 Friday, November 13, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (2 comments)
Mint has gained a poor reputation amongst many gardeners. The mere mention of it will bring forth warnings about how invasive and weed-like it can be, choking out all other plants and herbs in the vicinity. Yet I find it hard to hate this delicious herb and, by following a few sensible precautions, it can easily be grown well with a range of uses in the kitchen... Read more...
Categories: gardening organic herb mint |
 Friday, November 06, 2009 by Barbara Pleasant (2 comments)
Just when you think the gardening year is over, it's time to plant garlic. The most flavorful member of the onion family is always the last veggie to go into the ground, because garlic cloves start their life cycle by developing roots in cold soil. Then, after at least two months of chilling, the little slivers of green that barely poked up their heads all winter will take off like green rockets. By summer, each little clove will grow into a 3-foot tall plant anchored by a beautiful bulb, ready to dig and cure. Read more...
Categories: organic gardening vegetables garlic |
Friday, October 30, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (2 comments)
Livestock agriculture contributes 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. This fact was thrust into the media’s attention earlier this week when Lord Stern, the author of the influential Stern Review on the costs of tackling global warming, declared that people will need to reduce their consumption of meat if we are to take climate change targets seriously. Whatever your views on this statement, it is clear that home-grown produce is the best source of food if we are to reduce our carbon footprint. Yet the question in many people’s minds is whether a plant-based diet can meet our nutritional requirements for protein? With less livestock would it be feasible to grow everything required for a well-balanced diet? Read more...
Categories: gardening organic grain |
Friday, June 12, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (7 comments)
It is around this time of year that pests seem to appear from nowhere in the garden. Of all the insects that suddenly spring up, aphids are the ones that always take me by surprise – within a matter of days plants can be covered with one of the various varieties of them: whitefly, greenfly, blackfly, mealy aphids and root aphids. So just how serious is it when your garden comes under attack and what can be done to counter such an invasion? Read more...
Categories: organic gardening pests |
Friday, May 29, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (8 comments)
When it comes to feeding plants, nothing beats organic compost. Good compost contains the ideal range of nutrients which are released slowly into the ground as plants need them. Often, however, there is a valid reason to supplement plants with a fertiliser, such as when growing in less than ideal soil, or in pots and containers where the potting soil can gradually lose its nutrients. When choosing how to supplement plants the environmentally conscious gardener faces a dilemma: many commercially produced fertilizers are either chemical based or highly processed and shipped in difficult-to-recycle plastic bottles. But there is one brilliant alternative that you can grow yourself - comfrey... Read more...
Categories: gardening organic comfrey |
Friday, February 20, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (19 comments)
Soil quality is the most important factor in any garden and even more so when you are planning to eat the resulting produce. To enrich my soil I have been composting my own garden and food waste for years but, like many gardeners, I find that it is hard to produce enough to cover the whole area. This year I have been transforming my front garden into a network of raised beds to be built up with high-quality compost. I wasn’t content to go for the cheapest stuff I could find, so a bit of research was in order. This culminated in a visit to a composting site, to find out just what goes into compost and how organic it really is... Read more...
Categories: compost organic gardening |
Friday, February 06, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (8 comments)
I love choosing seeds for the coming year. Spending time browsing through the pages of various seed catalogues is a dreamy experience: it is all about buying into the vision of summer filled with perfect crops and a beautiful garden. This year, I got my orders in early and now have my treasure-box of seed packets, all neatly sorted, waiting for the weather to warm up sufficiently to get sowing. So I thought it would be worth reviewing what some of the best criteria are for buying seeds... Read more...
Categories: seeds, organic, F1 hybrid, GM, heirloom |
Friday, January 02, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (1 comments)
Salad is one of the easiest groups of plants to grow and one of the most rewarding. When I first became interested in growing my own food, lettuce was how I started. A few seeds sprinkled on good compost in a pot, kept watered in summer will rarely fail to produce plenty of leaves. In fact, I would still recommend it as the ideal first crop for beginners as it will always surpass what you can buy in a supermarket. However, lettuce sown in Summer is just part of the story – what about a wider variety of salad tastes, extending the season through the year and trying some of the more exotic salad vegetables such as Amaranth and Komatsuna? Read more...
Categories: salad organic lettuce |
Friday, October 31, 2008 by Jeremy Dore (6 comments)
Few gardeners have the growing space or time to be completely self-sufficient in food. Inevitably we need to source varying quantities of fruit and vegetables from elsewhere. In times gone by that would mean the local grocery shop or farm market. But in these days of convenience shopping it more often means the supermarket chain with a large store close by. However, there are alternatives and organic vegetable box schemes are one of the best ways to cut food miles, source food ethically and get good organic produce. Read more...
Categories: Vegetables Suppliers Box Organic |
Friday, September 05, 2008 by Jeremy Dore (4 comments)
There are certain accepted facts in life: prices go up, people are living longer and organic food is more expensive than non-organic. Right? Well, incredible as it may sound, the Soil Association has this week published a study that challenges the last of these assumptions. According to research done by farm business consultants Andersons, the price of oil is going to dramatically change the profitability of farming systems. Read more...
Categories: organic food |