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The New Gardener's Hollow Leg Junior
Smaller version of the original Gardener's Hollow Leg is perfect for picking dinner!
Introducing Durable, Collapsible EZ Tomato Cages
EZ Tomato Cages are the brainstorm of two friends, both fed up with purchasing tomato cages that were cheaply fabricated, weak and difficult to store.
Grasshopper Receives Award
Investments in lawnmower fabrication processes save more than 310 tons of steel annually.
Money Does Grow On Trees
The 2011 report focuses on the Garden Effect and Payback-if-sold. The Garden Effect is the estimated increase in a property's market value as a result of having beautiful landscaping.
DR® Power Equipment Introduces BurnCage Incinerator
New burn barrel alternative provides safer, smarter home and garden burning for homeowners.
Introducing the New Kubota ZP330 Propane, Zero-Turn Mower
Kubota partners with the Propane Education & Research Council to offer $1,000 purchase incentive on its ZP330, delivering 'green' performance and more 'green' in your pocket.
Breakthrough Cordless Chainsaw Power: Like Nothing You've Seen Before
Blount, the world's largest manufacturer of saw chain, announces the launch of the new OREGON PowerNow 40V MAX* Cordless Chainsaw.
New KIOTI Snowblowers Enhance Tractor Attachment Line
KIOTI Tractor is pleased to announce the expansion of their popular implement and attachment lines.
FarmTek Announces Fall 2012 Photo Contest
Do you love showing off your FarmTek products? Think you're using them in a unique and interesting way? FarmTek would love to see!
New Product from Hoelscher(2)
Hoelscher Commercial Products announces a new product for pulling out trees, posts, shrubs and vines.
New Product from Hoelscher
Hoelscher Commercial Products announces a new product for pulling out trees, posts, shrubs and vines.
ECHO Bear Cat Announces the Addition of NEW 2" ChipperShredder
ECHO Bear Cat is pleased to introduce the 2" SC2170 Chipper/Shredder to its line of outdoor power equipment.
Save Time and Money with Environmentally Responsible Grass Trimmers from STIHL
The new FSA 65 and FSA 85 grass trimmers, the latest products available for the 36-volt STIHL Lithium-Ion battery technology system, deliver fuel savings, time savings and environmental benefits for gasoline-free trimming applications.
Land Pride Introduces New Rotary Tillers
The RTA12 & RTR12 Series Rotary Tillers from Land Pride till soil for seedbed and planting preparation with uses and applications in landscaping, gardens, and residential areas.
Sunny Days Ahead for the Sunset Hill School Garden
Volunteers work to start the Sunset Hill Elementary School Garden in Lawrence, Kan.
Broad Section of America Attends the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR
I noticed, as I walked the FAIR yesterday, a broad section of America.
A Creative and Resourceful Grandmother During the Industrial Revolution
A transplanted Choctaw and Southerner, a grandmother shows her strength and creativity during the Industrial Revolution and shows how one can face and adapt to life's challenges.
Where Have All the Gardens Gone?
Is having too many gardens a detriment to selling a suburban home?
Gift Ideas for Gardeners
A short list of gift ideas for gardeners.
The New Recharge Mower ULTRALITE
As spring approaches the lawn surrounding your home will certainly begin to grow. With the New Lithium Powered Cordless Recharge Mower ULTRALITE, from Driven By Solar Inc., achieve beautiful manicured results without nasty fumes.
Cub Cadet RZT Rated Best Buy Zero-Turn Radius Mower
Cub Cadet is known for providing break-through innovations, a reputation supported by the Best Buy rating.
The Thrill of Gardening
The experience of growing one's first garden is a thrill one will never forget.
Harlem Community Garden Update: Building Garden Beds
The community garden in East Harlem, Chenchita's Garden, is beginning to take shape.
Help Build a Community Garden in Harlem
You can help support a community garden in New York City's East Harlem neighborhood.
Continuing Fight for the Right to Grow Food: Orlando's War on Gardens
In a war on gardens, the City of Orlando has taken issue with the rows of beans, greens, and other vegetables occupying Jason and Jennifer Helvenston's front yard garden. The Helvenstons respond to the City's request they remove their "illegal" garden.
Urban Agriculture and Garden Training
Amid mounting concerns over food security and sustainable food systems, the rise of urban gardens and agriculture has been on the rise. Due to a paralleled increase in the numbers of people interested in learning how to garden, programs in urban agriculture at colleges as well as nonprofit urban garden training programs have sprouted up across the country.
Fight for the Right to Grow Food: Orlando Man Cited for Illegal Gardening [Updated]
Jason Helvingston of Orlando, Fla., fights for his right to grow food in his front yard garden after the City of Orlando cited him for illegal gardening, pitting food self-sufficiency against city ordinance.
Celebrate National Public Gardens Day with Free Admission at a Garden Near You
Friday, May 10 is National Public Gardens Day. Find out what special events are happening at a garden near you.
Growing Healthy Lunches With School Gardens
Ditch unhealthy school lunches with a fresh lunch idea for kids: school gardens. Beyond putting fresh, healthy food in schools, cafeteria gardens are a great classroom tool and a big step towards more sustainable schools.
Introducing the Gardener's Hollow Leg
The perfect partner for pruning, weeding and harvesting.
Daedong Industrial Celebrates 66 Years
Daedong Industrial, a global agricultural manufacturing company, celebrated its 66th anniversary in May 2012.
Learn to Create Your Own Heirloom Kitchen Garden
Learn to create your own heirloom kitchen garden at this 3-course series in Pennsylvania.
Urban Community Green Spaces
Urban community green spaces are an essential component of our built environment. Their significance is becoming more and more apparent to city planners and urban residences all over the United States.
Is It Safe to Plant a Garden in Galvanized Stock Tanks?
A reader wonders whether it is safe to use a galvanized stock tank as a garden planter.
Weed & Water Wednesday: 10 Green Gifts for Gardeners — All Under $50
Check out this roundup of 10 favorite sustainable gifts for the gardeners on your list — all under $50!
The Lazy Urban Gardener's Safety Net
So, what do you do if you neglected to start your veggies way back in January or February? You had good intentions but there always seemed to be something that stole your attention. Now it's the planting season and you have nothing to plant...
Sharing the Love With Community Gardening
Want to find a new garden plot for next year? Look into community gardens in your area, or start your own!
My First Time: A Garden Connection With My Grandpa
My first blog for MOTHER EARTH NEWS takes me back to a time when I didn't know I had a love of gardening. One of my first gardening experiences came during an unlikely encounter with my curmudgeon grandfather.
Transformation Tuesday: An Abandoned Detroit Lot Becomes a Thriving Community Garden
The Spirit of Hope garden in Detriot offers a safe, nurtuting place for plants and children to grow.
Questions! Questions!
Your local county extension office can answer questions on gardening, livestock, poultry, crops, garden pests and more.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Say No to Junk Food
Kitchen Gardeners International's 20ate campaign urges Americans to say no to junk food.
What Did You Do With Your Garden Over the Winter?
Readers share tips and tricks for taking care of winter garden beds.
The Nature of Garden Giving
Can't have a garden of your own, but you want to garden? Urban Garden Share allows you to do exactly that!
A Better Garden Next Year
A good watering system will save you time and money in your garden.
New Garden Seeder Improves Planting Experience
The innovative garden seeder from Simple Seeder increases speed and ease of planting.
Top Three Equipment Choices to Conquer Your Springtime Farm and Ranch Tasks
Todd Harne shares his "must-have" pieces of equipment to tackle his spring chores around the farm.
US Households Grow Home Food Gardens
A recent poll asked you what percentage of people living in the U.S. you would guess grow food gardens. Most respondents underestimated the actual numbers of households with home gardens, a growing trend.
The Fabulous Food Garden Contest
Your attractive food garden could win you $500 and a chance to be featured in MOTHER EARTH NEWS.
Food Is Free Project
The Food Is Free Project has become a food revolution in Austin, Texas
The Power of Gardening: Start Your Subversive Plot Today
Roger Doiron, a MOTHER EARTH NEWS contributor and the found of Kitchen Gardeners International, recently spoke at a TEDx conference about the power of gardening.
Ladies in Red Shiny Armour
Who needs a TV drama, when, out the back door, we have our own alfresco drama, complete with territory battles, births, deaths, alien invasions, mystery, beauty and fornication, unfolding daily before our very eyes if we care to look.
Planning A Perennial Shade Garden, Part 1
Definition of shade, and planning a shade garden.
Editor's Choice: 5 Great Green Gardens
In Arizona, an intrepid desert gardener harvests rainwater to grow his own food. A Missouri garden writer feeds his soil to feed himself. In Texas, a garden wall encourages community. These are a few of my favorite gardens.
Reader Callout: What is the Oldest Tool in Your Kitchen?
Readers share their favorite durable, long-lived, sturdy and well-made kitchen tools.
Win a 25-Gallon, Solar Livestock Waterer!
Most stock tanks aren't designed to prevent the water from freezing. The tanks have no insulation, and the large area of water exposed to air doesn't help either. Livestock owners frequently us a floating electric tank heater. But there's a better (and less expensive) solution — solar livestock water tanks.
Connect TV and Entertainment Equipment
With tons of different models of TVs, DVD players and associated equipment, how do you know which cables you'll need to connect it all? Take a look at this Web site that helps you get it all together.
Best Butter Churns: Recommendations Wanted
Read reviews of the best butter churns.
Bobcat Launches Tier 4 Loaders
Bobcat's 600 frame-size loaders have a non-DPF emissions solution.
Worksaver, Inc. Introduces New John Deere Adapter
The new adapter, from Worksaver, Inc., allows John Deere 400/500 series loaders to be used with Euro/Global attachments.
NAEDA Awards ECHO and Shindaiwa Gold Level Status
ECHO and Shindaiwa ranked at Gold Level Status in the annual NAEDA Manufacturer Relations Survey.
10 Tips for a Tiny Balcony
Think your balcony's too tiny to provide food and fun? Check out Apartment Therapy's great tips for making the most of your outdoor space.
Garlic Time!
A brief thesis on the finer properties of garlic and planting instructions.
7 Benefits of Growing a Victory Garden
From the more practical, money-saving side of things, to controlling your own destiny, the benefits of a victory garden are many.
Sow for Victory: Bringing Back the Victory Garden
Meredith Skyer outlines the history of victory gardens in the United States and why this nation, facing a food crisis, should start to sow for victory once again.
Preparing Soil in Our Community Garden
Garden like the Native Americans by digging up 18-inch-diameter hills on four foot centers. Get your crops started, then worry about working the areas in between the hills.
A Home in the City, a Homestead for Life
Julie Lavigne relates her grandparent's home in the city, a modern homestead for their time, and proves you can live a self-sufficient lifestyle in an urban setting.
Earth Gauge Tip of the Week — Celebrate National Wildflower Week!
Tips on how to celebrate National Wildflower Week, May 6-13!
Earth Gauge Tip of the Week: Pumpkin Harvest
Facts on the links between weather and pumpkins and what you can do with leftover pumpkins.
Planning Is an Important Key for Your Gardening Success
Are you planning to put in an orchard next spring, or re-design your landscape with more edible plants?
