Square Foot Gardening
Posted by Unknown in Gardening, Square Foot Gardening on Tuesday 14 May 2013
By Kathy Van Mullekom
Daily Press
No matter how you garden – on the cheap or with wallet wide open – it’s wise to garden the smart way.
In the edible garden, smart means finding ways to maximize your harvest and minimize your workload and planting space.
These new gardening books outline ways to do just that. Each provides helpful how-to details – not just pretty photos.
Grow up, not
out: Raised beds and containers get lots of attention, but vertical
gardening is one of the easiest and most practical ways to grow edibles.
Vertical
gardening means people living in condos, apartments and other places
with limited yard space can reap the benefits of fresh food, according
to Chris McLaughlin, author of “Vertical Vegetable Gardening.”
Besides the
traditional trellises and arbors, the book shows how to grow on common
household items you can recycle or reuse for free: broken baby gates
that can be folded side up and spread to create an A-frame, crib springs
turned on their ends, ladders with boards put across the rungs to holds
pots, shoe bags filled with soil, tin tub gardens you can hang and
five-gallon buckets that are suspended from trees or poles.
McLaughlin also
shows how to turn wire, twine and other materials into arbors, teepees,
fences and A-frames to support vining, twining, twisting plants. Even a
kiddie pool filled with soil becomes a small garden. There are lists of
materials and directions on how to make each, and profiles identify 30
veggies, fruits and herbs best suited for vertical gardening.
Make every foot
count: Square-foot gardening took root 30 years ago when Mel
Bartholomew wrote his first book on how to garden less to get more – for
example, 48 crops from two 4-by-6-foot boxes.
Two million
copies later, he now operates the Square Foot Gardening Foundation (
squarefootgardening.org) and recently released two new books on the
topic – the “Square Foot Gardening Answer Book” and the “All New Square
Foot Gardening, Second Edition.”
The answer book
draws on hundreds of questions he’s heard over the years, including how
to garden in a shady yard, how to calculate the potential yield from a
square-foot garden, how to deter pests and how to rotate crops for
maximum results.
He also
addresses common problems all gardeners can relate to: The gnats in my
square-foot garden are a real bother; how can I deal with them? Make a
spray by mixing 1 part vodka with three parts water. No, don’t drink it;
spray the area infested by the gnats. You can check whether you’ve
gotten rid of the gnats by cutting a potato in half and leaving it in
the area. If, after a week, the potato is still clean, your gnat problem
is gone.
newsobserver.com
How To Care For Your Banana Tree
Posted by Unknown in Banana
Bananas are
one of the fastest growing perennial plants that grow from rhizomes. The
trunks of the banana are actually fleshy sheaths that are formed by
leaf sheaths arranged in concentric layers.
The stem of the
banana tree grows from a corn that is planted underground. The stem
grows out through the center of the stalk and takes about 12-15 months
to grow mature. Each stalk is capable of producing just one huge flower
after which it withers off. New stalks then sprout from the rhizome.
Banana plants are immensely attractive and create a tropical atmosphere
to the entire surroundings.
When to plant?
Bananas require
heat and a sunny location to be able to grow and produce healthy
fruits. So summer is the best time for planting them. Ensure that they
are planted in areas where there is abundant sunlight all throughout the
day, failing which they would stop growing. If you plant a banana plant
in the winter months, plant them where there is enough sun and also
reduce the watering to prevent root rot as the winter months will have
more moisture trapped in the soil.
Where to plant?
Planting
bananas in rocky organic soil which are well draining and areas with
lava sand is the best way to plant them. Avoid planting bananas in areas
where the soil is always wet or in standing water to prevent root rot.
Cactus mix soil gives the best results as it naturally contains lava
sand, lava soil and other nutritional items that help in the overall
growth. The soil in which you plant the banana tree must not be too wet
which can initiate root rot. If the soil retains more water during the
winter months, reduce the watering frequency. During summer months, make
sure that you give them enough water to prevent them from drying.
How to plant?
