Basil and a lot of plants grow better when there is good fungus and active biological activity in the soil. Pesticides, road salt, run-off from your roof after a heavy rain storm will destroy the life in your soils. Compost tea, a brew of fungus...
Read morePlants need minerals to grow. Back in the ‘better living through chemistry’ days, we’d add a bunch of nitrogen rich fertilizer to the soil and wait for the plant to take off. A lot of that fertilizer never got absorbed by...
Read moreImaginary experiment: Get two colanders and two large bowls. Fill the first colander with sand and the second with clay. Place each in a large bowl. Pour a quart of water over the sand in the first colander. Pour a second quart of water over the...
Read moreDid you know that plant roots don’t grow in dirt? Soil is actually a mix of Water, Air, Organic Matter and Minerals. Roots grow in the space between particles- or air pockets. When heavy pressure from water or machines presses down on soil...
Read moreYesterday, I was part of a panel at the American Film Institute in downtown Silver Spring talking about community gardens and organic gardening with to a group of high school students from Montgomery Blair and Sherwood. Students watched a...
Read moreYou would never know that Amsonia will be blooming under this Serviceberry in a few months…all the more reason I love coming home to Hellebores right now. This one, a Hellebores niger cultivar, has upright flowers and it’s foilage...
Read moreTaking down a tree? Don’t let the wood go to waste. 2 local woodworkers specialize in building furniture, arbors, etc. from trees that would otherwise be chipped. Tree Incarnation http://www.treincarnation.com/index.html Seneca Creek...
Read morePruning: make a good cut- Prune too far out and you leave a stub that rots and invites insects and disease into your plant. Prune too close and your plant can’t heal. Helpful short video on ‘Where to cut’ here...
Read moreWeed Patrol: Bittercress- this winter annual weed is happily growing in gardens right now- It can produce several generations in a growing season from its seeds- so now’s the time to pull it.
Read moreCheck out this local, woman owned business making a global difference. Lynn’s team will cut your lawn with electric mowers powered by solar batteries. Solar mowing cuts your grass, withoug adding any carbon dioxide or other pollutants into...
Read morehttp://www.utexas.edu/news/2012/12/24/bumblebees-do-best-where-less-pavement-more-floral-diversity/
Read moreI shouldn’t have been surprised to find this leaning, dying Leland when I walked around assessing how plants had weathered the winter in my garden. Yes, I know better than to plant a Leland (poor root structure, gets too big and topples in...
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