all-garden-world

Container gardening isn’t only for savvy urban gardeners and folks with limited space to grow, it can also be for folks who want to maximize their yields in a controlled environment. Not only does growing potatoes in a barrel reduce the amount of weeding and exposure to pests and fungi, you don’t even have to risk shovel-damage to the tender potatoes by digging them out of the ground when they’re done, just tip the container over!

Sprinkle Baking Soda on Cabbages (and other Brassicas) to Thwart Caterpillars If those small green cabbage worms have been making Swiss cheese of your cabbage, broccoli, and kale plants, try this trick:

If you have a tiny backyard, poor soil or just want to make your husband nuts by tossing wood pallets all over the backyard, I highly suggest hunting down a few recycled wood pallets, {chemical free of course}. My wood pallet garden is still in early stages.  My plan is to weed the surrounding area, haul in a few wheelbarrows of dirt, and then plant a few perennial flowers around the tree trunks.  I wanted to show you the “before” picture now in case you wanted to implement this garden idea in your very own backyard.

The HOMEGROWN Village will feature food makers and food growers, as well as experts in modern homesteading topics like greywater catchment, vermicomposting, kombucha and eco-building methods. We’ll be highlighting some of the Makers here over the next few weeks.

We told you about Window Farms a couple of years back, and now their community of experimenters and urban farmers has documented quite an impressive collection of projects.

When crossing your muddy yard to fetch the daily paper turns into an obstacle course of slips and slides, perhaps it's time to think about an alternative path - literally. Instead of sinking up to your ankles in the name of the morning stock report, take a weekend to lay a brick walkway. The formal pavers will not only provide a clean and sturdy lane for visitors approaching your front door but they'll also add style to your landscape and value to your home.

With a few steps you can transform boring pots into a sweet vertical garden. In the following lines I will show you how to decorate your home entrance with wonderful and creative stacked planters, having a lovely true message: “Home Sweet Home”. It is very simple. All you need are a few things like pots, paint, paper, cutter and some plants and flowers. In the image above you can see the steps and how they will look.

Matthew Russo of aCreativeTraveler has created an easy DIY project to make an inexpensive outdoor succulent planter.

Using cinder blocks, landscaping fabric, cactus soil, and succulents, he created a video tutorial that shows you how to make a fully customizable and unique planter system, perfect for your deck, patio, or a corner in your garden.

How To :

Step 1 : Working in layers, plant bulbs in a container filled with coarse potting soil, ensuring that no bulb is planted directly above another bulb. Plant the tallest flowers deepest in the pot, and move up with shorter and shorter varieties. Cover each neck with 1 inch of soil. Water.
Step 2 : Place the container in a cool area -- approximately 50 to 60 degrees -- for one to two weeks, until fully rooted. Reduce temperature to 35 to 45 degrees for 12 to 16 weeks.
Step 3 : Check pots biweekly, and water lightly if the soil appears dry.

Step 1 : Fill 4-inch pots to just below the rim with a light, porous seed-starting or potting mix. Moisten the mix, and let it drain.
Step 2 : Scatter seeds thinly over the surface. and cover the seeds with the proper amount of mix.
Step 3 : When the seeds germinate, move the pots into an area with bright light and temperatures between 60°F/16°C and 75°F/24°C.
Step 4 : When the seedlings develop their second set of true leaves, it’s time to transplant them to individual pots, such as 3- or 4-inch plastic pots. Fill the new containers with potting mix, moisten the mix, and let it drain

You know something is easy to make when the directions say “just add water.” Making a raised garden bed from a kit is almost that easy, since you only add dirt, plants, and then water. Raised garden bed kits come in a variety of sizes, so you can choose a bed that will fit into your available space and hold as many plants as you want to grow.

Both concrete and brick pavers make a simple, handsome border and work well as edging material too. They're ideal when you want a wide border that keeps grass out of the garden, yet allows flowers and other plants to spill over without intruding onto the grass. You're less likely to chop them up with the lawn mower.