Growing an edible, urban ecosystem one backyard at a time
Latest Posts
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Reduce Holiday Stress with Permaculture for a Serene Season
The holidays can be a lot. Between the shopping, planning, and family dynamics, stress can easily overshadow joy. But what if the natural world had some wisdom to offer? Permaculture—a design system inspired by nature—might seem like it’s all about gardens and growing food. Yet, its principles are surprisingly useful for navigating holiday chaos. Let’s…
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Permaculture in Everyday Life: Applying Principles in the Garden and Beyond
Opportunities for using permaculture in everyday life—beyond just the garden—are all around us, if you know where to look. While permaculture is often seen as a common-sense, down-to-earth approach to gardening, its principles can be applied to many other areas of life, possibly even all of them. We don’t need to use the term “permaculture”…
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How to Make Leaf Mold: A Gardener’s Guide to Free Soil Conditioner
If you’ve got trees, you’ve got leaves—and probably a lot of them piling up each fall. Instead of bagging them up for the curb, why not turn those leaves into something useful? Learning how to make leaf mold is easy, and it gives you a natural soil conditioner that’ll improve your garden without costing a…
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How to Use Fall Leaves in Your Garden
Fall is the perfect time to put your garden’s excess leaves to good use. Instead of raking them up and sending them to the landfill, consider how these natural resources can benefit your garden. By putting fall leaves to use, you can improve soil structure, increase soil fertility, and protect your plants. This guide provides…
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How to Improve Garden Soil: 6 Simple Steps to a Better Garden
Poor soil makes gardening tough. Plants struggle, and yields disappoint. But don’t worry—improving your soil is doable. In this guide, I’ll teach you how to improve garden soil to boost plant health and grow a thriving garden. We’ll cover six steps to transform your soil: Follow these steps, and you’ll turn barren ground into a…
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5 Reasons Your Garden Isn’t Thriving (And How to Fix Them)
Are your garden plants not growing well? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Gardening is enjoyable and rewarding, but it can be stressful when your plants aren’t thriving. I’ve faced this myself and learned from it over years of growing a garden and a food forest. Here are five common reasons plants struggle…
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Battling Bugs: How to Get Rid of Squash Bugs Naturally
Discovering squash bug damage on your squash, pumpkin, or any cucurbit plants can be discouraging, but I’m here to help you “squash” your squash bug problem like I did mine. In this post I’ll teach you how to get rid of squash bugs naturally and and make sure those pesky bugs don’t ruin your squash…
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A Super Simple DIY Vermicomposting Bin
Vermicomposting, or composting with worms, is an easy way to recycle kitchen scraps and create high-quality compost for your garden or container plants. The DIY vermicomposting bin I’ll show you how to build below doesn’t take up much space or require much effort. When maintained properly, it has little to no smell and can easily…
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The Best Mulch for Vegetable Gardens: Top 5 Materials
We all know that mulch is important for our vegetable gardens. It moderates temperature and humidity, keeps weeds at bay, and over time adds nutrients and improves soil structure. But, with many different mulch types to choose from, what’s the best mulch for a vegetable garden? And what are the benefits and drawbacks of these various…
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Permaculture Principles in Everyday Life Part 4 – Principles 10, 11, and 12
Welcome to the final post in this series on permaculture principles in daily life. This time we’re looking at the final four permaculture principles: “Use and Value Diversity,” “Use Edges and Value the Marginal,” and “Creatively Use and Respond to Change.” If you’re interested in reading the first three posts, here they are for easy…