There was a time in my life that I used to think anything called a fungus was a bad thing. Now that I grow an organic garden with soil full of beneficial fungi and eat shiitake mushrooms daily, I ...
How to Kill Spotted Lanternfly and Save your Fruit Trees
A few years ago I signed up to receive all the agricultural pest and disease notifications for my region by email. Mostly, I get to ignore the notices because they don't apply to organic gardeners. ...
Growing Fenugreek: Plant Varieties, How-to Guide, Problems, and Harvesting
Conjure the scent of that "maple-flavored" syrup you put on pancakes as a child. You know, that comforting, caramelized candy scented stuff that wafted across the kitchen entrancing you to the table. ...
5 Best Summer Cover Crops and How to Use Them
I know a lot of gardeners who have started to use winter cover crops to keep their garden protected from erosion, add fertility, and suppress weeds. Despite the popularity of winter cover crops, ...
How to Safely Introduce a New Goat to an Existing Herd
Goats are herd animals by nature. I remember when I first read that statement on some blog, or in a book, many years ago. It seemed like such a quaint, charming idea. I envisioned goats living ...
Seed Stratification: A Comprehensive Guide to This Seed Germination Trick
For many years I stuck to growing plants from seed that were easy to germinate. But, as I started getting into more exotic perennials, I kept coming across instructions to stratify seeds. ...
Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV): Symptoms, Control, and Treatment
The Tobacco Mosaic Virus or TMV is the first plant virus ever identified. Although it wasn't labeled as a virus until 1930, it has plagued tobacco farmers since the late 1800s to present. Despite its ...
Beginner’s Guide to Raising Goats for Milk Production
Raising goats for milk production is generally considered the most labor-intensive reason for keeping them. Between daily milking, special nutrition management, and the mandatory breeding necessary to ...
How To Make The Easiest Fermented Pickles Ever
The first year I grew a large vegetable garden, I spent most of my summer days hauling in laundry baskets full of cucumbers. It was thousands of pounds of food that only amounted to only a few hundred ...