Unless you’re like me and live somewhere the date of last frost is sometime in March, you’re probably at the peak of your garden’s life cycle. You’re hauling in buckets of fresh fruit and vegetables daily (more like truckloads if you planted zucchini) and in the process of serving these up for dinner, a lot of seeds probably end up in the compost bin.

But what if you didn’t throw these seeds away? Is that even possible? Read more…

Well, it’s the middle of July again and if your garden is anything like mine, you just can’t water enough.  And even if you do keep up with watering, it only takes one very hot day to destroy months of progress as your garden wilts in the sun.

Read more…

This year, we’ve seen some mean green beetles around the yard (and making a meal of my beautiful apple trees!). Popillia japonica, otherwise known as the Japanese Beetle is non-indiginous to the U.S. and found along the east coast. These little buggers are frustrating, chewing big holes in leaves and fruit of plants in the garden. But there’s an easy way to reduce their numbers and protect your plants: Dish soap and a little manual labor.

I’ve been using a chemical sprayer filled attached to my hose. I fill it with a mix of dish soap and water and spray it on the affected plants. I also pick off any beetles I find and dispose of them. If you’re squeamish about touching the beetles (I didn’t think I would be, but I am), wear garden gloves and dispose of them in a plastic baggie. Make sure to seal the bag tightly and dispose of them so they cannot come back.

According to DK Mommy Spot, you can also add powdered garlic, cayenne pepper, and vegetable oil to the mix. Supposedly the garlic and pepper are deterrents, and the vegetable oil will coat and smother the beetles.

If you have smaller areas to cover, you can put the mixture in a spray bottle instead of a hose sprayer. Japanese Beetles are a real problem in the north east, and anything you can do to decrease their numbers is a help to everyone.

The good news is, when I went out this morning to take a beetle photo for you, I couldn’t find a single beetle!

An abundance of freshness from the farmers market

My month of local eating begins on July 1, 2011. I’ll be posting regular updates on my blog, complete with recipes and tales of my search for local ingredients. Meanwhile, there’s still time for some of you to join me in this adventure. You don’t have to commit for the full month – try it for one week, one day, or even one meal.

What’s the point of eating local? I hear some of you asking. Here are just a few of the reasons that persuaded me to try it. Read more…

Whether you’ve made your own bin, or purchased a worm bin set up, a good worm compost kit will have a spigot to drain off excess moisture, or a tray to collect it.  If you have a spigot, drain off the excess moisture from your bin to make sure the bin doesn’t get too wet, but keep the drained off liquid in a separate resealable container.  If you have a tray, just make sure to drain the tray on a regular basis and, again, keep the liquid in a separate resealable container.  It doesn’t hurt to leave the tray filled with water however it can evaporate and you are losing a valuable commodity: compost tea.

Compost tea is the nutrient rich runoff from composting and can be used as a wonderful plant fertilizer/ additive.  Add the compost tea to your watering can and your plants can benefit from your compost even if they don’t get the soil itself. Read more…

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sankax/3423629745/

Chances are if you are making your worms happy in their worm bin, there are other bugs that would also find their home appealing and some of them might just move in.

Millipedes and pill bugs actually eat the same things worms do and will happily coexist within a worm bin.  Generally, these “pests” are few and far between and a “live and let live” approach is probably the best approach in this case.  In more extreme cases, it may be necessary to “harvest” your compost and transfer the worms to a clean bin with fresh bedding but it isn’t likely to come to this. Read more…

So you have a compost bin and added worms, now what?

Worms should be fed a vegetarian (or more likely, a vegan) diet.  Although worms can eat items like meat, they prefer not to and if they are fed meat the result will be a smelly bin making both you and the worms unhappy.

However, worms do love most fruit and vegetable matter that comes out of a typical kitchen, items such as: banana peels, apple cores, tomato ends, carrot tops, spinach that has past its expiration date, lettuce hearts, pea pods, potato peels, and even fruit pits and watermelon seeds. Read more…

From our introduction yesterday, if you think worm composting might be something you are interested in there are all kinds of options available to get started.

First, you’ll need a bin. Read more…

It’s worm composting week here on The Greenists!

Stop by every day this week to learn about different aspects of worm composting from building your own to harvesting the results- but first, an introduction!

For those of you unfamiliar with the idea, worm composting uses live worms to turn food waste into high-nutrient compost, also called worm castings.  Worm castings are highly valued by gardeners because not only does it include the nutrients you get from other forms of compost, but it also includes all kinds of microbes from the worm’s digestive tract that keep the soil healthy, help prevent many plant diseases, and store more water to help plants through dryer times.  Read more…

Didn’t get a garden in the ground this year?  Get some containers and set up some simple salad bowl gardens on your patio!