I live in southern California, and I’m working on amending my soil with home grown compost (I won’t use the stuff that comes in bags), but I still have some areas that are the poor sandy soils of this region. I’m going to eventually turn this into a vegetable plot, and I already have native plants. What kinds of vegetables, herbs, or even cover crops might grow well here to start out with?
Thanks for any help.
Posted in Herb Gardening
Tagged compost, crops, herbs, home, kinds of vegetables, native plants, plot, poor sandy soils, region, sandy soil, soil, southern california, stuff, vegetable, vegetable plot
resistance to pesticides and pests, better and more consistant crops.
Take for example this hypothetical situation:
A plant is plagued by a fungus that lives in the soil. It affects the roots and eventually kills the plant. now say there are fields and fields of such plant, and one of them just happens to have developed a rare genetic mutation (mutations in DNA happen naturally in quite large amounts but few have any effects) that just so happens to make it resistant to that fungus. It grows to be healthy while all the plants around it die. This plant then flowers and seeds and produces a whole load more plants, all of which are resistant to this fungus. Now just suppose this plant has fruits and a farmer spots these plants are flourishing and takes them back to his farm and replaces his mouldy plants with these improved ones. Everybody is happy because there are now healthier plants and more fruits.
But say a scientist spots a plant that suffers from a similar problem and uses some genetic tools to tweak the plant to solve its problem and gives it to a farmer who is happy because his plants no longer die. This ‘modification’ may or may not have happened naturally given enough time.
The public are however not happy.
Now why is this?
Posted in Flower Gardening
Tagged consistant, crops, pesticides, Pests, resistance, Whats
Nobody can grow pretty flowers here in the midwest unless you water your plants two to three time a day. I am sure any kind of crops out there are all dead. The summers keep getting hotter and hotter. They say the ozone is closing up and that global warming should not happen. I think it’s out of control, from what I’ve seen. I never saw a summer like this when I was a kid(and I’m not that old, now!) Have our efforts to save the planet backfired?
Posted in Flower Gardening
Tagged crops, day, dead, global warming, hotter, kind, midwest, nobody, ozone, plants, pretty flowers, rain, time, water
I am trying to manage a permaculture garden. The flat area with nice soil is doing a good job, however grass has invaded and is competing strongly with my crops. At this point my Carrots, Greens and Radishes have battled for niche space against grass and I’m keeping attentive to how this drama unfolds.
I’m assuming to deal with this area next year I should put down a layer of straw to dissuade grass seeds from coming up. I figure I’ll start my plants outside of the bed and then transfer them after they have grown taller than the straw.
However, as one of the permaculture principles is to learn from how nature wants to act, I wonder if anyone here can tell me what the wild grass doing so well in the garden can tell me. In other areas the only plants that are doing well are milkweed, legumes and squash (which from what I understand means that the soil needs Nitrogen). I’ll be cover cropping those areas with a slurry of red-clover seed to fix nitrogen this winter.
In the end my question is… does the grass growing well in the flat garden area indicate that the soil is healthy with good nutrient balance or does wild grass fill a niche which tells me of specific soil challenges?
Posted in Permaculture
Tagged area, carrots, crops, garden, good job, grass, greens, job, niche space, Permaculture, permaculture garden, point, Radishes, soil, Wild, wild grass
I am trying to manage a permaculture garden. The flat area with nice soil is doing a good job, however grass has invaded and is competing strongly with my crops. At this point my Carrots, Greens and Radishes have battled for niche space against grass and I’m keeping attentive to how this drama unfolds.
I’m assuming to deal with this area next year I should put down a layer of straw to dissuade grass seeds from coming up. I figure I’ll start my plants outside of the bed and then transfer them after they have grown taller than the straw.
However, as one of the permaculture principles is to learn from how nature wants to act, I wonder if anyone here can tell me what the wild grass doing so well in the garden can tell me. In other areas the only plants that are doing well are milkweed, legumes and squash (which from what I understand means that the soil needs Nitrogen). I’ll be cover cropping those areas with a slurry of red-clover seed to fix nitrogen this winter.