Permaculture the Old-Fashioned Way
Permaculture has become the new buzzword in certain circles. What is it? Do we need it?
Earth Gauge Tip of the Week — Bio-What?
Explanation of what bioretention systems are and how they are used to reduce and filter storm water runoff.
Urban Gardens: Green Lifestyle and Design Blog Receives Awards, Launches New Ventures
The success of Urban Gardens is a story about an expansion of one's reach outside of one given discipline.
A Cutting-Edge Rain Garden in Kansas City
Kansas City's 18Broadway project is a superb example of how to capture and store rainwater to grow food in the heart of downtown.
New Clamp-On Snow Blades From Worksaver, Inc.
Worksaver, Inc. introduces new clamp-on snow blades, ideal for compact tractors with non-quick attach buckets.
Miller Electric Mfg. Co. Launches New Online Store
Personal users can now buy welding and cutting products and accessories online from the comfort of their home.
Bobcat Expands Operations, Brings Jobs to Bismark
Company announces plans for expanded production with Menlo and launch of Innovation Center at NPCC property.
Mahindra USA Launches New Web Site
New Internet Presence Offers Users Simple, Value-based Experience
Kubota donates equipment for Joplin, Mo., Restoration
Joplin's one-year, post-tornado milestone to be marked with neighborhood tree planting, community beautification led by national equipment manufacturers, Vermeer Corporation and Kubota Tractor Corporation
Land Pride Rotary Cutters: RCF30 and RCF36 Series
Two new models of pull behind cutters for use with tractors.
Mahindra USA Shows Strong Dealer Satisfaction
Mahindra USA leads in several survey categories and ranks among top three overall.
A Few Words of Introduction
An introduction to a series exploring the world of beekeeping
Coghlan's Introduces Seven New Products for 2010
The Camping Accessory People expand their already extensive product line.
New T-Post Extractor from JackJaw
JackJaw's new T-post extractor is durable and lightweight.
New Holland Launches the T4 Series Tractors, a New Generation of Utility Tractors
New Holland has introduced its next generation of hardworking utility tractors, the T4 Series. This tailored offering produces between 84 to 106 horsepower thanks to powerful 4-cylinder engines with Common Rail technology and a Cooled Exhaust Gas Recirculation system to meet Tier 4A compliance.
The Community Chicken Project is Underway
We're testing incubators, equipment and feed for the Community Chickens project.
Dixie Chopper Zee 2 Mowers Designed for High-Performance Residential Use
Dixie Chopper, the manufacturer of The World's Fastest Lawn Mower, offers the Zee 2 series, its newest and largest line of residential zero-turn lawn mowers. Ideal for large property owners, Zee 2 mowers include a variety of features for fast performance, quality cutting and comfortable operation.
New online videos help contractors compare
Bobcat is a global brand with more than 600 dealer locations in North America and the leader in compact equipment—industry's original innovator, beginning more than 50 years ago with the first compact machine and predecessor to the skid-steer loader.
Exmark Publishes Propane Mower White Paper
Exmark's "Transitioning Mower Fleets to Propane" provides a road map for landscape professionals.
Exmark Launches Consumer Referral Program
Qualifying referrals to Exmark can receive $100 Carhartt gift cards.
Husqvarna Expands All-Wheel Drive Walk Mower Line
Husqvarna adds 3 all-wheel drive walk mower models to offer high quality options for any budget.
Toward the Future
Where are we headed, vis a vis our food systems? Can we as individuals make a difference in our food? Yes!
Wabi-Sabi Wednesday: 7 Wabi Gardens
In a wabi-sabi garden, plants are chosen because they belong in that garden and in that climate, and they're allowed to strut their stuff if they're considerate of the plants around them. Both plants and guests are encouraged to meander and explore.
Legal Front Yard Gardens Go Beyond Containers
St. Paul, Minnesota, not only allows front yard gardens and promotes growing vegetables in containers, but encourages residents to beautify the boulevard with plants, including edibles.
Doing a Little Something for Ourselves
We learned a long time ago that we couldn't attract an audience for our magazines unless we gave our readers tools they could use to improve the world personally. A backyard organic garden is the perfect symbol of positive vision and commitment.
When Is the Best Time to Dig Up New Garden Beds for Next Year?
Digging up places for new garden beds can take a long time. The sooner you start, the better!
Easiest Vegetables to Grow
Ready to start your first garden? To guarantee success with your first garden, stick with Barbara Pleasant's list of easy to grow vegetables. She has advice on when and what to plant for the first time gardener. Good luck on your first garden!
Using Leaves in the Garden
Using leaves in the garden will boost the soil's organic matter.
Garden Fresh for the Holidays – Southern Style
The vegetables and herbs that are still available in our Southeast garden make for delicious, festive and surprisingly varied holiday fare.
With a Packet In My Pocket
To ensure we have a full productive garden, each spring I start a habit of carrying a packet of seeds in my pocket every time I head to the garden!
Bring Garden Planning Into Your Garden With Gardening App
Try using the Grow Planner app to streamline your garden planning and your garden work.
Best Sun Protection for Sun Loving Gardeners
Dog days of summer? Yes, but there is still a lot of the grwoing season left. Protect yourself from the late summer sun with these tried 'n true items ... tested by a gardener who knows more than she'd like to about skin cancer.
Find Your Average Last Frost Date
Knowing your average last frost date is key to getting your garden off to a good start.
Keeping Moles and Birds Away From Your Produce
Use old CDs and soda cans to keep pests out of your garden.
Thinking About Starting a Garden? Jump Right In!
Catch the gardening bug, and start to grow your own food! Once you start, you'll love it. Here are some basic pieces of advice for the budding gardener.
CobraHead Tools — Enabling Older Gardeners
A problem for older gardeners is finding tools that make gardening easier as getting up and down becomes harder.
World's Best Gardening Clogs
Try BOGS gardening clogs, a super-comfortable pair of gardening shoes that will stand up to tough wear.
What Gardening Book Would You Recommend for Beginners?
Gardeners suggest gardening books for beginners.
Seeds: How Many Do You Need?
Know how many seeds you need for your area considering germination rate and extras.
Late October, and the Garden Is Still Going Strong
The Ogden Community Garden winds down, and one gardener marvels at the late October harvest, and on how much the garden has meant to everyone who has helped tend it.
Weed-Free, Self-Fertilizing, Till-Free Garden Beds
Want a worry-free, weed-free, organic-matter-rich vegetable garden bed? It is doable and fall is the best time to put it in action!
Succession Planting
Keep your garden full all season by planting the next crop as soon as the previous crop is harvested. Tips for deciding what to plant next.
Gardening on a Budget: Seven Tips for Success
Don't let the cost of gardening keep you out of the dirt this year. Cheap gardening can be fun and easy. With these tips for gardening on a budget, you'll save on seeds, make your own fertilizer and impress your friends with your gardening know how.
Gardening in Winter: Everything You Need to Know About Indoor Agriculture
It's absolutely possible to be gardening in winter. You simply need to understand what to plant, when to plant it and how to maintain the best possible growing conditions in your home for indoor agriculture.
Putting the Community in a Community Garden
Describes the process of forming a community garden from the physical and energetic standpoints. The power of teamwork, the joy of accomplishment and the building of a feeling of group unity are described.
Heirloom Tomatoes and National Seed-Swap Day: Attend a Local Event or Host Your Own!
We're getting revved up for winter seed swaps, and planning our tomato plantings to account for all the great tasting events next summer and fall. Find out how to find your own local events, or host your own!
Five Tips for Getting Started With the Vegetable Garden Planner
Contributing Editor Barbara Pleasant provides tips to help users get the most out of the new MOTHER EARTH NEWS Vegetable Garden Planner. This interactive software will help you plan your best garden ever!
Ways to Support the Local Foods Movement
A list of ways we could each show support or teach our friends and family to support the Local Foods Movement
Urban Oases
My mission was to find like minded 'earth nurturers' in a neighborhood where there seems to be a dearth of us! What I found was humility and kindred spirits, and the makings of a great dinner party!
Plants Change Wasteland to Wonderland
The healing power of plants can remediate years of soil and water pollution, and create unexpected islands of beauty.
Earth Gauge Tip of the Week: Earth Science Week
Tips on how to control soil erosion and help protect one of Earth's most important natural resources.
Earth Gauge Tip of the Week: Be Penny-Wise and Water Smart
Tips on how to conserve water in the fall with weather-based irrigation controllers.
What Your Garden Can Teach About Cities
Shifting our built environments from the current linear blocks of car-centric urban sprawl to more integrated human-scale and life-sustaining organisms is not much different in principle than turning a concrete yard into a permaculture plot. We have to think in terms of arrangement of vital nodes, distance between interdependent threads, paths of least resistance, utilizing existing natural conditions, and maximizing water, energy and food sources.
Our Solar-Powered Tractor
The solar-powered tractor was painted Terry's favorite color—green—before the motor was strapped in. After the motor was installed a battery stand was welded over the top of the DC drive motor which is large enough to accommodate twelve 250-amp deep-cycle batteries. Once the performance controller was installed battery cables were run, linking the batteries together.
TRUFUEL for Small Engines
TRUFUEL, a ready-to-use engine fuel, can be used in two and four-stroke engines.
Slow Down for Safety During the Hustle of Harvest
Kubota reinforces tractor and heavy equipment safety for the whole family.
What's Your Favorite Specialized Kitchen Utensil?
Readers share reports about their favorite specialized kitchen utensils.
GradeBoss by B&W Farm & Ranch Equipment
You can use your ATV to smooth your driveway with this new grader attachment.
American Society of Safety Engineers' Ag Branch Encourages Use of ROPS
The American Society of Safety Engineers' Ag Branch encourages purchasing tractors with a Rollover Protection Structure. Programs exist that will help offset the cost of the ROPS to add to older tractors. Tractor rollovers are common accidents that will lead to severe injury or death, but an ROPS will keep the driver safe.
AGCO Introduces Three RoGator High-Clearance Sprayers for 2012
The bar has been raised once more as AGCO Application Equipment introduces for 2012 three new RoGator high-clearance sprayers designed with even more power.
New Holland Agriculture Unveils New Tractors, Haytools and More
New Holland Agriculture is unveiling new equipment, and exciting new technology at the 2012 Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa.
Mahindra USA Launches 13 New Tractor Models for 2011 Season
Mahindra USA, the leader in affordable, high-quality farm equipment, continues its commitment to provide hard-working, high value tractors in the United States with the launch of 13 new models for the 2011 season.
Yamaha ATV and SxS Vehicles have Industry's Best Drivetrain Durability
Third party study proves Yamaha's longstanding claim of most durable CVT transmission.
Mahindra USA Announces The Mahindra Max Tractor
The new sub-compact tractor line offers "max performance, versatility and value."
Swapping Out a Motor on My Rototiller
Cam always wanted to be the kind of guy who could swap out a motor and now he is!
Honda Advances Next Generation of Portable Power
Honda Power Equipment is raising the standard for portable generators, adding value and enhanced performance to three of its popular portable generator lines.
Tough Times? Grow Your Own Food!
As more Americans tighten their belts to save a penny or two, many are finding they can save money by growing food-producing gardens.
