However, the truth is that gardening can – and is – done indoors! In fact, many vegetables can easily be grown in wine boxes or any crate. Portable and container gardens are becoming increasingly more popular, including the one planted by Linsey Hasenbank from Houston. She uses wine boxes to create a unique garden that anyone can grow no matter where they are living.

Source of Photos  LLH Designs, except where noted.

Source Remodelista

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Whether you like reading them online or in print form, seed and nursery catalogs provide information that can immensely increase output on the vegetable and orchard gardens. At first reading, catalogs may just look like collections of beautiful pictures, but don’t be deceived.

Once you know the importance of growing information seed catalogs contain, they begin to look more like reference books to you which you will always take along with you wherever you go and even carelessly drop them in the mud.

Seed companies and nurseries cherish their annual catalogs, and each catalog has a personality replicating the company’s heritage, expertise and consumer services to their customers. Technology and tastes are bound to change, but a compilation of old seed catalogs shows that some companies have survived for a century and beyond. Generations of experience are part of what is being used to compile garden catalogs, so read them carefully and follow the instructions therein.

Basic Growing Information Contained in Seed Catalogs

Most seed catalogs contain the following basic information:

Names/Nomenclature: Together with the plants’ common names, seed catalogs will provide schedules containing the botanical (Latin) names of individual plants. When comparing plants or seeds from various sources, the seed catalog will be useful because it contains botanical names of various plants or seeds. You are assured of getting accurate information, as some plants may have numerous common names or multiple plants sharing the same common name.

When to Plant: Different seeds/plants with different planting season (winter or summer), and planting your seeds/plants at the appropriate date makes a whole lot of difference in the success of your crop. Some seeds only grow in the warm soil of summer or early fall, while others only grow in the cool soil of early spring or late fall.

How Deep To Plant: Just like the planting time/year, depth of planting also matters. Lettuce seeds, for instance, must be planted practically on the soil surface or they won’t germinate at all, while garlic cloves and seed potatoes are planted some inches deep for optimum results. Catalogs will help you to avoid guesswork.

Spacing: You do not need to over-plant, as it wastes your seeds and money. Instead, use catalogs to find out how close to plant seeds. Similarly, many seedlings should be thinned early in the growing process to give maturing plants the required space.

Germination Rate: Radish seeds are known to germinate within a few days of planting, while crops like carrots and parsley appear to take longer time to spring up from the ground. When you know the germination time of your seeds, you would be able to plan your garden structure; place fast-growing crops on the front portion for easy reach and slower growing plants occupy the back portions of the garden.

Days to Maturity: Here’s one of the most important piece of information you need for garden planning and bountiful harvest. A catalog will provide a list of reliable harvest times, which can begin from 20 to 120 days or more. Knowing preceding maturity days can also assist you to plant in sequential manner so that you’d have crops ready for harvest over a long period rather than having too many all at once.

Seeds per Packet or Ounce: Another planning tip (seeds per packet), combined with the length of rows in your farmland, can tell you how many packets are needed. Some companies list seeds per ounce. Whichever way is good; just ensure you calculate well and save more money by buying the right amount.

Other Seed Catalog Features

Other features of seed or nursery catalogs include:

• Photographs or Illustrations: How nice to see what your garden plants will look like at maturity, from beans to greens, and from turnips to tomatillos. Nursery stock for fruit trees, fruiting vines and bramble fruits can add long-term beauty to the landscape.
• Shipping Times: Some crops are only shipped in spring or fall and must be planted promptly. Catalogs will inform you about special ordering and delivery times so you can have beds prepared.
• Seed Viability: In some cases, seeds can retain their viability—the ability to germinate—for many years, but sometimes seed viability lasts only a year.
• Frost Tolerance: For gardeners everywhere, it’s helpful to know if plants can tolerate sub-freezing weather and still keep producing. Northern gardeners may need to plant during a narrow window of time, while southern gardeners may be able to plant for year-round harvest.
• Companion Plantings: Catalogs often sell seeds for flowers that do well alongside your herbs and vegetables. Double your pleasure by enjoying crops and ornamentals together.
• Accessories and Books: Many seed and nursery suppliers sell their favorite garden tools, soil supplements and books.
• Planting Guides: A particularly helpful feature is a complete planting guide that lists planting times and all other relevant information in a table or chart.

Think of seed and nursery catalogs as garden tools. They can be every bit as important as shovels and watering cans.

Featured Image: credit to tinyfarmblog.com

Source: UrbanFarmOnline.com

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There are two unique approaches to take a look at winter gardens:
1) planning to have a winter vegetable yield amid the winter months,
2) maintain a greenery enclosure through the winter for a spring vegetable product. Since we are as of now into fall, we will be taking a look at the recent.