In the end my question is… does the grass growing well in the flat garden area indicate that the soil is healthy with good nutrient balance or does wild grass fill a niche which tells me of specific soil challenges?
Posted in Permaculture
Tagged area, carrots, crops, garden, good job, grass, greens, job, niche space, Permaculture, permaculture garden, point, Radishes, soil, Wild, wild grass
I am trying to manage a permaculture garden. The flat area with nice soil is doing a good job, however grass has invaded and is competing strongly with my crops. At this point my Carrots, Greens and Radishes have battled for niche space against grass and I’m keeping attentive to how this drama unfolds.
I’m assuming to deal with this area next year I should put down a layer of straw to dissuade grass seeds from coming up. I figure I’ll start my plants outside of the bed and then transfer them after they have grown taller than the straw.
However, as one of the permaculture principles is to learn from how nature wants to act, I wonder if anyone here can tell me what the wild grass doing so well in the garden can tell me. In other areas the only plants that are doing well are milkweed, legumes and squash (which from what I understand means that the soil needs Nitrogen). I’ll be cover cropping those areas with a slurry of red-clover seed to fix nitrogen this winter.
In the end my question is… does the grass growing well in the flat garden area indicate that the soil is healthy with good nutrient balance or does wild grass fill a niche which tells me of specific soil challenges?
Posted in Permaculture
Tagged area, carrots, crops, garden, good job, grass, greens, job, niche space, Permaculture, permaculture garden, point, Radishes, soil, Wild, wild grass
I am trying to manage a permaculture garden. The flat area with nice soil is doing a good job, however grass has invaded and is competing strongly with my crops. At this point my Carrots, Greens and Radishes have battled for niche space against grass and I’m keeping attentive to how this drama unfolds.
I’m assuming to deal with this area next year I should put down a layer of straw to dissuade grass seeds from coming up. I figure I’ll start my plants outside of the bed and then transfer them after they have grown taller than the straw.
However, as one of the permaculture principles is to learn from how nature wants to act, I wonder if anyone here can tell me what the wild grass doing so well in the garden can tell me. In other areas the only plants that are doing well are milkweed, legumes and squash (which from what I understand means that the soil needs Nitrogen). I’ll be cover cropping those areas with a slurry of red-clover seed to fix nitrogen this winter.
In the end my question is… does the grass growing well in the flat garden area indicate that the soil is healthy with good nutrient balance or does wild grass fill a niche which tells me of specific soil challenges?
Posted in Permaculture
Tagged area, carrots, crops, garden, good job, grass, greens, job, niche space, Permaculture, permaculture garden, point, Radishes, soil, Wild, wild grass
I keep waiting like 250 minutes for these stupid crops to grow, and once they do… it says birds ate them all. I missed a milestone i guess, cuz i have cutting tools and herbs knowledge but i cant get rid of the birds!!! HELP!
I have a 35 square meter field in Tokyo next to farms that use pesticides and fertilizers. This is only my second year and my yield for various plants is small. I lose entire crops to various insects (not birds or animals). All the farmers around me insist I must use fertilizer and pesticide. Can anyone recommend natural pesticides and fertilizers that might be available in Japan? I heard Neem oil is effective as a pesticide for some plants. I grow: daikon radish, radishes, broccoli, various beans, onions, scallions, carrots, leafy vegetables, and several others seasonally. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Posted in Vegetable Garden
Tagged animals, anyone, birds, broccoli, carrots, crops, farmers, fertilizer, fertilizers, field, guidance, insects, Japan, leafy vegetables, meter, natural pesticides, Neem, oil, onions, organic vegetables, pesticide, plants, radish, square meter, tokyo, use, work, year, yield
This was our first year of growing crops in a particular patch, however we had a massive weed problem.
What’s the best way to get rid of them next year? Is there anything we can do now?
Posted in Vegetable Garden
Tagged crops, getting rid of weeds, patch, problem, vegetable, vegetable patch, weed, weed problem, year