Green Victory! An Organic Food Garden at the White House
The Obamas plant an organic vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House.
Sign Up for MOTHER's Garden Surveys
If you're a veteran gardener, please consider signing up to take out online gardening surveys. The surveys allow us to write articles based on the collective experience of hundreds of gardeners and report the results back to you by region. Sign up here.
The Urban Food Forest: A Groundbreaking Trend in Urban Agriculture
Urban food forests and public gardens provide communities with an edible landscape for everyone to share. These public fruit forests are the new trend in urban agriculture and play an important role as sustainable local food systems in their communities.
Grasshopper Launches Fuel-Cost Calculator
Grasshopper announces a new online tool designed to calculate fuel costs and impacts of commercial mowing equipment.
Curtis Industries Introduces No-Weld Design of Sno-Pro Loader Blades
Capable of moving a host of materials: snow, aggregate materials, livestock feed and silage.
Kubota Enters Consumer Rental Market
Select Kubota models now available for rent at the Home Depot.
The Hi-Hitch by Great Day, Inc
Put your riding mower to work!
DR Power Introduces Versa Trailer's Little Brother
A new smaller utility trailer for your all-purpose ATV.
Look What Is New At Hud-Son Forest Equipment
Hud-Son Forest Equipment would like to introduce the all new 2012 HFE-21 Homesteader portable sawmill.
Ventrac Unveils New 4500 Tractor
With new powerful engine options, more safety features, enhanced technology and easy, comfortable handling, the 4500 will soon become a customer favorite in Ventrac's lineup.
Always Have a Backup Plan
The journey to a self-sufficient life is a bumpy ride. Having a backup plan — or two — can make all the difference in your progress.
Know When to Plant Each Crop in Your Exact ZIP Code
Use our popular When to Plant app to know when to plant each crop in your area.
Great News for Southern Gardeners: Organic Tomato Transplants for Fall
To better accommodate the planting schedule of gardeners in the southern United States, California's Natural Gardening Company will make a dozen varieties of tomato transplants available by mid-August.
Have You Used Painted Pebbles to Keep Birds Away From Your Fruit?
Painted rocks or pebbles can potentially deter birds from pecking at ripening fruit. Tell us how this technique has worked for your, plus check out other readers' tips and responses.
Disease Prevention for Tomatoes
Tips for keeping your tomato plants healthy.
CobraHead Announces New Website
The new website offers the home gardener an expanded product selection of useful garden products.
Seven Garden Activities to Help Kiss Winter Goodbye
So, you can't wait for the weather to warm up enough to get out and plant a few seeds in the ground? Well here is a list of gardening ideas and activities to keep you occupied and happy right up until the day that spring arrives!
Starting Seeds For Spring
By starting seeds indoors, you get a jump start on spring garden planting.
Time to Plant Garlic (With Growing Tips)
Fall is the time to plant garlic. The cloves send down roots during the winter, popping their green heads out in early spring.
Great Ways to Increase Your Harvest
The actual footprint of a garden is only one of many factors for how much food that can be produced there. With succession planting, good soil and some planning the same garden area can produce substantially more food.
Eco-Friendly Gardening Tips for Any Season
This blog post explores eco-friendly gardening tips to refreshing your garden tools, furniture, accessories and outbuildings without the need to buy mass-manufactured goods or use harmful chemical treatments.
October Garden Planner for Growing Cool-Season Crops
Though summer vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, basil and cucumbers grow at a reduced pace in the fall, cool season crops like lettuce, carrots, radishes, peas, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower are coming into maturity throughout October and into November.
Learning How to Garden at the FAIR
Our MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR last weekend was full of great presentations about all facets sustainable living, including on learning how to garden.
Planting a Fall Garden the Easy Way
Our Vegetable Garden Planner assists you in planting your fall garden by giving you planting dates specific to your location, projected harvest dates and more.
Potatoes And Voles
Strategies for controlling voles in the potatoes in your garden.
Organic Slug and Snail Control for Gardeners (Video)
Watch a roundup of organic options for controlling slugs and snails in your garden, such as organic slug baits, beer traps, copper stripping and more.
5 Tips for a More Productive Garden
Five tips for increasing your garden's productivity and yield. Utilize every inch, get the most from your space, and use all three seasons.
First Time Gardener in the Office Garden
Summer intern Megan describes her first time gardening at MOTHER EARTH NEWS, planting cucumbers for the first time and watering the office garden.
Find the Best Seeds and Tools for Your Garden
We have developed two customized search engines that make it easier to locate companies that offer specific varieties of seeds and plants, as well as organic garden products and tools.
September Garden Planner
End of summer is a great time to tidy garden beds and harvest herbs. Now is the time to plant your fall, winter and overwintering transplants.
Concerns About Using Recycled Tire Planters
In the long term, using recycled tire planters or rubber mulch in your garden can cause problems. Here's why.
May Garden Planner
May is a busy time in the garden for planting. Frost-free weather is the time to get summer veggies in their pots or garden spot.
Winners of the Fabulous Food Garden Contest
Winners of the Fabulous Food Garden Contest have been chosen. See who the lucky prize recipients are!
Keeping Garden Records
Put together a notebook with your complete garden plan. Here's some tips to get you started.
March Garden Planner
March heralds the coming of spring and gardening. It is a great time to start your seeds and plants for veggies that thrive in cool temperatures.
Illegal Front Yard Vegetable Gardens: Des Moines Considers Home Garden Ban
Des Moines, Iowa, gardeners may soon find themselves in hot water with their City. A local resident recently took front yard veggie growers to task for what the resident feels to be unsightly lawn growth. Beets and berries, it seems, do not have the same aesthetic appeal as a green, freshly-mowed front lawn.
Log Splitters: Electric vs. Gas-Powered
If you're considering buying a new log splitter, you may have begun to debate whether you want an electric log splitter or a gas-powered model. What's the difference? DR Power Equipment has some useful insight for you.
Cub Cadet Elevates Commercial Zero-Turn Rider Category to the Next Level
New Platform Revealed at Dealer Road Shows
Kasco Mfg. of Shelbyville, Ind., Announces the Acquisition of Herd Seeder Corporation
Kasco is excited to offer these outstanding products to our own line of grain drills and overseeders.
DR Power Equipment Introduces The FASTEST Log Splitter on the Market
DR Power Equipment has threatened to make ordinary hydraulic log splitters obsolete with the brand new DR®RapidFire™ Log Splitter. DR technology has eliminated the big drawbacks of hydraulic log splitters.
New 34 Hp KIOTI Tractor Raises the Bar on Value
KIOTI Tractor, one of the fastest growing utility tractor manufacturers in North America, is pleased to announce the addition of the DS3510, a 34 horsepower compact utility tractor.
Wood-Mizer Announces Personal Best Contest Winners
Sawing their own lumber enables home owners to fulfill their dreams.
Husqvarna Launches Ethanol Challenge for Mower Owners
Husqvarna has issued the Ethanol Challenge in order to provide the tools for consumers to gain awareness about ethanol.
Honda Portable Generator Earns Most Innovative Product Award
The Honda EB6500 earned first place in the Rental Equipment Register's generators and welders category, selected by a panel of industry experts as displaying innovation in rental industry products.
Kasco Manufacturing Acquires Herd Seeder Corporation
Herd Seeder is the primary name in the industry, having produced quality seeders and spreaders for more than sixty years. Kasco is excited to offer these outstanding products to our own line of grain drills and overseeders.
Cub Cadet Offers Guidance on Snow Thrower Selection
Choose smarter features for better results.
ECHO Bear Cat Achieves Certification
ECHO Bear Cat is excited to announce that is has met the required guidelines to attain certification on the manufacture of its outdoor power equipment by the National Association of Trailer Manufactures (NATM).
HOMEGROWN Life: 10 Repurposed (Free or Cheap) Items You Should Have
None of these items' primary use is for gardening or livestock keeping but here we are using them all the time. So here's my list of items that you should keep around if you are an avid gardener or own livestock.
Ventrac Unveils New 3400 Tractor
Ventrac unveils the 3400 tractor, the newest sub-compact tractor to their product lineup.
Home Garden Laws: Weeding in the Nude and Other No-Nos
Home gardeners and urban farmers can come up against garden laws and regulations that can limit the size, style and components of their garden.
EVENT ALERT: Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello
Attend the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello to learn more about heirloom gardening.
Next Generation Gardeners
Involving children in planning a garden and growing vegetables can lead to healthier adults and a healthier planet.
Two Low-cost, Supereasy Ways to Protect Your Fall Crops
protect fall crops
Worm's Way Launches New Website
The set launch of Worm's Way Group's new website promises improved usability, more speed and exclusive web-based promotions.
The Aquaponics Source Announces Publication of "Aquaponics Gardening"
"Aquaponics Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together" offers advice and insight into the world of sustainable gardening
Sustainable Food Lessons From Kenya
In Kenya, even for middle class families, much of what ends up on the dinner table is grown or raised at home. With food prices rising, more and more Americans are looking towards ways of growing some of what ends up on their table at home. Both in terms of personal health, and the environment, this is a very good trend—it's a food source as local as you can get.
Community Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia
When traveling, consider checking out the community gardens in the area. You can meet local people who are passionate about gardening and learn about the climate and crops that may be different than yours.
Urban Roots: Community Gardens Making a New Detroit
The documentary Urban Roots takes a look at how city farming is transforming the city's vacant lots into community gardens, ultimately changing the community as a whole in the process.
Looking Ahead
Using cold frames for fall salad greens can extend your season of fresh eating.
Make Your Garden Work More Efficiently
Keeping your garden tools organized can help you be more efficient in your work in the garden.
Organic Garden Seeds
Organic seeds have benefits for your garden. Learn what our expert recommends and how to find organic seeds to plant.
Should I Build Raised Beds in My New Garden?
Organic gardening expert advises on whether to build raised beds for a new garden.
Vegetable Garden Planner Gift Cards Now Available!
Gift cards to the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Vegetable Garden Planner are now available for just $25.
Do You Recommend Peat Moss to Improve Soil?
Peat moss can help improve soil, but it can be expensive and its production can hurt the environment. Find out whether or not you should use it in your garden.
Michelle Obama Campaigns for Local Food
First Lady Michelle Obama's love for local food has the nation wanting to know more about how to eat in-season. Natural Home editor-in-chief Robyn Griggs Lawrence offers a healthy helping of advice on how to eat local.
MOTHER's Publishing Company Starts Garden on Front Lawn
Learn about how some members of the MOTHER EARTH NEWS team joined with others at their publishing company to start "edible landscaping" gardens on their front lawn.
What Vegetables Would Grow Best in My Area?
A reader from Pacifica, California wants to know what vegetables will grow best when.
Spring Has Sprung and the Ogden Garden is Growing
Thanks to a donation from Mantis, we were able to use our new 2-Cycle Tiller/Cultivator and prep our garden for this year's growing season.
MOTHER's Ultimate Garden Giveaway
Enter to to win MOTHER's garden prize package that is valued at $10,000 and includes 13 items that will complete your garden.
Which Is the Best Garden Tractor?
It's time for lawn and garden work. In your opinion, which is the best garden tractor? Which tractor will you be using this year?
