Garden Wisdom Blog — category: Articles and Instructions
About Turnips
category: Articles and Instructions category: Vegetable Talk how-to-grow
Prior to the potato’s arrival from the New World, turnip was the root-crop of choice for cool, wet soils, so many northern European cultures have significant relationships with this vegetable. It says a lot about turnips.
Mixing Soil from Scratch
category: Articles and Instructions category: Soil Talk
In many cases pre-packaged soil from the garden centre may serve its purpose when filling containers or raised beds. It is usually manufactured in massive amounts by mixing various raw ingredients before bagging. Here is our container soil recipe.
Compost and Composting
category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Organic Growing
About Compost and Composting Composting is the process of breaking down organic material. It is one of the basic principles of organic and biodynamic gardening, and has been in practice for a surprisingly long time. Pliny the Elder refers to composting in his writings from the early Roman era in the first century AD. But it wasn’t until the 1920s when forward-thinking scientists and social philosophers such as Rudolf Steiner began to see the profoundly important role composting could play in a modern society. And only now are municipalities in North America contemplating large, industrial scale composting programs to deal...
Plant Flower Seeds for Bees
bees category: Articles and Instructions category: Flower Talk category: Garden Resources flowers how-to pollinators
With pollinator conservation in mind it’s a good idea to plant flower seeds for bees. But which are the best pollinator plants? Which bee flowers are the easiest to sow and grow? What flowers can be grown in containers or schoolyards to attract pollinators? Certain plants produce flowers that are really generous with nectar and pollen in order to ensure good pollination. The plants and the bees (and other insects) that pollinate them have evolved in harmony to form important relationships — one can’t survive without the other, but together they will thrive! So the first consideration is to think...
Waiting to Transplant
category: Articles and Instructions category: Garden Resources category: Seed Talk garden-wisdom hardening-off how-to potting-on timing transplant
Many plants benefit from a head start by sowing indoors during late winter and early spring. For a few crops, notably peppers and tomatoes, this indoor start is an absolute requirement if growing from seed. These tender, tropical plants will be killed outright by frost, and will show immediate signs of distress if exposed to cold spring weather. So the gardener’s strategy is to make an educated guess about when it will be warm enough to transplant them outdoors, and work backwards from that date according to which crop is involved. Tomatoes, peppers, and many perennial flowers require a good...