Try not to stress on the off chance that you didn’t plan out a winter garden early. There are numerous territories in the United States where you can even now get that winter or spring vegetables planted amid the fall season. In the event that it’s as of now too cold, or there’s snow where you live, consider the beginning and keeping seedlings inside or in a nursery. You can take in more about your plant strength zone online through a web page like the United States Department of Agriculture.

Eight winter gardening advantages and simple tips beginners:

1. Winter cultivating circumstances are favorable. Spring nursery is growing with contrasts.

2. Winter greenery enclosures can be less work. Your dirt and greenhouse beds ought to be mostly prepared to go from the midyear garden and, to a degree, ought to still contain some great manure. Uproot completed summer plants to make space for icy climate plants and turn the dirt to remix before use.

3. It rain often during the winter months, so watering will be insignificant unless it’s a dry winter.

4. Despite the fact that there are still a couple of bugs to manage that winter assault plants, irritations like aphids and cabbage loppers, there is significantly more creepy crawlies to need to battle off of summer vegetables.
5. The best point of preference to keeping up a winter nursery is that you will have delectable veggies amid the winter or when spring arrives!

6. Winter is cultivating tips for late fall planting. Transplanting Seedling begins from indoor developing.

7. Since we’ve had light sparing time (fall back), watch to see what ranges of your yard are being hit with the sun and for how long every day, then check plant tabs to check whether your winter vegetable needs daylight. On the off chance that the vegetable needs more daylight than your nursery bed brings to the table, consider preparing rather so it can be effortlessly gotten and moved to sunnier zones.

8. It is imperative to pay consideration on ice notices. This is essential in the event that now you have plants in the ground or want to transplant seedlings. In the event that the predict shows ice or compelling icy, use mulch to ensure and protect in-ground plants and hold up to transplant any seedlings.

Relax the dirt no less than 18 to 24 inches down and work in new natural manure and compost a couple creeps profound and all around the bed, if necessary.

Ensure your nursery transplants are huge and sufficiently solid to handle the icy winter climate transplanting.

The post 8 Winter Gardening Tips You Must Read appeared first on Veggie Garden Zone.

Greenhouse

With shorter and colder winter days, open air cultivating may never again be conceivable in a few atmospheres. Home plant specialists frequently have nurseries or cloches to secure plant throughout the winter seasons, or as a way for them to get a head start on having a well-propelled seedling when the snows dissolve. A nursery requires a vast investment to develop it; already made variants can be acquired. They are particularly useful for housetop planting for the individuals who live in tall structure building.

Cloche

The cloche is a more down to earth elective for the expense cognizant. A cloche can be close to an old window inclined toward the side of your home, or you can construct or purchase one to suit your needs. Cloche profits by the included protection of the house structure on one side, and essentially keeps the harsher climate from coming into contact with your plants while holding any warmth that enters through the glass. A twofold coated form can be more proficient.

A few assorted types of vegetables are appropriate to frosty climate and a moderate developing season; they include garlic, peas, cabbages, broccoli, Brussel sprouts and spinach. They can be developed in a nursery or cloche in extremely cool (yet not frozen) atmospheres. Root crops, similar to beetroot, turnips and comparable likewise wouldn’t care if it is cold.

Indoor Container Garden

In case, an outside glasshouse is impossible for you, or it is just too cool to ever be reasonable, you can attempt an inside compartment garden. If you have a sunny window, this is the best area. In case, you can buy a lighting framework to make indoor cultivating more suitable for you. An ultraviolet light will give the plants developing needs in cloudy conditions and can even have advantages for individuals who may experience the ill effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) conveyed a lesser presentation of daylight in the winter seasons. Conservative developing packs like the “SoLight” can fulfill your desire to grow plants inside in constrained light conditions. You can also read our articles on Setting up a Garden in a Small Space and Home Composting 101, where we examine different indoor planting and treating the soil strategies.

Keeping up your outside garden in winter

If you take up indoor planting in the winter, you don’t need to overlook your open air garden totally. You can utilize the chance to set up your winter soil for the spring harvest: tidying up dead plants and weeds, diving fertilizer into the greenhouse beds and mulching the dirt to shield it from tempests and advance humus develop. Obviously if you live in a place covered by snow, you’ll be scooping snow! Whatever you do don’t utilize salt to soften your snow if the snow is close you plant: you’ll pollute the dirt and have issues developing in it for the following season. It can likewise defile drinking water.

Try not to let the icy climate hose your spirits and your energy for planting. With a tad bit of ingenuity and tolerance, you can make your winter cultivating background extremely agreeable. Stay warm and good fortunes with your planting enterprise.

