at this time, but it is never too early to plan for next year. So get out your graph [ … ]

Better and Longer-Lasting Gardening Equipment in a Few Easy Steps

Keeping your garden tools in good repair will add years to their life. It will also make your job easier next spring, as they will be sharp, oiled, and ready for use. The first step [ … ]

Forget Spring Cleaning: Fall Chores for a Great Garden Next Year

We have now passed the mid-point of October. With the arrival of October 19, only 73 days remain before your 2011 calendar becomes obsolete. While I’ll still be growing broccoli, collards, carrots, and some other hardy crops for a few more months here in North Carolina, most of my friends up north are preparing to shut things down for the season. With that in mind, I thought today might be a good time to mention a few things you can accomplish around this time of year… [ … ]

Grow Roses the Old-Fashioned Way

Roses are beautiful additions to any garden, and the hips and petals can be eaten for their vitamin C content and flavor. My grandmother and great-grandmother’s roses have always intrigued me, as they were always very beautiful. Now that I have my own home, I want to propagate some of my grandmother’s roses in my own garden. We will learn how together! [ … ]

Growing a Low-Carb Garden

Many of us have chosen to change our eating habits from traditional western fare to a low-carb/high-protein diet. Whether it is for weight loss or better health – or both – this type of eating is becoming more popular. So this session we will talk about planting a low-carb garden. So what shall we plant in our low-carb garden? As it is cooling off, let’s start with cool-weather plants. [ … ]

The Not Simple, Not Natural Story of High Fructose Corn Syrup

The marketing mavens who work for the Corn Refiners Association have spent a bundle of money trying to convince the public that “high fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar.” Anyone who has ever savored a batch of freshly picked sweet corn can testify that the tender kernels might just deliver a tasty liquid that could be boiled down to make a healthy and delicious syrup. If you think of it that way, high fructose corn syrup sounds like a simple, natural…
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Harvesting Your Garden Bounty For Peak Flavor

You’ve planted your garden, tended the seedlings, defended the plants from pests, and now you have a garden full of bounty. Now you need to learn how to harvest and store what you’ve grown. Each [ … ]

Winter Safeguards for Your Garden

Now that you have harvested all of your veggies, gardening is over, right? Wrong. Now we start preparing our beds for next year’s harvest. Preparing your garden to go through winter will make it easier to plant next year’s crops. When all is harvested from the garden, you can do one of two things. The first is to pull the plants for composting and plant a cover crop. The other option is to leave the plants where they are, crushing them to the ground… [ … ]

Organic Farming: Real Skills, Real Cheap

The ability to grow your own food in the absence of commercial fertilizers or garden store cheats could someday make the difference between life and death. Acquiring that vital skill set is something that many [ … ]

Saving Seed For Future Harvests

Maybe you are too young to remember, but there was once a time when packaged seed was rare. In those days, next year’s harvest depended on successfully harvesting seed from this year’s vegetables. Saving seed [ … ]

Study Reviews The Culprits Behind Dying Bees

Since about 2006, farmers, scientists, beekeepers, and casual observers have noticed sudden declines in bee populations. Beekeepers were seeing at least 30 percent of their bee populations die or disappear each year. Scientists began calling [ ... ]
Five Secrets to a Productive Garden

If you’re considering a food garden as part of your long range emergency preparedness plans, the number one piece of advice you need embrace is: “Do your research.” The rules for successful gardening are very [ ... ]
Beautiful and Edible Ground Covers

I have found that there are a couple reasons that one might like to plant a ground covering that is edible. The first is that you have a small yard or garden plot and want [ ... ]
How To Make Your Own Essential Oils and Perfumes

Making essential oils is done by extracting the natural oils from herbs and/or flowers. These extractions can be made with oils or alcohol. Extracting Oils with Oil Oil attracts oil, bringing it out of the [ ... ]