Company-Sponsored Organic Vegetable Gardens Promote Healthy Eating
Minneapolis public relations firm Haberman & Associates wants everyone to enjoy a company-sponsored organic vegetable garden like theirs.
Who's Been Nibbling in My Garden?
Identify the animal tracks and footprints of the critters who visit your garden and yard.
How Much Wood Ash Should I Apply To My Garden?
A soil fertility expert shares his advice on using wood ashes as garden fertilizer.
Is Galvanized Wire a Safe Material to Grow Food Plants on?
Find out the risks of growing food plants on galvanized wire, and what precautions you should take when handling galvanized materials.
Garden Planning: It's All About When
Here are some helpful resources to help you determine when to take care of various lawn and garden tasks, such as planting, watering, weeding, fertilizing, mulching and harvesting plants.
Introducing Permaculture
Maddy Harland introduces the three ethics behind permaculture design and explains why permaculture is more than a gardening technique — it's a practical tool for a better, more creative life!
Nutsedge: The Edible Garden Foe
Nutsedge is a particularly invasive weed, but it can also be eaten raw, roasted, boiled and candied.
Photo of the Day: Trailer Garden
Photo of the Day blog features a different photo from readers each day. Submit your own photos for a chance to appear on MOTHER's website! What are your favorite facets of simple or down-to-earth living? Share your ideas or show off your land!
Back to the future
A little background on how Ric and Vicki moved from Detroit to a Tennessee homestead, and starting to get up to date on what they've done since.
Compost: The Other Prize from the Business End of a Chicken
Eggs aren't the only things that come from the business end of a chicken. But with a little time and materials, and even less ingenuity, the rest can set you up with a free and steady supply of valuable organic fertilizer.
Cold Frames, Fresh Greens and Homegrown Roots
Ira takes us on a winter garden tour of the experimental gardens at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. She describes the various experimental cold frames for winter gardening and winter starts. Includes a winter recipe for Sweet Potato Leek Soup.
Seed Starting Video and Tips
Have you started your tomatoes and peppers yet? 'Tis the season to start seeding long season crops indoors. If you normally buy organic starts from your local nursery, try your hand at seed starting.
Make Gardening Easier: Build Permanent Beds and Paths
MOTHER EARTH NEWS Associate Editor Shelley Stonebrook offers tips for building permanent garden beds and paths. Shelley presented her workshop "10 Great Ways to Make Gardening Easier" at the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR in Puyallup, Wash.
Flowers Add Beauty and Diversity to the Vegetable Garden
There are many logical reasons for adding flowers to your vegetable garden: attracting beneficials, crop diversity, companion-planting, barriers and healthy soil. But perhaps their beauty does not need to be rationalized at all!
Cold Frames, Kim Chee, and Lawns 2 Lettuce 4 Lunch
Progress in the straw bale and wooden cold frames, delicious Kim Chee recipes for winter harvested Chinese cabbage and winter radishes, and an update from the Lawns 2 Lettuce 4 Lunch program in Arlington, VA.
Small Space Gardening That's Affordable
Regardless of how little space you have, you can grow some of your own food. Space is just an excuse. By building a self-watering container or soda bottle planter you can maximize the space that you have. You don't have to have a huge garden - growi
A Hydroponic Gardening Primer
What exactly is hydroponic gardening? Though it may sound complicated, it's really not. The word "hydroponic" comes from the Greek "hydro," meaning water, and "ponic," meaning work. The basic concept is this: growing plants in a nutrient rich water solution rather than in soil.
Succession Planting: Lettuce, Carrots, and More
Want lettuce and carrots all year round? Ira Wallace tells us her simple simple method for keeping track of succession plantings.
Portable Sawmill Options: Bandsaw and Chainsaw Mills
If you often find yourself in need of lumber for various homestead projects, consider a small, portable sawmill to cut your own lumber. Portable milling equipment makes it possible for you to create dimensioned lumber for all kinds of DIY projects. The videos below show the versatility of portable sawmills in action. You will also discover tips to assist with assembly.
Show Off Your Permanent Garden Beds
Participate in our reader photo contest by showing off pictures of your permanent raised garden beds.
New Features Added to Garden Planning Tools
We have some exciting additions to announce about our award-winning Vegetable Garden Planner program and our new Grow Planner iPad app, including new seed company catalogs, a filter tool, a favorites button and an app update.
Go-To Garden Supplies for the After-Work Rush to the Garden
I keep a kit of handy garden supplies waiting in my car, so I can head straight to the garden and take advantage of as many sunlight hours as possible right after work.
Chives, Mint and a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Chives and mint come to a duel for territory in the herb garden, while the spring sap-sucker marks time.
Earn a Trowel for Your Garden Tips!
Send us your garden tips and you could win a free deluxe, ergonomic garden trowel.
Hoss Garden Seeder Perfect for Home Gardens
The Hoss Seeder's unique features include its all-metal frame and ease of attaching to the wheel hoe.
Reconnect With Your Food and Grow Your Own
When you grow your own food, you not take a step towards self-sufficiency. You also make a move towards better health and whole new relationship with your food.
Summer Garden Tips
Tips for keeping your summer garden producing at top output. This is the time of year that warm season crops are at their peak. These 7 tips will give you continued bountiful harvests through the heat.
3 Garden Tool Gift Ideas
Just in time for the holidays, here's a list of recommended garden tools made in the U.S. by family-owned companies.
Spring Garden Tool Preparation
Clean and organize garden tools.
Garden Seed Tips: Organizing Seeds, Understanding Seed Catalogs and More (Video)
Get advice on all things garden seed, from organizing seeds and ordering seeds to understanding seed catalog terms such as open-pollinated and F1 hybrid.
Fall and Winter Gardening in Pots
Even if you only have garden pots to work with, you can still container garden in fall and winter to grow vegetables.
Late-Summer Gardening
In July and August, it's time to start thinking about planting crops for fall. But how do you get good seed germination when the soil is so hot?
Survival Gardening in the Deep South
Why "hot and humid" doesn't have to equal "sad and lifeless."
How Has Gardening Brought People Together in Your Life?
One great thing about gardening that goes beyond soil building and crop rotations is its ability to bring people together. As spring is now officially here, it's a great time to revel in all the pleasures the season is sure to bring. Please share your thoughts and stories about how gardening has brought people together in your life.
What Are Your Best Tips for Gardening in the Southwest?
Readers familiar with triple-digit temperatures share their best tips for gardening in the southwest. Get advice about what to plant, when to plant and how to plant if you live in the hottest areas of the country.
Learning How To Grow Tomatoes
Sue Parker shares her grandmother's secrets to a strong tomato crop.
Getting Paid for What I Love to Do
This summer Cam became a market gardener and actually got paid for something he loves to do - grow vegetables!
Growing the Garden Footprint
This year is the first season I had the whole garden dug and ready and boy, it's easy to plant a garden when the garden is already there.
Let's Bring Back Victory Gardens
Bringing back Victory Gardens could help ease hunger and dependence as U.S. social aid programs, such as Food Stamps, are drastically cut.
Favorite and Essential Gardening Tools: Part One
After decades of gardening I've come to rely on a few essential gardening tools.
Using Wood Ash in the Garden
Using wood ash in the garden can be beneficial for raising the soil pH of your garden soil. These tips will help you know when to use wood ash in the garden.
Learn to Grow Food
These resources will help you learn how to grow food and start a garden.
Mediterranean Diet Garden
You can grow your own Mediterranean Diet garden in the Midwest. Even a small garden can provide the staples of a Mediterranean kitchen garden.
Permaculture Garden Observation
Showing where we were before our permaculture garden began.
Permaculture Garden: Will It Work for Us
Do you want a permaculture garden? An ongoing blog about our journey using permaculture design ideas, to develop the organic matter in soil and produce a higher yield.
What Is the Best, Free Mulch for My Gardens for Weed Control?
Here are some good options for free, weed-free mulches.
Homegrown Food without the Work
New businesses are springing up catering to folks who want their food homegrown, but without the mess of tending to the garden themselves.
MOTHER Wins Eddie Awards for Gardening Content and Garden Planning Tool
MOTHER EARTH NEWS wins two exciting accolades at FOLIO's Eddie Awards, one for their article Organic Pest Control: What Works, What Doesn't and one for their Vegetable Garden Planner tool.
Drinking From Garden Hoses
While garden hoses may leach some chemicals into the water flowing through them, there's little reason to think it's a serious health issue.
What's the Best Way to Remove Japanese Beetles?
Japanese beetles feed for six to eight weeks, and in that time, they are able to feed on over 300 plant species. Although collecting beetles may seem like an exhausting every day task, you're plants will appreciate it.
What Are Your Best Tips for Sustainability in the Garden?
Considerations of sustainability factor into countless supplies, tools and methods present in your garden. What do you do in your own garden to be a sustainable gardener?
Help a Small Organic Gardening Company Grow
An interview with the founder of a small organic gardening business that focuses on education and helping gardeners go organic. Learn more about this company and vote for it to win funding from a small business competition.
Growing Sprouts in My Kitchen Garden
Here's a tip on how to grow sprouts in your kitchen garden for fun and nutritious eating.
10 Tips for a Sustainable Garden and Yard
Here are some easy things to do in your garden and yard to expand your sustainable foot print.
Time to Plant the Fall Garden
You can be harvesting from your garden all year long, including through the winter months! It's time to plant the fall garden.
Yamaha Launches "Assembled in USA" Grizzly 700 EPS ATV Sweepstakes
Funds will go to Honored American Veterans Afield and Feed The Children organizations.
New: Bobcat 3-Point Tillers
Bobcat Company introduces 3-point tiller implements for the Toolcat 5610 utility work machine and the full line of compact tractors.
DR® Power Equipment Introduces Versa-Trailer
DR offers innovative ATV utility trailer with 1 year hands-on trial.
Micro Dairy Equipment & Supplies Now Available for Online Purchase
Micro Dairy Industry Leader, Bob-White Systems, Launches E-Commerce Site.
Changes in Agriculture: Farming in the 1940s
Robert Zwald talks about farming equipment and selling his harvest in the 1940s. This is the sixth part of Robert's stories from the past, as compiled by his daughter, Ruth.
Roper David Key Wins Roping Classic
Professional team ropers David Key and Jade Corkill are the new Grand Champions of the 29th Annual George Strait Team Roping Classic.
Keystone Steel and Wire Recognized for Recycling Program
Red Brand Fence (manufactured by Keystone Steel and Wire), recently received an award for their recycling initiatives by their industry peers.
Valentine's Gift Ideas from STIHL
Think outside the box and consider outdoor power equipment for your Valentine this year.
What's new at New Holland Agriculture?
New Holland Agriculture is unveiling a number of new tractors as well as new haytools and other equipment at the 2012 World Ag Expo in Tulare, California and the 2012 National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky.
Gasless Super Welding Machine Aims to Fill Acetylene Shortage
Multiplaz North America announced it continues to woo potential resellers, as it is overwhelmingly winning consumers with its green technology, gasless, based Super New Plasma Welding and Cutting Machine, the Multiplaz 3500.
Goats: How Do I Milk My Goat?
