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…
The best thing about winter salads is how easy it is to obtain a harvest. Cold months mean chores don’t have to be done in the heat, plus the pests and diseases are mostly dormant. You can’t beat the satisfaction of walking into the kitchen on a gray day carrying an armload of vibrant produce! Winter gardening at Appalachian Feet…
Hi, I’m Nathaniel, and I will be occasionally writing here now (I believe my lovely wife was kind enough to introduce me). So anyway, nice to meet everybody. I hope you all find what I write about interesting and valuable. In an effort to get our seed trays out of the house earlier last year, Eliza and I decided to…
Last season nearly every local gardener I know had tomatoes die from Fusarium wilt. We lost a large percentage of our crop to it (although with 80 tomato plants, we still had plenty to harvest). Then I saw GOFO’s office garden at Crescent Studios and could not believe my eyes. Unlike the other gardens I’d seen, their tomatoes didn’t have…
Our city’s Urban Farm Tour is over for this year and by all accounts was a great success — GOFO sold out of tickets early in the day and had to scramble to print even more of them! I hope everyone who toured came away feeling inspired, I was so impressed by all the enthusiastic visitors we met at our…
Fer is hosting a garden goals blog carnival at My Little Garden in Japan and oh my gosh, do I ever have a lot to do this year! I’ve included info about the Organic Growers School in March since it always heralds my spring planning. For the last three seasons I’ve jumped from garden to garden, so I haven’t been…
It’s another Real Things Thursday! As my goal with these installments is to think about the way we consume rather than to encourage consumerism, I decided that today I’d focus on getting things for free. We all love freebies, but it is also a great way to minimize our impact on the environment! Recycling has a long way to go…
It’s time to plant summer veggies! If you didn’t start transplants early there is no time now — get to a garden center or farmers market and purchase some tomato, eggplant, pepper, artichoke, celery, sweet potato (slips), herbs, and tomatillos before they’re all gone (or stressed from neglect). For beans, cucumbers, melons, squash, pumpkins, okra, corn, and amaranth greens you…
If you had 15 – 30 minutes to teach people how to start an organic garden, what would you do? Last Wednesday I did this crash course for our local Green Drinks International chapter. I gave out a one page, fridge-magnet-ready handout to go with it — which I included below. Here’s the handout. I was able to expand on…
Woops! It’s spring… this week got busy! I went to a great SCUMS meeting, the Organic Growers School, and created a huge new garden with the help of three friends. We’re still planning to amend the beds with compost but technically we could just plant in it as is. I did process photos to show you how to make raised…
Peppers can be very easy to grow but many gardeners struggle with productivity, sun scald, or getting those darned red ones to ripen. A few simple tricks can make a big difference in getting a successful harvest. The most important first step, whether you grow from seed or buy transplants, is to get started with sturdy, healthy seedlings. If you…
I’ve seen endless information about how to make compost but very little about what to do with it once it “happens.” One frequent question I get as a Master Gardener is when and how to use this garden black gold. I decided to write a comprehensive post about it. First, you need some compost. You can make it in a…
Many gardeners hit the tail end of summer at a drag. For some, it is irrigation, weeds, and disease that have taken a toll on their enthusiasm. Others feel they will pave the garden over with concrete before they have to find a use for one more tomato, zucchini, or cucumber! This year my August Slump was due to increasing…
Note 6/14/12: Appalachian Feet recommends fertilizers as a way to improve soil in new gardens and planting areas. For established plantings and beds we recommend more sustainable fertility like hugelkultur, plant nutrient accumulators, biochar, cover crops, and livestock manures. Thoroughly exasperated at the bank-breaking prices of tiny organic, slow-release fertilizer packages, I decided it was surely cheaper to make my…