The post Winter Gardening in a Cold Climate appeared first on Veggie Garden Zone.

The reason is this; once you’ve gotten the right selection or have even formed your own that is particularly adaptable to your area and methods, you would not want to lose it. So you keep developing the seeds year after year.

Which Tomato Seeds are you to Save?

Most large scale and other non-commercial hybrid species are not likely to continue growing from generation to generation. Most hybrid manufacturers combine two similar base stocks yearly to form seeds or to reproduce definite seed plants that are not meant for commercial purpose. Likewise, most hybrid types are reproduced to have smaller amount of seeds per tomato, which makes it expensive for them save the seeds from the plants.

Almost all heirlooms and commercial non-hybrid types are wonderful for seed saving because they have a longer history of stability. Seed savers will always go for the Heirlooms specie as their choice of seed.
Pollination is not a problem because all the seeds are self-pollinators; although some hybrids are sterilized and do not have the capability to pollinate or be pollinated.

Procedures for Saving Tomato Seeds

The process is either simple or confusing, depending on the method you wish to adopt and how long you want the seed to last for you. All the methods have basically the same beginning steps regardless of the method you wish to use.
The process begins by sharing the ripe tomato into halves or quarters and extracting or squeezing out the seeds and pulps. Let the seeds remain in their juice for two or three days for fermentation. This imitates the process in naturally where the fruit gets rot around the seed by increasing the seed’s dormancy.

Pour off the liquids and carefully separate the seeds from the pulp. Sieve them with a rag, cheese cloth, or a fine mesh screen and hand pick any pulp lump. Spread the seeds onto a dry cloth or paper towel. Allow them to dry. Changing and/ or turning the cloth/towel should be at least once. They should be allowed to dry for a day or two at normal room temperature.

Pour the seeds inside bags or pouches and store in a cool, dry, mostly-dark place where insects and pests cannot reach. Label the containers carrying the seeds and the years they were stored. They are expected to still be in good condition for 2-5 years if properly kept out of the reach of moisture and they will grow at 70% or more in most cases.

Other methods have similar starting steps except the one that you have to pour the dried seeds into a pot or sealed container and freeze. This method makes them last longer and enhances growth rates.

Saving seeds is the finishing point of the full cycle of natural gardening; it is a great way of ensuring excellent production from your garden year after year. If the tomatoes in your garden are growing well, then preserve the seeds so that you can continue to have same great tomatoes every year.

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You might have memories of relatives growing them, of picking them fresh off the bush and eating them as nature intended. Even if you don’t, though, and have always had to make a trip to the grocery store to get your supply, there’s something classic and unforgettable about the tart flavor of these little berries.

Luckily, if you’re feeling nostalgic, or just ready to try some hand-grown raspberries in your own home for the first time, growing raspberries yourself is quite simple as long as you’re willing to stick to a plan.

The Antioxidant-Filled Raspberry

Raspberries are not just tasty, they are an extremely healthy food. In fact, they are among the short lists of edibles that are known as “super foods,” or foods that contain cancer-preventing chemical agents.

Scientist Dr. David Geffen once remarked that raspberries have the distinct ability to reduce the toll that “oxidative stress and inflammation” have on the body.

In addition to being a powerful antioxidant, raspberries are also extremely nutritious. They are full of calcium, magnesium, folate, and of course vitamin C.

Raspberries: What Exactly Are They?

Raspberries are actually part of the rose family, and just like a rose, their stems and branches have a prickly assortment of thorns. Being a perennial plant, they typically give fruit once a year, and can be found growing in a wide variety of zones and climates.

Raspberries can be categorized by how they fruit as well as their color. They can be found in their familiar red color, but also in black, purple, pink and even off-white. In addition, raspberries can fall into one of these two categories:

Fruiting in Summer (Summerbearing) and Fruiting Twice a Year (Everbearing)

The types of raspberries that are “summerbearing” only produce fruit towards the latter part of summer or the beginnings of autumn. The most common type of these are red raspberries, like the Prelude or Latham.

The “everbearing” raspberries fruit two times per year, once during spring, and once in autumn. The Golden, Summit, and Polana varieties are some examples that fall under this type. Experienced enough gardeners can sometimes coax fruit out of these types for several weeks at a time.

From the time it is first planted to the time it bears its first fruit, a gardener will be waiting about two years for a raspberry plant to reach maturity. Once it reaches fruiting age, however, it can produce fruit for many years if it is kept well.

Choosing Where to Plant Raspberry Bushes

Raspberries grow best when exposed to full sun, and when their soil is sandy, fertile, and drains water well. When kept in too moist of an environment, where the soil retains too much water, the plant could become more easily diseased or even suffer from root rot, leading to a weak yield of fruit. Keep the pH between 5.6 and 6.2 ideally.

