The New York Times today has an article called The Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries around the World. As the article notes, ” . . . [T]he movable feast comes at a cost: pollution — especially carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas — from transporting the food.”
While many Americans still deny or ignore […]

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I awoke the morning after setting up the Wall of Water gizmos to find the first one tipped over. The next morning, two were goners. Now it appears a third has a slow leak.
County Ag Extension Master Gardener Instructor Gary Heilig suspects that deer may be crashing into them at night or early morning, when […]

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Burpee may call them Aqua-Shields (sounds like a condom to wear underwater), but that’s only because the smart guys already grabbed the perfect name - Wall of Water. Solar-powered tomatoes - yessss!
These plastic gizmos allow you to extend the growing season by eight weeks because the sun heats the water in the plastic tubes during […]

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In first-world countries such as ours, women garden and men farm. While it might be acceptable for women to plant begonias and even a tomato or two, when it comes to wresting food from the ground in quantities large enough to make a serious profit, agriculture in the developed world has long been men’s work. […]

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I finally planted my tomato, pepper, cabbage and watermelon seeds today. My plans were delayed because I decided that I needed a real seed-starter setup, instead of the juryrigged mishmash precariously perched on the dryer. (Husband Drew, who has been kind enough to be laundry guy the last couple years, threatened to go on strike […]

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This is the field where we will build our new unheated greenhouse after the parts arrive in mid-May. So our job now is to figure out where to position the house and then prepare the field for its construction and for planting.
With the weather suddenly gorgeous, husband Drew and I trotted out to the field […]

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I scored fertilizer gold!

Though it’s been years since I started my own seedlings, I still remember how well fish emulsion fertilizer worked in keeping the young plants healthy during growing and transplanting. So I figured I would pick up a jug while I was out doing the weekly shopping.
Fish emulsion is an organic fertilizer. Used […]

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With the hoophouse on order, it’s time to start some tomato plants and melons for transplanting later. It’s been a dozen years or more since I have done this, so now I can use the Web to gather some updated information and advice. The FAQ at iVillage Garden Web tells me I will […]

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Amazon.com Widgets
So we decided to buy a greenhouse - not the old-fashioned, expensive glass greenhouse that requires power for supplemental heat and ventilation. We want a high-tunnel hoophouse like the one I had seen at the MSU Student Organic Farm — plastic film over a metal hoop frame. A polycarbonate greenhouse may […]

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Visiting the Michigan State University Student Organic Farm started me thinking about a high tunnel hoophouse. Dr. John Biernbaum, who teaches sustainable agriculture at MSU, told me about the hoophouse that he and his siblings put in for their parents. Not only are Mom and Dad now growing their own veggies nine months out […]

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