Gardening Your Way

Top Reasons For Growing Your Own Vegetables

2012-12-27T18:45:00.000-08:00

It's never too early to start thinking about gardening for the coming growing season. I know that in most parts of the USA it's in the middle of winter at the moment so not a good time to start planting. We can however begin gathering our seeds and adding different layers of organic additives to the soil so they will be broken down by spring.

Why is it important for us to grow as much of our own food as possible? In my article 9 Reasons For Growing Your Own Vegetables I offer several reasons for doing so. Be sure to take a look as there are several videos and resources to help with your gardening needs in that article.

Below is one of the videos I came across while creating the above article. I thought you might like to see it now. John of Growing Your Greens shares some of the reasons he grows his own vegetables at his home.

Hopefully it will help motivate you to start seriously planning for the upcoming growing season!

Vegetable Green Smoothies From The Garden

2012-09-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

I've really enjoyed using vegetables from my container garden this summer in my Vegetable Green Smoothies!

If you haven't had a green smoothie and a vegetable green smoothie at that, you might want to consider it.

I go into much deeper detail of the health benefits and share a few of my favorite recipes in my article Vegetable Green Smoothie Recipes . This article has turned out to be wildly popular and was recently featured on the front page of Squidoo.com. Hop on over and see if I can convince you to give these very yummy smoothies a try!

Some of my favorite vegetables and herbs to blend in my smoothies are: kale, celery, zucchini, basil, rosemary, lemons, lettuce, and dandelion greens. I've experimented with several other vegetables in the past almost 2 years that I've been making Vegetable Green Smoothies and I've found that you just can't go wrong!

The only fruit I add to my smoothies is lemons. I've worked for many years to overcome some health issues and I found that all types of foods with sugar even from fruits tended to make my issues much worse. So I do sweeten my smoothies and you'll find out with what when you read the article! Hint: it's very tasty and is actually VERY good for you. :)

Hope you enjoyed working in the garden this summer and continue to grow lovely vegetables and herbs into the fall.

Happy gardening!

Lasagna Gardening - An Easier Way To Garden

2012-05-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy of the Dayton Daily News

Hello Fellow Gardeners!

Today we're talking about Lasagna Gardening (also referred to as 'No Till Gardening') which is a much easier way to garden in my opinion.

Lasagna Gardening was first made popular by Patricia Lanza. She has put out several books about her simple approach to gardening and I found myself gifted with one of them when we moved to our new home some years ago.

My first book about Lasagna Gardening was Lasagna Gardening with Herbs since I was more focused on growing herbs at the time than anything else.

I fell in love with this fantastic approach to gardening and started making Lasagna Gardens all over the yard!

The basic premise behind Lasagna Gardening is picking a gardening spot, covering it with heavy layers of newspaper or cardboard or both, layering that with alternating layers of pete moss, compost, dirt and mulch. It really is that simple!

Ms. Lanza found herself running a business along with a family and wanted to spend time tending to her gardens and found herself more and more pressed for time. She decided to give this style of gardening a shot and it worked so well she has done it ever since.

I go into more details in one of my articles on Squidoo.com and walk you through the process along with photos and research. I would love for you to visit my article Lasagna Gardening Method - The Easy Way To Garden if you like.

I hope you will give this style of gardening a shot and please let me know your thoughts in the comments section!

I love hearing from you about gardening in general. :)

Container Vegetable Gardening - Growing Vegetables In Containers

2012-05-15T11:05:00.006-07:00

Image courtesy of Sunset.com

Today I'd like to talk about container vegetable gardening. In my article 'Growing Vegetables In Containers - It's Easier Than You May Think', I take a look at several reasons for growing your vegetables in containers and different container options. Be sure to read the full article to get loads more info and options.

While you are there, you may want to take a look around at some of the other articles I've written. Many of them are about gardening.

Living in the Pacific NW, USA is a good reason many times to grow your plants and vegetables in containers as our growing season is much shorter than many parts of the country. Containers full of dirt (especially dark containers) will heat up much quicker than dirt in the ground.