If you really want to learn very detailed information about your soil quality and how acidic it might be, arrange to send a sample of the soil to your local CSREES office. The Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) is a department of the USDA that concerns itself with environmental research. To find your local extension offices check out this map of Cooperative Extension System Offices

Getting Your Raspberry Plants Started

When you plant your first raspberries, be sure that you plant them after any danger of frost has petered out, early in the spring. You can plant red raspberries in rows so that they might grow into a decorative hedge for your garden. Make sure to keep every plant about two or three feet from each other, and that every row of plants is no less than ten feet apart.

Now, the purple and black varieties simply don’t grow large enough to form a hedge, and are best planted with a buffer of four feet between them, and no less than eight feet between rows. To maximize available space, you may consider using the hill system for these types of raspberries.

It’s important to give the plants enough space between them, as this will not only help you to tend them (adding fertilizer, weeding, etc), but it will also allow each plant to receive enough sun and air. When planting them in your garden, the root depth should be kept about the same as they were in their original pot when you bought them.

Keep your plants away from their wild raspberry and blackberry cousins if you can, since these plants can transfer disease to yours; shoot for a clearance of at least 100 yards. Also, be mindful not to plant raspberries in soil that has been occupied recently (in the past 4 years or so) by strawberries, or any plants from the nightshade family (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant), since these can transfer fungal infections to raspberry plants.

If you so choose, you can add fertilizer when you first plant your raspberries, though you shouldn’t need to add more than about 1 lb for every stretch of 100 feet. Use a tiller for best results. Another two to three weeks after the initial fertilization, add another batch to the soil.

If you’re not into commercial fertilizer, you can also use compost or manure of some kind. Don’t worry about adding any extra treatments until you’ve had the pH of your soil conclusively tested. If you decide to add mulch, keep it to a depth of approximately three or four inches. Don’t go overboard with too much mulch, as this can trap moisture and promote the growth of harmful fungus.

If your plant is a little older—about a year—cut it down to around six inches in height when you put it in the ground.

Supports and Trellises for Raspberries

Using a trellis or support system is recommended for red raspberries. Black and purple raspberries grow in clumps and do not need trellising, but can benefit from individual support systems. Trellising provides the following benefits:

-Aids in keeping the fruit healthy by increasing air circulation, keeping the fruit off the ground, and allowing access to full sun. This will increase your crop.

-Makes pruning and weeding easier to manage.

-Makes harvesting easier.

-Helps prevent certain diseases and pests.

Trellises do not have to be overly complex. You can build your own or buy one partially assembled. Iowa State University has great information related to Training and Trellising Raspberries.

Pruning Raspberry Plants

Pruning plays a vital part in the health and crop production of raspberries. In order to properly prune your raspberries you will need to understand their two types of canes. The roots and crowns of raspberries are perennial, but their canes live only two years. Raspberry canes come in two varieties: primocanes and floricanes.

Primocanes are first-year canes and floricanes are second-year canes that produce fruit.

In the spring raspberries grow new canes from the buds on the crown of the shrub and underground. In the first season, these canes grow vegetatively only (floricanes). The first-year canes will overwinter and then produce fruit in their second year (as primocanes), and then the cycle begins again.

The second-year canes die soon after producing fruit; this is a recommended time to prune them. Everbearing raspberries will produce fruit on the tips of the new canes and well as a later crop on lower branches.

Summer red raspberries should be pruned two times a year: once in late winter/early spring and again right after they have produced fruit (that you have harvested).

Spring pruning will include removing all dead, diseased, overgrown or weak canes. Keep only the strong and healthy canes to ensure a good shape and quality fruit production.

The second pruning includes removing the canes that just bore fruit.

Pruning should also be done whenever new shoots become overgrown, diseased or damaged. After you are done pruning, be sure to dispose of the waste properly so disease is not transmitted.

Raspberry Plant Diseases and Pests

Raspberries can be susceptible to certain diseases and pests. These can vary depending on what part of the country you live. Some of the more common pests include:

•  raspberry cane borer
•  red-neck cane borer
•  raspberry aphid
•  raspberry cane maggot
•  cutworm
•  clay-colored weevil

Diseases that raspberries are susceptible to are usually fungal or viral diseases such as anthracnose and cane blight. One of the best ways to prevent diseases is to purchase certified plants and use disease-resistant varieties. Good cultural practices will also help prevent many diseases. Dispose of any canes or part of the raspberry plant that has disease or extensive pest damage.

Harvesting Raspberries

You will know your raspberries are mature and ready to harvest when they are easily separated from the core; if you have to pull hard to separate them they are not ready for picking. Raspberries will keep only for a few days to a week after harvesting.

