Tips

You searched for soil and found 49 tips.

• Beneficial Insect: Pirate Bug – Ah-hoy! Appropriately named, these bugs are villains toward other pests in your garden. Read more →
• Beneficial Insect: Soldier Beetles – These beetles are related to fireflies. Just like our fiery friends, we also like to keep these soldiers around as they prey on pests that may be lurking among your plants. Read more →
• Beneficial Insect: Syrphid Fly or Hover Fly – These guys are your friends! Adult hover flies resemble small wasps, with a black and yellow or white striped abdomen. They will hover like a hummingbird as they drink nectar from flowers. Hover flies do not sting. They range in size from 1/4” to 1/2” depending on the species. The adults are the pollinators and its the larvae that consume pests. Read more →
• Benefits of Cover Cropping – Cover crops, often planted in between main cash crops cycles, are grown for their benefits to the soil: nutrient cycling, weed suppression, limiting soil erosion, alleviating compaction, and carbon cycling. Read more →
• Brussels Sprouts : Tips from Seed to Harvest – These nutritious miniature cabbages are often under celebrated and even disliked. Don’t give up on them though! It is well worth noting that often store bought Brussels sprouts are picked too early – it shows in their bitter flavor and tough texture. Picking them fresh from the farm or garden after a few frosts sweetens the flavor and makes them tender, offering a whole different experience! Read more →
• Celery – Celery is more than just crunch, it is also contains apigenin, a chemical that potentially helps to fight breast cancer according to a University of Missouri study. Learn more about how to cook and store this veggie from this tip taken from Asparagus to Zucchini. Read more →
• Companion Planting – Companion plants help each other to grow in some way. For instance, some plants can extract certain nutrients from the soil and make them more available for other plants. Read more →
• Compost: Turn food waste into soil nutrients! – Compost is an important soil amendment made of decomposed plant matter including food scraps. You can make right it in your backyard! With the right recipe, your compost heap will not omit bad odors, will lighten the load (and cost) of your trash, and will greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. Adding compost to soil helps to restore the organic matter content allowing for greater moisture and nutrient retention and providing necessary food for essential microorganisms that live in healthy soil. Read more →
• Container Gardening – Don’t let lack of space keep you from gardening! Read on to learn how to grow successfully in containers. Read more →
• Cover Cropping for Soil Health – There are four commonly agreed upon tenets for building and maintaining soil health, and cover cropping is a part of all four. Read more →