Milking is a fun and easy chore! Here are some hints on milking in an easy fashion.
New Skid Grapples, Skid-Mounted Stump Grinder Available from Land Pride
Land Pride is proud to announce four new skid Grapples in 12 different sizes as well as a skid-mounted Stump Grinder. These completely new attachments feature the same quality and durability that you've come to expect from Land Pride.
Growing the Nerves
But maybe, at the end of the day, I am just a person with weak nerves doing something that depends on so many unknown factors – the weather, the bug population, the quality of seeds and some plain ol' luck.
Landrace Gardening: Food Security Through Biodiversity
Landrace gardening enhances food security by growing genetically diverse crops that are not as prone to crop failure as monoculture fields of near clones.
Gutter-Planted Garden Greens
It was becoming pretty obvious the crowding and lack of light were real limitations to my mini garden. Then, the idea of a trough on the windowsill came to mind, combining a way to water all the plants uniformly and efficiently all at once. Great, now how to make this trough? Wood? Sheet metal? The choices all seemed expensive, clumsy, prone to leaking...then the light bulb went on in my head: gutters!
Landrace Gardening: Naming The New Varieties
Landrace gardening requires different plant naming conventions than those followed by industrialized agriculture.
Landrace Gardening: Don't Worry About Plant Purity
Landrace gardening promotes hybrid vigor and avoids inbreeding depression by encouraging promiscuous pollination.
Landrace Gardening: Survival of the Fittest
A photo essay showing off the stunning success of landrace gardening on my farm. This success was achieved because I changed my growing methods to embrace one of the key elements of landrace growing; "survival of the fittest."
Landrace Gardening: Getting What You Want
Using landrace gardening and promiscuous pollination to get what you want from your garden.
Urban Gardening and Growing Melons
An experiment in urban gardening produces a melon miracle.
Sharing: Your Garden's Other Health Benefit
The instinct to share home grown herbs, flowers and vegetables runs strong in gardeners, so sharing home grown goodies brings heartfelt rewards.
Seed Bombs: Random Acts to Re-Flower the Earth
Have you heard of "guerrilla gardening," where folks toss flower seeds into vacant lots, or sometimes sneak in at night and plant flowers in unkempt highway medians or strips along city sidewalks? Check it out this year as a fun and fruitful way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.
How Can I Grow a Good Fall Broccoli Crop?
Growing fall brassicas can be a challenge, but here are some tips on how to prevent them from getting eaten by bugs or withering.
Are You Growing Any Food Indoors This Winter?
If you're growing food in the house through the cold months, our readers can benefit from your experience. Have you had success at indoor gardening before? What did you grow? Share your tips and tricks!
What Are Your Favorite Gurus for Gardening Advice In Your Region?
Readers share regional gardening resources.
Gardening: It's Not All Unceasing Drudgery
Old books can be a hoot to read! Check out these quotes from an 1890 book, How to Make the Garden Pay, by T. Greiner.
Overwhelmed by My Garden
At this time of year, Cam feels a little overwhelmed by the gardening chores ahead of him.
Fighting Over Food
Michelle discovers a new threat to her basil plants!
Colorado Garden Dreaming
Building garden boxes that keep critters out.
How to Grow Chocolate M&Ms
Learn how to grow one of America's favorite treats, chocolate M&Ms.
Earth Gauge Tip of the Week — Spring Gardening
April is National Garden Month! Learn about the benefits of building a garden and tips on how to create one even if you don't have a big backyard.
6 Gardening Methods to Try in 2015
From no-till gardening to vertical gardening and container gardening, there are so many options for the creative gardener. Check out these 6 gardening options to try in 2015.
Great Gardening Books, Garden Planning, and the Fight Against GMOs Continues
Ira Wallace explores good winter gardening reads, gives advice on how to use the winter lull wisely to plan and prepare, and shares an update in the ongoing court battle to protect family farmers from agri-giant Monsanto.
Chicken Manure Fertilizer: Let Your Chickens Make Mulch
What's your idea of a delicious and wholesome breakfast? A fluffy, organic egg omelet made with fresh vegetables? Perhaps scrambled eggs and roasted garden veggies? No matter what your preference, it may surprise you to learn the link between the
Our Favorite Heirloom Seed Companies
Planting heirloom, non-genetically modified seeds is a great way to help preserve endangered plant varieties--and the planet's very ecosystem.
April To-Dos
Spring tasks around the homestead.
A Tool For the Trade
In praise of the garden fork.
Children in the Garden
Allowing children the space to discover the beauty and wonder of plants through tending to their own garden builds character, teaches responsibility, gives insight into the beauty of nature and fosters their connection with where their food comes from.
My Four Biggest Gardening Mistakes
Over the past year, I have made countless mistakes on my garden. In this post, I share four of my most frustrating gardening mistakes and how to avoid them.
It's a Miracle!
I separate the fact from the fiction with use of soluble fertilizers.
The Garden of Self-Defense
How my dad defended himself from overly generous gardeners.
Natural, Perpetual Garden Pest and Critter Control
Survivalist Gardener Rick Austin offers natural and long-lasting tips for repelling pests and insects in gardens hidden in the forest.
The less you walk on soil, the better your plants will grow.
This photographic illustration shows how permanent gardens beds are beneficial, and prevent soil compaction.
Use a Simple Compost Test to Avoid Contaminated Materials in Your Garden
Keep your garden safe by testing your organic materials for herbicide residue. A few simple tests can help you avoid harming your plants.
The December Garden
The December garden is still full of life, both in the beds and under cover, providing fresh ingredients for home cooked meals. Winter farmers markets and CSA's are a great way to learn what grows well in your zone.
Celebrate the Harvest with Cake
Get creative in the kitchen by baking with your harvest. These sweet recipes will change the way you think about baking with fruits and vegetables.
DIY Garden Lights
These DIY garden lights reuse plastic bottles and provide soft, natural lighting for evenings spent outdoors.
The Two Kinds of People
Non-gardeners and gardeners are very, very different creatures.
One of the Best Gifts for Gardeners!
A Garden Planner subscription is a budget-friendly gift that offers the satisfaction of spending the chillier chunks of the calendar plotting the bounty ahead.
Jazz Up the Christmas Feast With Garden Herbs
Use herbs from the garden in your Christmas dinner. This post shares a complete Christmas meal using garden herbs.
Four Season Garden Explained
If you have wondered what a four season garden is, the definition is simple. It is a garden that you can get produce from all year long through spring, summer, fall and winter.
Design Your Own Seed-Saving Course
Interested in seed saving but worried about mistakes? Have questions about seed saving? Here's the chance to give your input in a new seed saving class!
June Garden Planner
June is a beautiful and bountiful time in the garden. It is also not too late to put in a garden! With a few tips, you can get the best harvest ever.
A Chicken In Every Garden
Learn how chickens and gardens make a great mix.
Legacy of Jaime Hines
In remembrance of a dear friend and steward of the Earth, a look at how others inspire us and how their legacy sculpts us.
Winter Challenges in the Country, Part 2
Suggestions for what to have on hand - and handy - when you hear a storm is heading your way.
Three New Hand Pruners
Fiskars' new hand pruners combine form and function to make every cut easier.
Permaculture in Winter
A rundown of activities you can do in the winter to improve your homestead.
Weed Watch: How to Kill Nutsedge
Learn how to kill nutsedge, both yellow (Cyperus esculentus) and purple (Cyperus rotundus), and remove it from your garden. Pine bark mulch may be one effective way to kill nutlets from yellow nutsedge.
More Free Perennial Onions
Visit our blog by Wednesday at midnight for a chance to win free Egyptian onion top bulbs.
Power Rake Offers Consumers Multi-Purpose Lawn Tool
Landscapers, gardeners and DIYers have a fast and convenient solution that dethatches, bags, rakes, scalps, mulches and cuts lawns in a single tool.
The Garden Spider
These large, beautiful, long legged creatures of late summer thrill and amaze.
Summer of Turkeys
Recap of 2010 growing season in Northwest Pennsylvania
STIHL Earns Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award
Popular Mechanics honored STIHL with a 2010 Breakthrough Award for the STIHL HSA 65 hedge trimmer, the first product with 36-volt STIHL Lithium-Ion battery-power technology.
The Summer Garden, Good and Bad - with Pictures
The summer garden is coming to an end. I think most of us can agree it has been a challenging year for our gardens. It is time to regroup and learn from our experiences.
New Boom for Real Estate: Community Gardens
Real estate and land use demands have many people left on a waiting list by their local community gardens. Never fear: There's still plenty of options to get growing!
Find Farming Internships and Apprenticeships
Looking for a farming internship or apprenticeship? Search the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Center's online directory of farming internships and apprenticeships to find one that interests you.
Underneath Bird Feeder
Duncraft introduces a new concept in bird feeding - the patented Underneath Bird Feeder
My Top 5 Favorite Seed Companies
Here are five great companies to buy seeds from.
Choose a Dandelion Weeder: Pulling Weeds, Not Your Back
Pick the right dandelion weeder, and ridding your lawn and garden of dandelions becomes more game than chore. Here we hightlight three popular models: the Oswego Grandpa's Weeder, the Fiskars Triple Claw Weeder and the Garden Weasel Weedpopper Step and Twist.
Planting With Preserving in Mind
This blog post discusses growing enough produce for canning.
Tomato Grafts Create Cool, Two-Headed Plants
Creating tomato grafts may be a great way to grow tomatoes organically. Tomato grafting has emerged as one good way to bring resistance to soilborne diseases to susceptible heirloom varieties.
Beginning the Fall Harvest
While summer's still lingering, tasks of fall have begun.
Where Did Summer Go?
The Fall garden is bursting and the canning kettle hot as we draw summer to a close in North Central Idaho.
The Resurgence of School Gardens
School gardens play a vital role in our nations educational systems. Though the concept dates back to the 1800s, their role has gained popularity in the last 20 years, and for good reasons.
Garden Planning for Spring 2015: Index Your Plant Choices
It's time to start garden planning for spring 2015! An uncomplicated way of collecting and organizing your information during those long winter days is to get some index cards, scissors and tape. Cut out the plant varieties from catalogues that you find interesting, with the pertinent information tape this information to the index card to take along to the nursery come spring.
Rainy Day Homesteading
We don't get to sit around inside and listen to the rain on a tin roof in the summer. Instead, we're busy pulling in spring crops, putting out fall crops, and much more.
Springtime Madness: Lovin' It
The peaceful tranquility of farm life is often more or less controlled chaos, especially during the busy spring season!
Is There a Practical, Organic Way to Counteract Excess Nitrogen in My Garden Soil?
If you've added too much nitrogen fertilizer to your garden this expert advice can help you figure out how to correct the mistake.
Start Your Own Four-Season Garden
You can grow food year round, even in small spaces and containers. This is the definition of a four-season garden.
How to Improve Your Garden's Soil
A great garden needs great soil. Regardless of a garden's size, there are always ways to improve the soil quality.
Quick Tip: Preparing Your Potted Garden for a Hard Freeze
Give your pots the protection they need when freezing temperatures arrive with a portable greenhouse. You can also bring in pepper plants for the winter and have fresh peppers indoors.
