It’s here. The garden classes are in gardens, the cooking classes are in kitchens, the nature study is in forests, the raspberries taste like raspberries, and the snozzberries taste like snozzberries! I worked for weeks on the lesson plans for these hands-on classes, workshops, and tours and am so excited to finally roll them out. Click here for my entire…
When I founded the SC Upstate Permaculture Society I had no idea we’d be this popular, but we’re up to 644 members with multiple people joining each week. If you live in upstate South Carolina (or nearby) we welcome you to join us. Last October we broke ground on a huge new garden that is already stacking functions by being…
Consider this article “Sustainable Pest Control 101.” Once you’ve read this, you’ll be an expert at dealing with insects on the farm or in the garden. One of the classes I taught at Saturday’s SC Organic Growers Conference was Insect Garden Ecology. This is a topic that overwhelms growers everywhere… people often tell me they just aren’t good at remembering…
Tent caterpillars aren’t the end of the world. They may attack your ornamental or orchard trees but unless a tree is already suffering from other stresses it should recover quickly. These native, spring ephemeral caterpillars are often confused with fall webworms (Hyphantria cunea) or gypsy moths (Lymantria dispar). Fall webworms also have a brief life cycle (in the fall instead…
I’m an organic gardener and I grow a lot of roses — about 50 varieties of them. They don’t look like sticks with a bow on top and I don’t treat them any better than my other garden perennials. I plant mine in the same amended soil I use for the rest of my plants, fertilize them a couple times…
I don’t do a lot of companion planting. I’m not saying it doesn’t work (and I’d love to hear your success stories) but other than being impressed by mycorrhizal fungi and permaculture plant guilds I haven’t felt the need to find my plants a buddy. Oh! EXCEPT for growing fennel next to plants plagued by caterpillars. Flowering fennel is like a beacon…
I’ve been thinking about guerrilla gardening lately. I’ve done it… but why not delegate and get your neighbors to do the work? If you’re a butterfly gardener, birder, or simply a lover of native plants it is a good way to increase the species diversity in your area. Studies show that birds thrive in areas rich with native species. Butterflies…
The last few dawns have sounded like spring (in spite of the snow we’ve been having). The birds are getting excited and so am I! I’ll be renewing my efforts to learn bird calls this year. Here are some suggestions on how to become an auditory birding expert. Books and CDs: The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Eastern and Central North America…
I get excited about foods I’ve never grown before and for a few years now I’ve tried my hand at growing Hibiscus sabdariffa, which you may be familiar with as the “zinger” in Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger tea. H. sabdariffa is also known as tea hibiscus, red tea, Florida cranberry, roselle, and sorrel (unrelated to the leafy French sorrel). It…
If you’ve enjoyed passionfruit in exotic juice mixes or as a novel fruit from the produce section, you may be surprised at how easy it is to grow at home. The passionflower grown for commercial production is the South American species Passiflora edulis, but we have a local, native species that tastes just as good! Passiflora incarnata is not only…
Okay, so most of us don’t need to be talked into growing this one. Think of echinacea (also called coneflower) as the indoor plumbing of the garden — we usually take it for granted. There are few flowers better at attracting beneficial wildlife than native plants, and there are few native plants showier than the echinaceas. Unlike many “native” plants…