Place them on a paper towel no more than 3 berries deep and put them in the refrigerator as soon as possible. Do not rinse with water until you are ready to eat, as this will cause them to quickly mold.

Raspberries are wonderful in jams and jellies and can be frozen and enjoyed all winter long. And, of course, for all your hard work, there’s nothing better than enjoying a handful of freshly picked raspberries!

Want to learn more about raspberries and growing raspberries?

Raspberries.us has an exhaustive list of raspberry varieties.

Check out Raspberry Recipes for many delicious recipes for dishes that can be made with raspberries.

Here’s a great resource for Integrated Pest Management for Raspberries.

The University of Minnesota has a lot of info related to Raspberry Insect Pests of The Home Garden.

A lot of information about raspberry diseases can also be found on the University of Minnesota extension.

Source: GardeningChannel

The post Why Not Grow Your Own Raspberries at Home? appeared first on Veggie Garden Zone.

These are some good ways you can get better at gardening, even if the only shovel you might be touching for the next few months is a snow shovel:

Spend Some Time Reading

Remember those books on gardening that you bought or borrowed from the library, but never got around to reading? Get around to it now! Hobbies usually only stay interesting when you evolve and learn new things, and there’s no better source on new gardening techniques and theories than books written by experts on the subject. Read about a new gardening skill in the winter and prepare yourself to practice it once spring rolls around.

If books aren’t your thing, there is plenty of information all over the Internet that you could absorb to improve yourself as a gardener. Horticulture clubs or departments at a local school can also offer a wealth of knowledge.

You can also read gardening magazines, and visit gardening websites. Another great resource on the web is the Horticulture departments of universities. Some of these have a vast amount of good information. Here are a few websites:

• Virginia Tech Department of Horticulture
• N.C. State Horticulture
• Clemson University Home and Garden Information Center

Communicate With Other Gardeners

There is much to be learned about growing your own garden from your fellow gardeners, both those more experienced and those who are more green. You see, every person has their own unique style and technique that you could possibly adapt to your own. When I was young, I would listen to my grandfather swapping information with his friends about his garden, and not only was it fun and entertaining, it was also hugely informative, even when they shared their failures.

It’s possible that you don’t know of any other gardeners, in which case it may be time to make some friends! Look to see if there is a club in your area, or even if there are gardening classes or seminars available at a nearby nursery. If you have a tendency to wander around on foot in your neighborhood and see someone tending to their garden, strike up a conversation. Maybe you’re the quiet type and feel awkward breaking the ice with strangers, but trust me when I tell you that these sorts of connections pay dividends.

If you’re not into the face-to-face stuff, you might also join an online group of some kind. There are plenty of other gardeners on Internet forums or social media sites with whom you could connect. You can just “lurk” and read all of the information as well, but if you’re feeling social, go ahead and post a question or two; most likely, there are plenty of people who would be willing to help you.

Here are a few of the forums:

• GardenWeb – Vegetable Gardening – This forum is chocked full of very knowledgeable and helpful folks. GardenWeb also features many other forums that are also loaded with information – from composting to seed starting and everything in between.
• Helpful Gardener Garden Forum – To be honest, I have not visited this forum that much, but when I have I found some very good advice and helpful people.
• Dave’s Garden – Vegetable Gardening Discussion – Dave’s Garden is a very popular and helpful discussion forum. Its many members are very knowledgable and heplful, but Dave’s Garden is a subscription-based forum, costing $19.95 per year. The price is well worth it for a new gardeners since the site has plant profiles, and many other very useful features.

Have Some Practice

The best way to get good at something is to just do it! I’ve had plenty of people use the excuse that they “don’t know how” to garden to put off getting started. The fact of the matter is that you can never really know how to do something unless you do it. Mistakes will happen, but that’s just a natural part of the learning process, and as soon as you get out there and start making mistakes, you will start to see small successes as well. It’s hard to garden during the winter, of course, but there are ways around this for the determined gardener. For example, it might not be such a bad idea to build your own indoor garden. There are plenty of vegetables that will thrive just fine inside the house, and this way you can enjoy them fresh during any season.

Experiment

Experimenting with different methods and techniques is a great way to improve your gardening skills. How do you know how a certain plant may or may not react to something unless you try it out? I would not recommend doing this to your whole garden, but you can devote a couple plants in your garden to experimentation. Try different fertilizers, a different watering schedule, new pruning techniques, or maybe try a different cultivar of a particular vegetable. The possibilities are virtually endless. Experimenting can go a long way towards learning something new.