Easy Ways To Make a New Vegetable Garden
Starting a new vegetable garden bed doesn't have to be a long, tedious, back breaking job. There are a few different ways to get the job done quickly and relatively easily!
Six Ideas for Small-Space Gardening
Here are six of my favorite ideas for those of you with small spaces and still want to get your garden on.
Grow a Quick Crop of Lettuce Indoors
Before space beneath your grow light is needed for onions and other early seedlings, fill it with baby lettuce grown in translucent clamshell salad containers.
Organic Insect Control for Your Container Vegetable Garden
Dealing with insects in your garden is inevitable. It's just a matter of when it happens. Just because you have some critters munching on your food doesn't mean that you have to break out the chemicals.
No Space? No Excuse! Start to Grow Your Own Food
Having little space is not a reason to not be growing your own food. It's just an excuse. I've been apartment gardening since 2009.
Tips for Small-Space Gardening
Learn three simple tips for making the most of small gardening spaces, including hanging plants and advice for selecting seed varieties.
Nature's Footprint Proudly Launches the UrBin Grower
The UrBin Grower is a unique gardening system that takes place in self-watering containers that can be used on decks, patios, side yards or porches.
Tips for Seed-Starting Success
You want to start your urban garden from seed this year, but you're not sure where to start because you've only started from transplants.
End of the Season
A philosophical look at the coming of winter, with ideas for preserving the summer after the end-of-the-season pepper harvest.
Growing A Garden At High Elevation
Some of the difficulties we encounter in gardening at a high elevation
Cub Cadet Debuts RZT S ZERO Electric Zero-Turn Riding Mower
The all-new RZT S ZERO is available in select markets and will be headlining the Cub Cadet Test Drive Experience Tour.
Landrace Gardening: Maintaining a Landrace
Joseph Lofthouse shares how to maintain thriving populations of landrace vegetables in the garden.
Plant Garlic in the Fall for a Larger, Healthier Crop
Do you know the best time to plant garlic? Try planting in fall instead of spring for healthy, large garlic bulbs.
Growing Hand-Made Wheat and Hand-Made Kids
Steve explains how he and his 11 year old son grew a crop of wheat entirely by hand, and why this is something you should try, too.
HOMEGROWN Life: Let's Talk About Poop
HOMEGROWN Life blogger and Bay Area homesteader Rachel discusses using manure in the garden, including which type of animal waste is best for which crops.
Choosing What to Grow in a Small Yard
With a small space, how do you choose what to grow? You can grow an amazing variety and amount of vegetables and herbs in a very small space, integrate veggies and herbs into your flowers, and maximize the use of pots.
Landrace Gardening: Beautiful Crops
A photo essay showing off the beauty of landrace crops.
Landrace Gardening: Fruit and Nut Trees From Seed
The principles of landrace gardening can be applied at any scale from small annual gardens to multi-generational community wide tree farms.
Landrace Gardening for the Casual Grower
Exploring my hopes and dreams for the landrace seed movement with suggestions about how farmers, merchants, and gardeners could cooperate to create a more robust, secure, and locally adapted food system.
Heat-Tolerant Tomato Varieties
Some tomato varieties wilt when temperatures get too hot. Find heat-tolerant tomato varieties that can grow robust tomato plants in hot climates.
Container Planting On 10 Acres
You'd think that if you have some 10 acres you'd have a wonderful fields full of fresh vegetables and fruits. You'd think you'd have a simple way to create an awesome garden. And if you live where I live, you'd be wrong.
Barebones Welcomes You to the Outdoors
Barebones strives to make the experience of outdoor recreation and hobbies a priority.
Alpaca Gold Introduces Line of New Organic Fertilizer
Introducing Alpaca-Gold, a new company producing 100% all natural, organic Alpaca fertilizer.
What to Do With Garlic Scapes
Learn what to do when you spot garlic scapes growing on hardneck garlic types, and discover how to use garlic scapes that you remove from plants.
The Dieter's Guide to Weight Loss While Gardening
Cam describes his weight loss program which involves lots and lots of gardening....
Strawberries Are a Bargain At Any Price!
Michelle knows how much work it is to grow strawberries.... and she's happy to be able to buy them at any price!
I'm Not Crying Over My Onions This Year!
Cam is enjoying a bumper crop of onions this year!
Friendly Farmhands from Philadelphia
Cam and Michelle enjoy having their first "HelpX" volunteers to help out in the gardens!
Photo of the Week: Strong Swiss Chard
See this shot of Swiss chard with strong colors that any gardener can appreciate.
Gardening in Small Spaces: My Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter
I've learned that gardening in small spaces can be challenging, but I've had great success with a Topsy Turvy tomato planter this year. Have you used similar products in your home? How do you handle gardening in small spaces?
A Perfect Ending to the Ultimate Garden Giveaway
Meet Kriste Misiak and her family, the recent winners of the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Ultimate Garden Giveaway.
A CSA Update
Cam is exhausted but exhilarated by the early success of his CSA.
My Love Affair With Garlic(2)
Cam shares his love affair with garlic and explains the work involved with growing and processing organically-grown garlic.
Learning A Lot from the Happy Wanderers
Cam enjoyed another week with some volunteer helpers!
The Dog Days of Drought
Cam is getting worn out trying to keep up with watering during a drought.
Week #11 of Sunflower Farm CSA
It's Week #11 of our CSA and we can't find boxes big enough to fit all of the great produce!!
'Food Is Free' Project Losing Their Teaching Farm
The Food is Free Project has inspired thousands of individuals, families and groups around the globe to start front yard free gardens to share with friends and neighbors. They are losing their teaching farm.
How to Supercharge Your Soil with Minerals
Your veggies contain the nutritional content that the soil can provide the plant. Saying a plant only needs NPK is like saying all humans need is carbs, fat and protein. It is much more complicated than that.
The Garden That Was Not
Why it is important to stay on top of a garden.
Composting for Anarchists
Composting doesn't have to be tough! Learn to make easy compost without the stress.
Landrace Gardening: 2014 Progress Report
The methods of landrace gardening can provide food, even when social or family troubles take us away from the garden.
Winter Vegetables in Your Hoop House
Here is an idea of daily hoop house tasks and information on growing and harvesting abundant, healthy winter vegetables in your hoophouse, avoiding hazardous nitrate accumulation in greens.
How to Prepare Your Garden for Spring Planting
Taking a couple of extra steps before planting your crops will help ensure healthy garden soil. Here's how to prepare your garden for spring planting.
How to Relieve Stress and More Through Gardening
Gardening offers some amazing benefits to your mental and physical wellbeing.
We Are Opening the Doors at the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR!
It's opening day at the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR! We're covering all kinds of cool gardening topics at the Organic Gardening Stage.
Discovering Aji Amarillo Peppers
Aji Amarillo peppers (Capsicum baccatum) are versatile, fruity peppers used extensively in Peruvian cuisine. We have found many uses for these bright yellow and orange peppers, and our journey to discover them has only begun.
Nominations Sought for 2015 Moses Organic Farmer of the Year Award
The Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service is looking for an organic farmer worthy of being named their 26th annual Organic Farmer of the Year.
The Power of Pinterest
Using Pinterest can help inspire new gardening ideas.
Tomato Tastings, Fall Garden Starts, and Getting Ready for Garlic
Come rejoice in the bounty of heirloom tomatoes - experience the flavors and choose your favorites at tomato tastings throughout the Southeast. Plus, it's time to plant fall alliums - garlic and perennial onions - and fall crops for winter storage!
Summer Planting for Fall and Winter Harvest
It may be sweltering hot outside, but we're still busily sowing seeds at the Southern Exposure farms! Learn how to plant your bountiful fall and winter garden, with abundant harvests through Thanksgiving and beyond.
Grow Your Own Dragon Fruit Plant
Want to learn how to go your own dragon fruit cactus? Here's how!
Mountain Gardening And The Challenges - Part 2
Thank goodness for good friends who will share their garden harvest with those of us less skilled.
Learning How to Grow My Daily Bread
Cam grows a patch of wheat to see how much work is involved. He will never take a loaf of bread for granted again!
Crossing the Gardening Rubicon
Every fall Cam is tired of gardening and vows to make his vegetable garden smaller. Every spring he is excited about getting back in the garden and ends up making it bigger!
The Extreme Sport of Running a CSA
Cam ponders the wisdom of starting a CSA at the ripe old age of 52.
Thank God I'm a (Transplanted) Country Boy
Cam has a great deal of respect for farmers.
EZ Tomato Cages Provide Support Lacking in Other Brands
EZ Tomato Cages are collapsible and sturdy unlike many currently on the market.
A Composter Anyone Will Ever Need
The Aerobin 400 uses a patented aeration core inside an enclosed bin to promote aerobic break down of organic matter. The Aerobin 400 is easy to use - just open, drop in materials, and close.
Planning a Perennial Shade Garden, Part 2: Unique Shade Perennials
Some unique plants that will grow wonderfully in your perennial shade garden.
Control Grasshoppers Naturally
Grasshoppers can be devastating in a garden, an insect in the locust family. There are ways to control them naturally without chemicals.
Do Compost Accelerators Work?
Find out whether your home compost pile will benefit from commercial compost accelerators.
What to Plant Now for Your Fall and Winter Garden
Ira shows how you can keep sowing and planting through late summer and into fall. Learn how to keep your garden producing abundantly through the cold months ahead.
Compost: Food Waste Prevention and Potential Fertilizer
I say compost, you think of rotting food, dirt, flies and a horrible smell. For that reason most people wont' even consider composting at home.
Prop 37: Heirloom Corns and Other Reasons to Support California's Right to Know
Join us in fighting the threat of GMOs: California's Right to Know (Prop 37) for GMO labeling leads the nation, and the Southern Exposure lawsuit against Monsanto continues to push through the courts. Plus, fall gardening can be easier than summer!
Snow in Virginia, But It's Time to Get Planting All Over the Southeast
A tour of the gardens at Southern Exposure, where we're taking advantage of warm sunny days in February to get our gardens ready for intense planting ahead. But there's still plenty to sow, indoors and out.
Attracting Beneficial Insects to Your Garden
Ira Wallace inspires us to create flowering, native plant habitat in our gardens. Learn how to identify plants that are 'user-friendly' to the bugs that help keep our gardens healthy.
The Spiritual Side of Growing Your Food
A post by Maria Rodale called A Harvest of Healing got me thinking about how gardening and growing your own food is much more than what you harvest.
Gardening Doesn't Have to Be Expensive
People often dismiss gardening as an expensive hobby that they can't afford. While that can be true, it doesn't have to be. There are way to make gardening cheap.
Food Prices Might Be Rising, But You Can Do Something About It
In the United States, we are feeling the effects of the rising food prices as well. When you take a deeper look into the prices, it's not the food that is causing the price to rise. It's everything else that goes into getting the food to your plate t
DIY Seed Starter Pots
It might be the middle of the summer, but you should start thinking about getting your fall garden ready. If you don't have much space, to plant everything outdoors, then you can certainly start your seeds indoors.
Two Ways to Use a Shipping Pallet in Your Garden
When you are apartment gardening in a small space, you are forced to be creative due to your space constrictions. Most traditional pots and containers might not work, so you become reliant on reusing objects to better fit your space.