I also love that I can have the containers raised to any level I want so that I don't have to spend so much time bending and stooping to tend my vegetables.

This article Novice Gardeners Best Start With Containers by Anne Watson talks about choosing the right container for your needs and how starting your gardening ventures in containers may be a good idea. Watson says that condo and apartment dwellers needn't give up growing their own vegetables just because they are limited in space.

I agree! I have grown vegetables and herbs in containers for many years and am still doing so even though we have plenty of room for in ground gardening.

Another article by Try Growing Veggies In Containers by Jamie Hancock explores many different types of containers that you can use to grow your vegetables in containers as well as how to care for them.

So there you have it, some great articles for you to explore about container vegetable gardening and lots of reasons to consider doing it.

I would love to hear your feedback on container gardening or anything gardening related.

Happy gardening!

Worm Farming Secrets

2011-11-22T18:21:00.004-08:00

Hello Fellow Gardeners!

I signed up for the newsletter at Worm Farming Secrets and I thought I would share an excerpt from their latest newsletter. This site is proving to be a valuable source of information pertaining to worm farming and all kinds of useful things to consider. It is the culmination of over 12 years of expertise by the professional worm farmers that run it.

While there, you can download a more in depth guide that they say, "More than 1,700 people from around the world have downloaded our original (and still the best) step-by-step guide to composting with worms."

I also wrote an article about Worm Farm Composting and there are even more tips and hints there. In the article I discuss several things to consider such as how many worms do you need to get started, how to make your own worm farm bins, and more to get you started with your worm farm composting research.

Here is the excerpt from Worm Farming Secrets that I want to share with you today.

"Can you put stuff like facial tissues, used paper towels etc in the worm bin?" ~ Al

"Hi Al - the short answer is YES. You can definitely add materials like this to your worm bin. In fact they can be really helpful in terms of absorbing moisture and helping to keep the carbon to nitrogen ratio in the bin balanced. That said, I tend to be somewhat more cautious when it comes to white paper and similar products like Kleenex and (white) paper towels. They can contain some chemicals such as bleach (used to whiten them) that can irritate the worms if enough of the material is present in the bin. Tissues and paper towels can also get pretty sloppy when wet, thus potentially impeding air flow - so you certainly don't want to add huge amounts to your bin at any one time for that reason as well. Moderation is definitely the key..."

Sign up for the Worm Farming Secrets newsletter and read more valuable info!

Get "The Business And Biology Of Raising Earthworms" book now...

Until next time folks...Happy Composting!

Image courtesy of Green Calgary

Worm Farm Composting - Making Compost With Red Wiggler Worms

2011-11-21T23:09:00.007-08:00

(image courtesy of slashfood.com)

Worm farm composting can be a very rewarding and organic way to add vital nutrients to your garden and houseplants.

I have long been an advocate of composting our leftover vegetable and fruit scraps along with chopped leaves in our big composter in our backyard. One of the great thing about vermicomposting is that you can easily do it indoors as well as out.

Vermiculture is the raising of different types of worms and the production of their by-products known as castings. Red Wiggler Worms are the type of worm most commonly used in vermicomposting.

Red wigglers can be found in bait shops or order online such as here Uncle Jim's Worm Farm 1,000 Count Red Wiggler Live Composting Worms . The earthworms you find crawling around in your yard are not the same kind of worms as composting worms. They have different tasks to accomplish than the red wiggler earthworm.

Continue reading my article about Worm Farm Composting where I go more in depth and share more resources for worm farming.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about worm farming or composting in general.

Remember to Garden Your Way!

Welcome

2011-11-21T13:29:00.002-08:00

Hello fellow gardeners!

I love to garden and I love researching and finding different ways to enhance my gardening experiences. Research is a passion of mine in general so I thought I would share the results of some of that research with you here. I'll be posting articles that I've written about vegetable gardening, herb gardening, flower gardening, organic gardening, and all types of DIY projects. I will also be sharing links and other articles that I feel will help you to learn more. Sharing resources is another passion of mine!

If you like what you see, be sure to sign up to receive notifications when I post more great info for you!
Itaya

Image above courtesy of johninportland