Share

Sharing is not necessarily a skill or knowledge, but it is a must-do when gardening. Whether you share you expertise in a subject, or share your vegetables with a neighbor – sharing is a very rewarding part of gardening. A fellow gardener and I have a friendly competition on who has the best looking and best tasting tomatoes each year. We gather up our best tomatoes and share with one another. We talk about how we grew them, what fertilizers we used, how we pruned or did not prune – all while sitting down to a big plate of sliced tomatoes. It’s one of the biggest things I look forward to each year.

Source: VeggieGardener

The post How to Improve Your Skills in the Garden appeared first on Veggie Garden Zone.

This is a very dramatic increase indeed, speaking to the rapid evolution of organic gardening—or perhaps it would be better to call it a rapid U-turn, back toward the age-old food production practices that we know works, and produces optimal benefits not just for you, but also for the environment.

This new wave of consumers, who are increasingly concerned about the quality of their food, are flocking to organic gardening centers to buy their produce and to learn how to grow their own food. Dromgoole’s nursery also teaches people how to address problems like pests and weeds without resorting to chemicals.

What Dromgoole calls “square-foot gardening” is also increasing in popularity, as more and more people take to growing their own food, no matter how much, or how little, space they have.

By using a grid-space, you can increase the amount of herbs and vegetables you grow per square foot, compared to sowing them in long beds, as was typically done in the past.

The Answer to Many of Our Problems is Urban Gardening

There is no doubt about the fact that urban gardening or farming is a crucial step toward achieving a more reliable food system that will stand the test of time. As a matter of fact, I’ve been promoting this practice by encouraging individuals to have a ‘Victory Garden’ as a fast way to revitalize our broken food system and improving our general well-being.

It is called Victory Gardens because 40% of the produce gotten during war era in the US was from individuals’ subsistence farming done at their backyards. I really think it won’t be absurd to make similar move for a different goal. Talking in reality, most people think it is very hard to get superb nutrient-filled foods except one grows them by oneself.

I agree with you that food grown in your own garden tastes better, 100% fresher and more nutritious than food purchased from a store, even the price is unbeatable!
Urban gardening is also a key to save more energy, protect water quality and topsoil, promote biodiversity and also to beautify highly populated regions.

It might even be a turn-around we need so as to be able to reduce the rate of depression to the nearest minimum, among some of our people, much of which may be connected to the feeling of being restricted from nature, which in turn has created a gap between the privilege few and the rest people.

A report on survey carried out by the Gardeners’ World Magazine showed that 80 percent of gardeners are “happy” and satisfied with their standard of living, compared to 67 percent of non-gardeners. Monty Don, a TV presenter and garden writer, characterized the well being of gardeners to the “recharging” they get from putting their hands to work on soil frequently and spending much of their time outdoors in nature.

This sounds beyond reasonable when you evaluate the health benefits accrued to grounding, also called Earthing. As explained in the documentary film ‘Grounded’, the Earth surface is endowed with some unnoticeable health-boosting energy, so all you need to do is to touch it.

When you walk barefoot on the Earth surface, electrons are transferred freely from the Earth’s surface into your body that spread throughout your tissues. Grounding has been proven to improve sleep, relieve pain, minimize inflammation and promote your well-being. Many gardeners will as well testify to the sense of wellness gotten from sticking their hands in the dirt, This is not part of the pleasure of achievement they get from eating their own home-grown food.

Start a Garden in this year!

Apart from having an increase in your sense of well-being, you can also enhance your health when you keep a garden by providing for yourself fresher, uncontaminated and nutrient-rich foods that are not available in your grocery store. It will also assist you to cut down on your grocery bill. You don’t need an expanse of land to get started. An apartment dweller can build a well-stocked edible garden.

You can grow food using virtually every square foot of space available to you, even your lateral space is useful too. Hanging baskets are suitable for different kind of crops, such as leafy greens, strawberries, tomatoes, runner beans, pea shoots and different kind of herbs. Window boxes are ideal to hold herbs, scallions, chard, greens, radishes, bush beans, strawberries, and chilies.

Just start on a small scale, and as you make progress doing it, add another container of something different. Should you care to learn more, please see my previous write-ups on creating edible gardens in small spaces. As you continue to work on your garden tirelessly, you’d be amazed that large portion of your meals could come from your edible garden. I will also recommend that you get your feet wet by growing sprouts.

Not only does sprouts have a rapid reward by producing food ready for harvest within one week, but also the most nutritious foods you could grow, enriched with up to 30 times the nutrients of organic vegetables.

Sprouts give room for your body to extract more of the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and essential fats from other foods you eat. Adding more point to the fact that it requires very little space to cultivate and the ability to grow them indoors throughout the year, they really do not have shortage of benefits.

