I’m a big fan of spraying organic seaweed fertilizer at least once a month in my garden. I do this primarily to help my plants deal with heat, cold, wind, drought and disease. But that’s not the most important ingredient…
Masanobu Fukuoka (Photo credit) Every so often I read Masanobu Fukuoka’s The One-Straw Revolution to remind myself I sometimes have very little idea of what I’m doing in my garden – and my life. In some ways it’s a troubling…
This is what my organic garden looks like today. Not quite ready to start planting yet, haha, but I’m gearing up for spring. I’ve been making sure I have my seeds and organic fertilizers and microbial inoculants all ready to…
I talk a lot about how to improve garden health because it’s obviously a vital step for growing nutrient-dense organic food. That’s why the first 6 months of The Academy – my members-only online organic gardening course – are largely…
Insects like this praying mantis take care of my garden for me. One of my goals is to have a self-sustaining garden. Today is a good example of why. Heather and I are visiting her brother and his family in…
Lawn top dressing is when you apply a thin layer of material onto the lawn. But lawn dressing is often done with sand and that’s where the problem is. Sand is used because people think it will improve air space,…
Just like lawn dethatching and lawn rolling, I can see why people might think aerating a lawn with a lawn core aerator is necessary on an annual basis. Not only is it often recommended gardening advice, but most lawn care…
Lawn rolling compacts the soil, the opposite of our goals The local lawn care company won’t tell you this, but lawn dethatching and lawn rolling aren’t necessary or even beneficial. Lawn Dethatching Lawn dethatching – also called power raking –…
“Hey Jim, do you feel a draft?” I recently talked about Proper Pruning – Are You Making These Common Pruning Mistakes?. Let’s continue that and talk about proper pruning for diseased branches. Even when covered in disease, leaves are often…
For proper pruning, always use secateurs, not anvil pruners Proper pruning, as we are often told, involves removing the 3 D’s from our trees: Dead, Damaged and Diseased wood, so our organic gardening pruning chores revolve around that. Now pruning…