First find a
good container on which you can plant the banana tree. Choose the right
location where there is ample sunlight and sand. Now make a hole that is
two times as wide as the container. The depth must be 1½ times more
than the depth of the container. Fill the hole with 4 inches of manure
and the rest of the height can be covered with soil until you reach a
height where the banana tree can be planted comfortably. Now the bottom
of the container has to be broken off and the container must be kept
inside the hole in such a way that the edge of the container is around 2
inches above the soil. Cut off the edges and two-thirds part of the
hole with soil mix and one-third part with native soil. Water the plant
well and form a berm around the plant with the remaining part of the
soil.
How to water?
Watering of the
banana plant must be done carefully as too little and too much water
can spoil the plant and lead to root rot and drying. During summer
months, you can water the plants in a slow and deep manner every 2 to 3
days. Watering must be done when the top part of the soil is dry. During
winter, watering should be less frequent as the sand tends to retain
more water. Similarly, during the summer months, it is also important to
water frequently as the soil can dry fast due to the hot sun.
Fertilizers required
Being heavy
feeders, fertilizing banana plants regularly during the growing season
will help in getting healthy bananas. A balanced fertilizer which
contains all micro-nutrients can be applied whenever you water the
plants. Fertilizers can also be applied once every month. Organic
fertilizers are good and during the flowering season, care must be taken
to avoid nitrogen as it can blacken the bananas.
Common diseases
Panama disease
is the most common disease affecting plants, especially bananas. The
symptoms start at the feeder roots and go on to affect the rhizome and
they are where the stele joins the cortex. Brown flecks start appearing
on the older leaves and finally the xylem turns brick red, spoiling the
entire plant. Moko disease, banana bunchy top, toppling disease, black
leaf streak, etc. are other diseases that affect younger plants with
similar symptoms.
Weeds and pests
All weeds that
are growing in the site must be removed before the banana plant is
planted. Common pests affecting banana plant are banana aphid, corm
weevil, mealy bugs, etc.
Things to watch out for
If your banana
plant is exposed to too much sun during the fruiting season, make sure
that you cover the fruit adequately with a light weight material or
provide shade to the fruit to prevent sunburn.
Ten tips For Success With Indoor Seedlings
Posted by Unknown in Advise and Tips, Container Gardening, Gardening, Green house, Seeds
Simple tips for getting the most out of young plants being kept inside your greenhouse or home.
Handy advice: remembering a few key pieces of information can make you more successful in the greenhouse
By Ed Cumming
Telegraph
Whether
you’re a hardy veteran in the greenhouse or making your first steps
into indoor growing on a windowsill, a few simple tips can help you get
the most out of your plants during the early stages, says Andrew
Davidson, of mail order veg plant specialists Quickcrop (01788 298795).
The company
grows 1.5 million seedlings every year, so has a wealth of experience
when it comes to ensuring seeds survive to become healthy plants.
1 Water carefully.
You’ll be surprised how quickly plants will dry out in a greenhouse on a
hot day, but don’t overwater as saturated soil has no air spaces and
can “suffocate” plants. More people kill plants by over- rather than
underwatering.
2 Water in the morning rather than evening. Evening
watering, given the cooler night-time temperatures is a bit like going
to bed in wet pyjamas for plants. It can weaken them and promote
disease.
3 If you are starting out, make sure plants don’t get pot-bound (roots emerging from drainage hole). This
means the plant has outgrown the pot and the ratio of roots to soil is
too high. Plants will dry out quickly, so repot to a larger container.
4 We like our houses much drier than a plant does, so watch your humidity levels. Too
little moisture in the air can be a death knell for plants – look out
for brown leaf tips. A saucer of water beside a plant pot can make the
difference between life and death for a tender seedling.
5 Watch for leggy seedlings.
If you start off seeds early make sure they get enough daylight, at
least six hours a day. If seedlings grow tall, weak stems they have too
much heat but not enough light. If they’re stunted and small you have
the opposite problem.
6 Onions grown from seed can be started in January. You
will have a much greater choice of variety than onions grown from sets.
As above, make sure you have enough light. Daylight hours are short and
too much warmth will result in tall, spindly plants.
7 Look after your soil.
Whether in pots, raised beds, or in the ground, indoor growing tends to
be more intensive and more likely to result in an exhausted soil. Add
plenty of organic matter in the autumn or spring.