Instead of growing them in Ball jars, I recommend you grow them in potting soil. They will be due for harvest in about 7 days time. In a 10by10 tray, you can harvest between one and two pounds of sunflower sprouts. This will take you for about three days.

They could be stored in refrigerator for about a week. I’ve been growing sprouts for over a year now, and most times use sprouts in lieu of salad greens. Sunflower sprouts will give you the highest volume for your work and, in my own opinion, have the best delicious taste.

Pay Attention to Your Zoning Laws

Unfortunately, a not-so-subtle war has been waged against American homeowners who want to plant gardens on their own property. Legal codes that outlaw planting vegetables on a large percentage of your yard, or restrict them to only certain areas like the backyard, out of view of the public, truly defy common sense—especially considering the negative impact lawns have on the environment.

In many instances, zoning laws are simply outdated and out of step with today’s world. Still, they can lead to frustrating legal headaches if you fail to heed them. It’s important to realize that every city has different laws and ordinances, and there are no standards spanning jurisdictional lines.

So, while I strongly encourage you to get involved in growing your own food, please do remember the preliminary step of finding out what your zoning laws allow. There are often restrictions governing the raising of goats, chickens, bees, and even where you can plant a simple vegetable garden. If you find the zoning laws prohibit or restrict gardens in your area, I would encourage you to get involved at the local level to change those ordinances. Not only will it benefit you—it could promote positive change for hundreds of families… Below are a few organizations and resources that may be of assistance:

Agriculture Supported Communities at the Rodale Institute

The Rodale Institute is another wonderful resource for anyone interested in organic gardening.  An organic garden is a great way to promote honeybees, and both flower and vegetable gardens provide good honey bee habitats. Small-scale beekeeping is also gaining in popularity—yet another sign that people are taking both their food and their environment more seriously, and are recognizing the fundamental, if not downright sacred, link between man, nature, and food.

Many are familiar with the term “Community Supported Agriculture,” or CSA, but Rodale’s ASC program works a little differently. Instead of taking a lump sum from their customers up front, they go into underserved communities that have neither lots of money nor easy access to organic food, and offer a pay-as-you-go, weekly shareholder’s agreement. They even accept government assistance checks. So each week, organic food harvested at the Institute is brought into communities such as Reddington, Bethlehem, and Allentown, PA. At present, the program feeds about 150 families in these areas.

They also teach these customers how to prepare the fresh foods they’re getting, and when there’s excess produce, the Institute offers classes on canning and preservation.

How to Find Locally-Grown Foods

Besides growing your own, joining a local CSA and/or frequenting local farmers’ markets are great ways to procure farm-fresh, local foods, year-round. Here are some resources that will help you find local farms, markets, CSAs, and more:

Local Harvest — This Web site will help you find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and more.

Alternative Farming Systems Information Center, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Farmers’ Markets — A national listing of farmers’ markets.

Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals — The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.

FoodRoutes Network — The FoodRoutes “Find Good Food” map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSAs, and markets near you.

Source: articles.mercola.com

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This easily grown veggie is known worldwide for its nice peppery taste and for its distinct nutritional values. Watercress has been identified as a good veggie due to its outstanding health advantages for all times. It is currently helping to rejuvenate home gardens in every home.

Watercress, botanically called Nasturtium Officinale, has its origin from the mustard family and it’s commonly found in water. It’s usually found near slow flowing water growing naturally. Since most of us are not lucky enough to have a stream flowing through backyards, we could still add watercress to our farms in our yards. We can even grow watercress in a container on our kitchen table.

METHODS FOR GROWING AND CARING FOR WATERCRESS

The main reason behind a successful watercress harvest is water. If you are lucky enough to have a fresh, moving water source in your yard, you can grow watercress in the same way it grows naturally. Look for a source for a transplant of watercress. A large quantity of watercress can be found at various local farmers’ mart and even in the wild.

If you choose the ones from a farmer’s mart, check for shoots of roots at the base of the stems. Place the stems in water to cause rapid root growth if need be. Watercress takes root very easily. When the roots show forth, that means the watercress is ready for planting. Or, if a transplant is uprooted from the wild, be sure to watch the whole plant cautiously before you introduce the plant to your garden.

The roots of the watercress can be easily broken; not strong at all, so handle your transplants with total carefulness. Plant the roots with care in a wet soil around your water source. Your watercress should grow easily and flourish well in this water area.

Planting your watercress in containers means you need to select two containers to arrange them close to each other. Be sure the first container has a hole that allows for drainage. The first container will need to be inserted into the second bigger container or tray. The second container will supply a spring of fresh water always.

