Garden Wisdom Blog — category: Garden Resources

Many people ask us for the “Mary’s Mix” complete organic fertilizer blend recipe. For smaller gardens, it may be more economical to purchase some premixed 4-4-4 Complete Organic Fertilizer from Gaia Green. We love this product, and use it in our trial gardens. But for big gardens, small farms, and for determined do-it-yourself-ers, here is the classic blend that Mary Ballon used to print in the West Coast Seeds catalogue. She always included the footnote that “actually it’s Steve Solomon’s Mix and I have been using variations of it since 1983.” Chemical fertilizers combine other byproducts of the petrochemical industry...

Building raised beds for your vegetable (or herb, or flower) garden requires an investment of work plus the cost of materials, but they will reward you in the coming years in a number of ways. Raised beds are usually built out of lumber, but a wide variety of other materials can be used, from bricks and stones to recycled plastic sheets. The premise is simply to contain the soil within some sort of frame that holds the soil above ground level. Whether you’re starting your garden for the first time this spring, or expanding an established plot, it’s worth considering...

Here’s a bit of geeky plant science for you. David Bradbeer at the Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust sent me this great image of the roots of white clover. You can plainly see bumps along the roots that are called nodules. Over millions of years, the plant has evolved a symbiotic relationship with certain species of soil-dwelling bacteria called Rhizobia. This group of bacteria has the ability to take nitrogen from the atmosphere and “fix” it by metabolizing it into ammonium, which is a nitrogen compound that the plants can make use of. The plants benefit by using this extra...