8 Keep your greenhouse neat, tidy and clean. Indoor
growing creates a perfect environment for plants to flourish but also
provides ideal conditions for disease. Wash the inside of a greenhouse
with a mild citrus solution in spring and discard any diseased plants
quickly.
9 Aphids, such as greenfly, can spread very quickly indoors. A
preventive garlic spray can confuse the pests into thinking your
lettuce is garlic, which they don’t like. Use liberally. It won’t affect
the taste of your crops, is totally natural and baffles a wide variety
of pests.
10 If you’re itching to sow something this time of year why not try some sprouting seeds?
You can buy them mail order, but shop-bought dry lentils, peas and
beans can work too. Soak them, pour off excess water and leave them to
germinate.
15 Most Popular Domestic Geese Breeds
Posted by Unknown in Breeds, Ducks and Geese
|
15 Domestic Geese
Breeds
|
||||
|
Buff
Back
|
African
|
Chinese
|
Twente
Landrace
|
Pommeranian
|
|
Toulouse
|
American
Buff
|
Pilgrim
|
Steinbacher
|
Egyptian
|
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Embden
|
Sebastopol
|
Canadian
|
Brecon Buff
|
West of
England
|
What is Worm Tea?
Posted by Unknown in Manure and Composting, Soil Nutrients, Vermicompost
As we are
learning, worms provide many services to humans by breaking down organic
matter into castings that enrich soil, reduce waste build-up, enhance
plant growth while helping to control diseases that attack those plants
and much more.
Worm tea is a
byproduct of the organic worm composting process. The water that has
been used to keep the worm bins moist or to harvest castings gets
collected by the worm growers strategically placed containers. This
water has diluted castings in it, making it a rich source of plant and
garden nutrients.
Using worm tea
on potted plants requires adding an equal part of fresh water to dilute
the solution (it is VERY concentrated nutritionally speaking). The
liquid has a revitalizing effect on old potting soils. If you choose to
use the worm tea on ground planted plants, using it full strength is
fine.
You will find
that your sick or weak plants will benefit significantly from a drink or
two of worm tea. Roots of stressed plants have shown a real increase in
vigor when treated with worm tea. Drench plants with worm tea or use
during your standard feeding agenda.
Crossbreeding Has Improved My Cattle Farm
Posted by Unknown in Africa, Breeding and Pregnancy, Cattle and Livestock, Cross Breeding, Success Stories, Uganda
 |
| A farm hand tends some of the cattle on Titus Buatre 's farm. Photo by Felix Warom Okello. |
When I
started with four goats, one of them a Boer goat for cross-breeding
purposes, I did not even imagine that this farming activity would expand
to enable me meet most of my needs.
I am in
position to pay school fees for my children—three at university and
three still in secondary school, afford a good diet at home, and even
look after other dependents, among others.
Meat and milk
I am Titus
Buatre, 55 years old, an animal farmer, from Andewa Village, Riki Parish
in Oluko Sub-county, six kilometres east of Arua Town. By the end of
last year, I had 120 goats and 50 heads of cattle, from where I get meat
and milk.
I sell the milk
in 10-litre jerrycans, each at Shs35,000. So, in a day, I earn
Shs70,000. Though most of my herd is made up of dairy cows, I
occasionally sell off some cattle.
Depending on
the size, the price ranges from Shs500,000 to Shs800,000. Last year, I
sold four cows. For the goats, the lowest price is from Shs70,000 to
Shs80,000. However, I also sell to NGOs that have programmes that
distribute the goats to farmers.
In this case, I will sell each goat at Shs130,000.
To acquire my
first cattle, I took a salary loan that was repayable in two years. On
top of that I added some money from crop farming to buy seven heads of
cattle.
From that
number, there are now 50 heads of cattle, from which I am able to get 15
to 20 litres of milk daily. I am able to buy medicines to treat them. I
have four types-Ankole, Zebu, Boran and Friesian crossbreeds.
Economic value
Among these,
there is a 250-kilogramme bull, which I use for cross breeding. I
attribute my successes in growing my herd to that bull.
The process of cross-breeding has enabled the animals to be of a good quality, which is marketable, and multiply in numbers.