Build a Rain Garden
Gardening can make a difference! Across the country, people are building rain gardens to filter contaminants and ease overburdened stormwater systems. Here's how to build a rain garden in 10 easy steps.
Growing Food as a Family
Parents will often say that they don't have time to grow their own food because they have kids. Don't let kids be the excuse. Instead make them part of the experience too. It's what families have done since the beginning of time. The past 100 yea
American Garden Tool Company
The American Garden Tool Company is an online source for American-made garden tools, products and accessories.
How Did America Lose Its Connection With Food?
While there are many events that have lead us to where we are today in terms of food, there are some things/events that stand out the most in my mind. Growing your own food is one way to reverse the trend.
Urban Farms Bike Tour = Sunday Fun Day Adventure
Kansas City has a thriving city farming scene, and recently hosted an urban farms tour to showcase several of the city's market and community gardens. One of our editors pedaled along with a bike tour group to see what the city farmers have to offer.
Simple Reasons to Start Growing Your Own Food
When people ask why they should grow their own food, the answer that I give is often simple. I tell them, "It's because we are humans."
Grow Your Own Food as a Social Statement
Take these into consideration the next time you are making your food purchases.
What is an OMRI Listing?
Organic is a phrase that's tossed around and abused a lot by marketers these days. Not all "organic" products should be treated equally.
Vertical Gardening and Composter in One
What if I told you that you could grow 50 plants in 4 square feet?
Food Waste in America
We are taught when we are kids not to waste food, but it doesn't seem as if that lessen has stuck with us.
Garden Fail: Gardening Mistakes That I've Made
Whether you are new to gardening or experienced, you will make some mistakes. Get over it and learn from it. That's the most important thing.
The Politics of Gardening
Some people use gardening as an escape from the trials and tribulations of the real world. It's their time to get their hands dirty, connect with the earth and just be in their garden.
Three Simple Tips for Taking Care of Your Container Garden
If you are new to growing your own food in containers, these are some simple tips that should help you to get a better yield and results from your containers.
Three Ways To Reuse Soda Bottles in Your Garden
Growing your own food doesn't have to be an expensive activity. There are plenty of ways to cut back the costs and be earth-friendly as well. You can do this by giving a second life to items that have outgrown their initial purpose.
Weed & Water Wednesday: A Favorite Desert Garden
Although winter is setting in, that doesn't mean an end to the garden season in desert climates! Get inspired by this beautiful rainwater-harvesting, food-producing desert landscape!
How To Make a Self-Watering Container
Containers are great for those that are gardening in small spaces. Though there is the fear of not knowing when or how often to water them. This is why I started to make my own self-watering containers.
4 Recipes for Your Summer Harvest
It's the middle of summer and you are likely enjoying the harvests. There is` so much to do with all that fresh and flavorful produce, but what should you do?
Keep Track of Crop Rotation
Crop rotation is good for your garden, but can be difficult to track. These tools will help you chart which crop families you plant so you can mix it up the following season.
Feeding Bees With Real Food - Honey and Pollen
You don't have to depend on nature to feed your bees. Take matters into your own hands and plant enough good food for your bees, so they have good, safe food all year long.
Natural Garden Amendments
Here are some ways we use natural materials to improve our garden and orchards.
Sneak Preview of the First CSA Harvest
A first look at the newest vegetable crops in the garden before the CSA harvests begin.
Vintage Postcards: Valentine's Day Vegetable Children
These twelve postcards are from the Garden Patch Series, published by Raphael Tuck & Sons in 1907.
"Grow a Sustainable Diet" — the Book!
"Grow a Sustainable Diet" is an upcoming book (spring, 2014) that helps you plan what to eat and what to grow, feeding you and the Earth while maintaining a small ecological footprint.
Earth Gauge Tip of the Week — Container Gardening for Rain
Rain gardens provide many benefits including filtering out pollutants and keeping runoff out of city storm sewers.
Understanding Seed Catalogs: 15 Features to Look For
Reading between the lines of the seed catalog variety descriptions is a science and an art. How not to get carried away by all the positive exclamations and miss some basic fact that would tell you this variety is not for your farm? This post provides tips.
Always Getting Ready on the Homestead
Each season brings its own work on a homestead. In the autumn, the garden and animals still require work, but this is also the time to put in a cistern and begin a smoke house.
Plant a Medicinal Garden, Part 1: Immune-Boosting Herbs
Learn growing methods, health benefits and preparations for echinacea, elecampane, sweet Annie, spilanthes and astragalus.
World War II Magazine Emphasizes Frugality
A copy of "Good Housekeeping" magazine from 1944 reminds us how housewives found ways to stretch meals, repair household items and plant gardens to overcome wartime rationing hardships.
Garden Designs for Beauty and Function
A well-thought-out garden design will make your work enjoyable and manageable and will encourage the gardener's presence and attention.
Great Day to Plant the Garden
With the fence in (just barely), this rainy Wednesday looks just perfect for planting.
A Green Home Lesson for Growing Tomatoes in Drought
With the Drought Pod, the organic mass is inside the pod where it never dries out and by planting the tomatoes, or any vegetable directly beside the barrel, the plant roots can tap into the nutrients and moisture as they so choose.
Preparing for Seed Saving at Twin Oaks Seed Farm
Twin Oaks Seed Farm's focus has been producing seeds on contract for a handful of small seed companies. The author discusses involvement in starting a new cooperative retail seed project, Common Wealth Seed Growers.
Drip Irrigation Secrets of a Professional Grower
Here are some simple steps you can follow when setting up drip irrigation for row crops.
When to Plant What: Handy Charts for Garden Planning
Seed Germination depends on Soil Temperature. Transplants need to survive a late spring frost. Here are some handy charts and a lookup tool that will help your timing for a successful garden.
This Month in Your Garden: Fertilizing and Weed Control
April's tips for controlling weeds and fertilizing your garden.
The Garden Is In
The garden is 58 by 112 feet and it's planted!
Garden Layout for Seed Saving, Part 2: Nightshades
Peppers and tomatoes are some of the easier plants to save seed from. This post covers isolation distance and introduces basic seed saving techniques.
March Vegetable Garden Planner
Overview of the activities of a garden in March. How to prepare the soil for spring. What varieties I am planting this March in our Zone 6 garden.
How to Determine Whether to Keep Hardy Perennials in Your Garden
Tips for determining when to prune and when to yank rosemary, lavender, sage and thyme.
Start the Seeds Already
Dragging my feet to get spring started, afraid to fail and making the decision to jump in an succeed or fail already!
How Much To Grow
If you know much of each food from your garden you consume each year, you can better plan how much to grow.
Winter Challenges in the Country, Part 1
Life on a farm blanketed in snow.
New Chicken Webcam Goes Live
Announcing our new webcam that will be showing the latest flock of new born chicks in all their cute and feathery glory.
TimberTech Earthwood Evolutions™ Goes Natural
Three New Colors Provide More Options for Consumers
Cut Yard Clean-Up Time In Half With Leaf Loader
Wide-mouth funnel design super-stuffs bags and cans in less than a minute.
Finding Non-Medicated Chicken Feed
A summary of our quest to find non-medicated chicken feed that has higher quality ingredients than the typical feed store bag of chicken food.
Ed Stone's Rotational Composting
This passive composting system creates beds of fertile soil through rotational composting.
Sprouting: An Edible Experiment
DIY sprouting experiment to get kids interested in growing and eating sprouts.
Backyard Homesteading Memories: Buttermilk Biscuits and Fig Preserves
Anna remembers her grandmother's tasty buttermilk biscuits with fig preserves and her mother's stories of growing up on a small, in-town homestead in the 60s.
Cooking Greens for Greens Haters
The right recipe can convert people who think they don't like cooked greens, or energize cooks in need of fresh ideas. Here we offer a roundup of recipe ideas for garden-fresh greens from arugula to turnips.
What We're Planting Right Now - Spring Garden
It's spring garden planting time! Here are a few things that can be planted while the ground is still cold and there is a nip in the air.
Why Homestead?
Raising and growing your own is more than a lifestyle — it is life.
Kioti Enters Subcompact Tractor Market
The CS2410 subcompact tractor is appropriate for those homeowners with property sizes ranging from just under an acre up to 5 acres, possibly more.
Fresh Strawberry Recipes
Sweet, juicy and blissfully bite-sized, homegrown strawberries embody everything we love about eating from the summer garden. Get your fresh red beauties performing deliciously in these dishes both sweet and savory.
Rainwater Hub Offers Efficient Rainwater Harvesting
The Rainwater Hub is an entirely new answer to the limits of traditional downspout diverters and rain barrel systems. The Rainwater Hub distributes rainwater up to 150 feet through regular garden hoses.
It's Time to Start Those Veggie Gardens!
Barbara Pleasant offers a step-by-step plan to starting seeds.
Preparing Your Vegetable Garden for Winter
It pays to spend time preparing your garden for winter. You can improve your soil, increase your harvest, decrease garden pests and make next spring's planting much easier.
Can I Use Epsom Salts to Fertilize My Garden, Fruit Trees and Houseplants?
Expert advice on adding single nutrients, such as Epsom salts, to your garden and house plants.
Albuquerque Company Turns Landfills into Fields of Beauty
Growstone makes breakthrough, high-performance hydroponic growth mediums and soil aerators from discarded glass.
This Lawn is Your Lawn: Let's Grow a Food Garden on the White House Lawn
Help grow an organic food garden on the White House lawn. Here are some easy ways you can participate.
Canning Summer's Bounty: Easy And Low Tox
Canning is a great way to preserve your own harvest. When canning acidic foods like fruit or tomatoes or anything using vinegar or sugar, you can likely use only a water bath. There are many chemical free canning jars available today for low tox canning.
Grow Chard for Year-Round Steamed Greens
Chard is a wonderful green, chock full of vitamins. It can be eaten when small in salads. The large leaves can be harvested for steamed/cooked greens. It is a perennial that with cover can be harvested all winter.
Three Ways to Enjoy Beans
Beans are usually divided into two categories: shell and snap. Shell beans have thicker pods and are typically cultivated for their seeds. Snap beans are harvested before their seeds ripen and are grown for their tasty pods. However, I've discovered there is some leeway in how beans are harvested and used.
Planning Yard Projects for Next Year? Begin With a YardMap
The YardMap Network is a citizen science project designed to cultivate a richer understanding of bird habitat, for both people concerned with their local environments and professional scientists. The program is housed at the Lab of Ornithology, in Ithaca, New York. We collect data by asking individuals across the country to draw maps of their backyards, parks, farms, favorite birding locations, schools, and gardens.
Get Started Growing Hops
This blog post shares some of The Thyme Garden's experience with growing hops for over 25 years. It includes history of hops, useful information about hops and how and where to grow them.
How to Store Carrots Under Straw for Winter
Not being a fan of frozen or canned carrots, I began to wonder how to store carrots under straw for winter to enjoy organic carrots throughout the winter. Living in Central Oregon where beach sand is not at the hand, I gathered garden straw from a local farmer. It is important that you know that straw for the garden has not come from crops treated with herbicides to control broad-leafed weeds.