To prepare the first pot of watercress, fill the pot with a manure-rich soil. Buy a fresh bunch of watercress from a local farmer’s mart or grocery store. Plant some stems of watercress having root shoots into the soil and water it nicely. Insert the first pot into the second bigger container or tray that is filled with water. The water will soak into the soil via the drainage hole of the first pot and make the soil remain moist for the watercress roots to germinate. Water the plant with clean and fresh water daily.

Your water garden will produce the most watercress if you allow it several hours of morning sun each day. Allow for afternoon shade. Your outside watercress will produce tender, tasty leaves for several months. Once the outdoor plant goes to flower, the flavor will become bitter tasting and your harvest season will be over.

To harvest your watercress, snip off the leaves, but don’t disturb the roots. Cut enough to eat fresh, because watercress will not store well. If you have to store it, place it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

For a handy edible garden right in your kitchen, fill a glass bowl or fish tank with 2 inches of smooth rocks or pebbles. Fill the bowl with mineral water, and place a few stems of watercress among the rocks. The roots will reach down into the pebbles, and the greens will fill in over the surface of the water. Snip your greens, and enjoy!

Pests and Problems

Watercress attracts flea beetles and mustard beetles. To get rid of these pests, immerse your plant in water for an hour. The bugs will drown, and your plant won’t the mind getting dunked. You might also consider growing a few radish plants near your watercress. The radishes will attract the bugs away.

To learn more on the nutritional facts and health benefits of watercress watch this video:

Source: TheGardeningChannel

Featured Image: credit to Flickr/Wendell Smith

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To get the maximum benefit from garlic, adults should be eating two to three cloves per day. Children, on the other hand, will benefit from one half to a whole clove every day. Not only does garlic add some extra amazing flavor to you meals, but it can also help treat a number of ailments. Here are 4 reasons to eat more garlic.

1. For pregnant women who are concerned about the amount of weight their babies are gaining, garlic can help. It has been found to help developing babies gain weight, so adding some more garlic to your diet can help ensure that your baby will be big and healthy.

2. Garlic also helps strengthen your immune system, which means it can also help you fight off colds, coughs, and other infections. That means that eating garlic during the winter months when colds and the flu are going around can help you stay healthy. This remedy has been around for a long time, with a popular folk remedy being eating a clove of garlic dipped in honey when you feel the first cold symptoms.

3. If you have hyperthyroidism, it’s important to get enough iodine, which is one of the things used commonly to treat this thyroid condition. Because garlic has high amounts of iodine, it can greatly help you improve your condition by adding garlic to your meals.

4. Vitamin C is an important vitamin for immune health as well as a number of other body infections, and not getting enough can lead to scurvy. To reap the benefits of vitamin C and avoid getting scurvy, try eating more garlic which is high in vitamin C.

5. Popular folklore says that garlic is good for more than scaring hungry vampires away! Impotency has long been thought to benefit from doses of garlic, and treatment continues in many communities to this day. Why not try treating yourself with garlic for several months before you head off to the doctor for that Viagra prescription?

6. Cardiovascular disease can be reduced by ingesting garlic. LDL cholesterol is no friend of garlic and the aortic plaque deposits that gather on the walls of your body’s veins can be reduced with the use of garlic too. Studies have shown the amazing benefits of taking garlic in relation to heart disease.

7. Fungal and bacterial vaginal infections are toast when treated with garlic! When crushed or bruised, garlic releases Allicin which is a sulphuric compound that is a natural antibiotic. WWI soldiers even apparently used crushed garlic on infected wounds suffered in battle. If you decide to take garlic in tablet form be sure to use powdered capsules. The processes used to create garlic tablets destroy the Allicin that is present.

8. Garlic is a great source of vitamin B6 which is needed for a healthy immune system and the efficient growth of new cells. Vitamin B6 can also assist with mood swings and improve your cheery disposition!

9. Garlic can aid in the prevention of multiple types of cancer. Bladder cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer and stomach cancer have all been shown to have their tumors reduced when treated with garlic. Vitamin B6 is said to have cancer fighting abilities.

10. Garlic regulates blood sugar as it enhances the level of insulin in the blood. This may assist in the control of diabetes. Seek medical advice if you believe the use of garlic could help your condition.

A word of warning about consuming too much garlic; in large doses, garlic can be detrimental to your health and you should never take more than the recommended dosage. Also be aware that the properties of garlic actually get into your bloodstream which is why it is so effective in so many ways. What this does mean, however, is that when you sweat, garlic will leave your body through your pores. Many people who eat larger than normal amounts of garlic report increased body odor.

Also consider another area of your health when you choose to consume more garlic than your friends and family. If you are the only one taking increased doses of garlic, chewing a sprig or three of parsley after each garlic dose is recommended to combat the lovely aroma of garlic breath!

Source: AGirlWorthSaving.net

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