I am using
cross breeding in order to get economic value because the local animals
are smaller in size and poorer in quality. Thus, they cannot attract
good money and produce a sizeable amount of milk.
In the past,
producers have thought of crossbreeding as simply replacing bulls every
two to three years with whatever breeds were popular at the time. This
has led to problems with uniformity of the resulting product.
Work ethic
Good quality
cattle need to be selected in order for crossbred cattle to outperform
straight-bred cattle and produce the type of product that is in demand
by the consumer.
However, it
should be noted that mere crossbreeding will not overcome poor genetics.
It has been patience and hard work, which has paid off for me. One
could possibly say this work ethic comes from my having a military
background at one time.
Yes, I was in
the military since the days of Idi Amin up until 1985. Since then, I
have continued driving as my occupation though I was no longer in the
army. After this, I got other driving jobs before my current one as a
driver at the district Naads office in Arua.
Trainings
I attend to the
animals as my main economic activity especially after work. I feel
happy to see my cows and goats return from grazing.
My farm covers six acres and comprises land that I inherited from my father though most of it was bought from my own earnings.
I have also
benefitted from several trainings in agriculture given by Naads and I
now use it to increase production such as the use of a tractor.
I use a tractor
to till the land on which I grow improved cassava. The neighbouring
communities buy the new variety cassava stems from me.
Retiring
I also employ
other people. There are two youths who look after the cattle and goats.
The one who rears cattle is paid Shs45,000 monthly and the one
responsible for the goats is paid Shs30,000 monthly. The two are only
assisted by my children when they return for holiday from school.
The rearing of
cattle is central to my farming business and as such I attend to them
closely. From the earnings, I am able to live a meaningful life. I look
forward to retiring from driving to become a full-fledged animal farmer.
features@ug.nationmedia.com
Biochar: a Slow-Burn Success
Posted by Unknown in Biochar, Budget and Funding, FAO and UN, Gardening, Organic, Soil Management
Biochar could help you get more from your plants and save the planet at the same time. What's the secret?
By Lia Leendertz
Telegraph
 |
| Growth area: Daylesford Organic gardener Jez Taylor extols the virtues of biochar, which has improved his germination rates his germination rates Photo: Christopher Jones |
Farmers in
Belize are excited about it, as are carbon capture scientists, the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and multinationals such as
Kraft and Nestlé. It may provide a carbon sink, it may save degraded
soils, it may alleviate rural poverty.
"It" is
biochar. For Jez Taylor, the head gardener at Daylesford Organic, the
attraction is more simple: "The environmental benefits and its ability
to capture carbon are delightful, of course. But I just get fantastic
propagation results when I'm using it. That's what I'm interested in."
Biochar is "the
oldest new thing you've never heard of", to quote a phrase coined by
Wae Nelson, a US biochar expert, and its applications are wide ranging.
It is essentially charcoal, but burnt at a lower temperature and with a
more restricted flow of oxygen. Its proponents believe it was the force
behind ancient cities in the depths of the Amazon, where poor, acidic,
tropical soils would not otherwise have been able to sustain large
populations. In such sites up to 2m (6ft 6in) of terra preta (Portuguese
for "black earth") can be found: rich, dark and fertile pockets that
occur naturally among the yellow surrounding earth.
Jez Taylor is
one of a number of head gardeners who are pioneering the use of biochar
in Britain. He manages 20 acres and six polytunnels of crops that supply
Daylesford's own upmarket farm shops in the Cotswolds and London, and
his main interest is in propagating the many plants that will fill those
fields. Each starts off in a tiny plug of compost, desperately
vulnerable to drying out.
"I don't claim
to be an expert propagator, and often we have apprentices watering who
may be even less expert," he explains. "The compost needs to be
bombproof or young plants will be lost, particularly those in tiny
modules, such as spring onions."
Conservationists call on Government to back ban on 'bee-killing' pesticides 13 Mar 2013
Jez tried a mix
of coir and biochar and found that the water-holding action of the
biochar improved his results dramatically. "I now know I can water on a
Friday and come back in on Monday to find that everything is OK. I can
be certain that seeds are still moist at the crucial moment when the
root emerges from the seed, and last year this improved germination
rates from around 80 per cent to closer to 95 or 100 per cent."