Dried and Everlasting Flowers
Choosing, growing, and drying everlasting or dried flowers for beauty that can be enjoyed for seasons to come.
Top 5 Things to Consider Before Moving to the Country
Unprepared for their first foray into country living, Kristy Athens takes what she learned and focuses on 5 areas to be considered before moving to the country: Land, buildings, animals, food and community.
Mountain Gardening And The Challenges
The challenges that we encounter trying to grow a garden at high latitude.
LivingOff Grid - Our garden at Elevation 4200'
Success at growing food at the 4200' elevation and some of the challenges.
Homegrown Wedding
A wedding using homegrown and local food and no disposable items. Decorations were things already on hand. The ceremony took place in a field and the reception was in a barn...and there was love-lots of it!
Plan Next Year's Garden Now
Plan fall cover crops to feed back the soil and leave the bed ready for when you need to plant the main crop next year.
Composting toilet compromise
The last week of the month has been a busy one with are preparations for the ending of winter and the start of a new growing season. We've got some details on a new cover crop and why we choose and simple composting toilet system compared to others.
Homesteading Book Deal Gets More Real
Talking about the excitement of Anna's new book cover that we got to preview from the publisher this past week and the anxiety of our new born chicks as they go out into the big world. Also have some details on how to make your own cleft graft.
Walden Effect joins Mother Earth News
We're gearing up for spring on our southwest Virginia farm, planning the garden, pruning the perennials, and getting ready to raise bees, broilers, and mushrooms.
Solar Panels, Garlic Scapes, and Barn Floors
We heard from a variety of experts about the type and number of batteries to use in our DIY solar setup. Meanwhile, we checked in with the garden and bees.
DIY Electric Fence Wire Holder
Talking about how to make a DIY electric fence wire holder and how we got a tailgate transplant for around 150 dollars and some signs of spring.
In Praise of Livestock Panels
Using 16-foot livestock panels in many ways on your homestead.
Raspberries At 9,759 Foot Elevation
Growing raspberries and other vegetables at high elevation and the challenges.
Holes: A Homesteader's Narrative
Just when you've got something broken in on a farm, the holes begin to appear. There's a hole in the bucket, a hole in my muck boots — and of course there are holes in the fence! But it's not all bad, so here's a homesteader's narrative that provides a good chuckle about life on the homestead with all its wrinkles…and holes.
Community Container Gardening
Building community through sharing work and food.
Landrace Gardening: Racing the Weeds
By applying the principles of landrace gardening, you can help your plants win the race against weeds.
Landrace Gardening: True Potato Seeds
By growing potatoes from pollinated seeds we can develop locally adapted plants that thrive in our gardens.
Landrace Gardening: Saving Landrace Seeds
Seed saving is an integral part of landrace gardening.
Landrace Gardening: Fertilizing Landraces
Landrace gardening allows us to minimize fertilization by selecting for plants that thrive in the pre-existing soil.
Landrace Gardening: Growing Popcorn
Joseph Lofthouse shares tips for growing landrace popcorn.
Tomato Tasting Time: Planning a Fun Garden Party
A perfectly ripe heirloom tomato is one of the great joys of summer, here are some tips for organizing your own heirloom tomato party.
Get a Head Start With Chitting Potatoes
To make the best use of potato-growing season, use the technique of greensprouting.
Grow Extra-Early Spinach with This Easy Tip
Get an early spinach crop with this easy gardening tip.
Free, Easy and All-Natural Mulch
It's easy to overlook how useful grass clippings can be, but early fall is a great time to collect this valuable 'yard waste' to use in your garden as mulch.
Landrace Gardening: Sunroots
Sunroots are a typically-cloned crop with great potential as a locally-adapted survival-of-the-fittest landrace
Landrace Gardening: Replanting Hybrids
How to use hybrids in a landrace garden.
Landrace Gardening: Foreign Imports
A photo essay documenting imported landraces that I started incorporating into my existing landraces during the current growing season.
Time to Plant Cover Crops
Cover crops protect your soil over the winter and are beneficial for soil building. Learn more about your cover crop options and the time to plant them.
Four 'Holy Moly I'm Freezing' Keys to Gardening Success
It's freezing out - but that doesn't mean it's time to quit gardening. Learn how fall and winter are the key to next year's gardening success.
Landrace Gardening: Seed Swaps
Grow enough seed for yourself and a little extra for seed swaps and you may never have to pay for seeds again.
Survival Seed Banks, Part 1: What Seeds Are Available?
A market farmer's perspective on survival seed banks, evaluating current offerings.
Attend a Regional Food Workshop on Winter Gardening in Kutztown, Pa.
The Keystone Center, in partnership with the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, is hosting a regional food workshop called "The Traditional Winter Garden: Fresh Food From December to March."
Landrace Gardening: Hybrid Squash
A photo essay showing off the beauty of landrace squash.
Egyptian Walking Onions
Egyptian walking onions are one of my favorite crops because they produce food for my family from early spring until late fall.
'Integrated Forest Gardening' by Wayne Weiseman, Daniel Halsey and Bryce Ruddock
"Integrated Forest Gardening" is the first, and most comprehensive, guide about plant guilds ever written, and it covers in detail both what guilds are and how to design and construct them, complete with extensive color photography and design illustrations.
A Greenhouse: Part Two
The greenhouse takes shape with the help of family.
Survival Seed Banks, Part 3: Seed Storage Common Problems
A landrace market farmer's perspective on survival seed banks. Part 3: Storing the seeds. With careful forethought, it is possible to store seeds in a manner that will allow them to avoid or survive common seed destroying events.
How We Transplant Vegetable Plugs
This post will take a look at how we transplant vegetable seedlings in our certified organic greenhouses, especially tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.
All About Zucchini
Zucchini is a summer crop that keeps on giving all season long. They are easy to grow.
Top 10 Tomato-Growing Myths
There are many tomato tales out there. If you want to know which farmer stories are true, read on to get tips on growing great tomatoes.
How to Graft Tomatoes
Learning how to graft tomatoes yourself not only saves money but gives you unlimited options for what varieties you choose to graft. With a little practice, you can become skilled at this worthwhile technique.
Landrace Gardening: Promiscuously Pollinated Tomatoes
Creating a landrace of promiscuously pollinated tomatoes. Details about my major plant breeding project for the next few seasons and a plea for help.
Plan Next Season's Garden Now
Winter down-time from the garden is the best time for planning what vegetables you want to grow in the upcoming season. Having the seeds ready and knowing when to plant them can minimize the chaos in spring and maximize harvests in fall. It's all about getting ready now.
Landrace Gardening: Dealing With Cytoplasmic Male Sterility
A pragmatic approach to eliminating male sterility from a home garden. Includes a diagram and photos about what to look for.
Genetic Engineering and Cell Fusion CMS
Cell Fusion genetic engineering is emerging as a hot topic in the Certified Organic seed and food industry. We can expect the resolution of this issue to impact both small-scale and large-scale growers.
Permaculture Gardening, Part 4
Building a layered bed to develop organic material in the soil, hold moisture and decrease the amount of work.
Permaculture Gardening Part 3
Our first project: building a small keyhole mound.
Hello From Raintree Nursery
Sam Benowitz and Tara Bittler are joining the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Blog Squad, and they break down the types of gardening and fruit-growing information they will share with you each week.
How to Store Seeds
Good storage conditions for your garden seeds are essential. These tips will help you learn how to store seeds.
Straw-Bale Gardening in the New York Times
Here is a great article on straw bale gardening.
Kale or Collards
Which grows better in Pacific Northwest gardens - kale or collards?
Who's That Standing in My Garden?
Cam finds an new old-fashioned way to keep the wildlife out of his garden.
Mike & Melissa's Side of the Story
Our HelpXers Mike and Melissa share their experiences as volunteers here at Sunflower Farm.
GMO Labeling, Fall Greens, Winter Storage Vegetables, Yacon and Fresh Kimchi
Killing frosts are arriving, but Ira's staying self-sustaining all winter, with winter-hardy greens and plenty in storage, from sweet potatoes to pickled peppers. Get inspired with ideas for kimchi and a fresh twist on winter salads, with yacon.
Got Leaves? Put 'Em to Work
Use autumn's bounty of fallen leaves to expand your garden, protect your plants and improve your soil.
Appreciating Our Four Seasons
Cam appreciates all four of our seasons!
Bountiful, First-Season, No-Till Vine Patch
Planting a vine patch for the first time is easy without the need to till up a lot of soil; instead, cut out sod circles and mulch the surrounding area.
Plant Edible Ground Cover
You can sneak a few attractive, low maintenance food plants onto your lawn, and your neighbors will never even notice.
EcoTulips Only U.S. Certified Organic Flower Bulb Company
This certification confirms that the company's import, warehousing, and sales processes meet the standards of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program.
Cheap, Solar-Powered Haircuts and Eating My Own Masterpieces
Cam has found another way to save money - his wife cuts his hair now! He also describes how even though he isn't artistic he creates and enjoys the masterpieces from his garden.
Presenting My Gardening Workshop to the Queen
Cam is hoping that the Queen attends his gardening workshop this weekend at the Royal Botanical Gardens....
Working Outside of My Comfort Zone
Cam describes a recent adventure involving round bales, train tracks and a stressful drive home.
Warding Off Vampires at Sunflower (Garlic) Farm
It's an aromatic time of year at Sunflower Farm - time to clean the garlic!
The Most Important Four Inches In Your Garden
Cam describes "double digging" as a way of creating a new garden without losing precious topsoil.
Market Farmers Share How They Deal With the Heat
If you're a market gardener battling the heat, you'll want to check out these great tips for keeping yourself and your crops cool.
Easy Tips for Starting Your Seeds Indoors
One way to get a jumpstart on the growing season is to start growing your seeds indoors. For most of you it's still cold outside. That doesn't mean that you can't get a headstart on getting your garden started for the new year.
Zombieland Comes to Sunflower Farm
The drought conditions at Sunflower Farm are making Cam rather cranky.
Forest Gardening: Planting Small Shrubs and Soft Fruit
Maddy Harland introduces the shrub layer of a forest garden and gives six useful tips for establishing a low maintenance and healthy garden.
The Great Sunflower Farm Food Experiment
Cam undertakes an experiment to see how much food he can produce on his one acre of garden space.
Introducing Forest Gardening - Beautiful, Productive, Edible Gardens
Maddy Harland introduces forest gardening – beautiful, low maintenance and productive gardens that provide for many of our needs – food, fuel, medicines and fibers.
How I Ended Our Drought
Ranting about the drought worked! We got rain here at Sunflower Farm!
Welcome Spring to Your Homestead
Yes, spring is finally here. Time to start farming.
Plant Garlic this Fall
Plan to plant garlic this fall, and enjoy unique varieties and their incredible health benefits.
Homegirl Homesteading
The how's and why's we homestead
Still Playing With Water After All These Years
Cam has always enjoyed playing with water. Now he lets his solar-powered pump do some of the work!
Running on Fumes
Do you feel like the month of June left you gasping for air? You are not alone. I am hoping July will be slower paced and full of summertime fun!
Growing Gluten-Free Grains in the Garden
Registered dietitian, Linda Simon, shares her experiences growing gluten free grains in her garden.