Jez also uses a biochar-based compost for larger vegetables that go into the shops for sale as plants.
"It is great in
the potting mix and I'm convinced it gives it more guts. Plants seem to
be supported for longer and there is less yellowing of leaves. When we
feed, the feed isn't given in one go but locked away by the biochar and
released slowly to the plant, and it really shows."
Dr Saran Sohi,
of the UK Biochar Research Centre, started his career researching soils
and soil additives. He says the effect biochar has on soil is different
from that of any other additive.
"Biochar brings
a physical and permanent change to the soil. Every other additive
decomposes but biochar remains, and its effects increase over time."
Biochar works
in several ways. Though it is not filled with nutrients itself, it is
able to attract and hold on to nutrients, so preventing them from
leaching away, and holding them just where plants can reach them. Its
porous nature provides refuges for mycorrhizal fungi, which in effect
enlarge the plant's root system while also increasing its resistance to
diseases. It makes soil far more attractive and stable for beneficial
microbial activity. Essentially it does everything organic matter does
to the soil, but better, and permanently.
All this goes
some way to explaining the impressive results seen in Belize. Craig
Sams, founder of Green & Black's chocolate, has a strong interest in
biochar, having founded a company, Carbon Gold, that sells biochar
mixes and kilns.
"I've been in organic food most of my life, so I've seen the difference that good soil management can make," he says.
He wanted to
bring the two parts of his work together and see what impact biochar
could have on cacao growers' crops. Two Belize farmers were taken to
Cornell University and "pumped on biochar", as Sams puts it. On their
return they were given kilns and asked to put what they had learnt into
practice. The results surprised everyone. Cacao plants planted into soil
rich in biochar started producing fruits when about three-and-a-half
years old; they usually take seven years to reach this maturity.
This caught the
eye of the UNDP, which has now provided $50,000 (£32,900) for more
kilns, and there are several non government organisations working to
create biochar gardens throughout Africa and the Third World. Large food
companies have also started getting in on the act: a sure sign that the
enthusiasts are onto something. Unlike charcoal – which is made from
hardwood at high temperatures – biochar is made at low temperatures and
from any waste, including animal dung, twiggy waste, softwoods and rice
husks, making it a realistic proposition for farmers in developing
countries.
"When diseases
hit plants grown in biochar-rich soils they have to fight their way
through a shield of beneficial fungi and bacteria, and we think this is
why the Belize plants produced so much earlier than usual. They could
grow unhindered," says Sams. In Britain he is working with Bartlett Tree
Experts on a trial with ash trees infected with ash dieback, to see if
biochar might give them a similar increase in armoury.
Elsewhere, Ed
Ikin at National Trust property Nymans is the first head gardener to
install a biochar kiln to deal with his garden's waste and improve its
soils, and Great Dixter head gardener Fergus Garrett uses biochar in his
compost mixes.
"It's an excellent peat substitute," says Garrett. "Better than green waste. I would use it as part of a John Innes mix."
While biochar's
effect on soils and plants is exciting, there are also great
environmental benefits to its manufacture and use, and these stem from
its capacity to lock up carbon. Soil is naturally a carbon sink – it
locks away carbon and prevents it from entering the atmosphere – but a
chunk of our troublesome greenhouse gases arises from ploughing soil and
releasing this carbon. Although normal composting and mulching takes
carbon in the form of organic matter and puts it into the soil, this
quickly breaks down as matter rots, and the carbon is released again.
Every time we dig or disturb the soil we speed up this process. Peat
mining is an extreme example of this: when we disturb peat bogs we
release carbon that was locked away thousands of years ago. But at least
50 per cent of the carbon in any piece of waste turned into biochar
becomes permanently stable.
Gardeners digging biochar into their soils are taking a small step in undoing the environmental damage caused by peat users.
While Dr Saran
is particularly enthused about the use of biochar in tropical climates,
he thinks it could have applications in British gardens.
"In the average
back garden you can make a big impact," he says. "A little can have a
big effect on the soil. The way biochar interacts with water, nutrients,
microbes and fungi will improve growing conditions and make soils more
stable and fertile."
