The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that nearly 40 percent of household water is used for lawn and garden maintenance. One way to reduce this is to build a rain barrel to collect rainwater runoff from your home. Since rainwater is soft and devoid of minerals, chlorine, fluoride and other harmful chemicals, it’s great for your […]
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto/Thinkstock Melons are other crops that are sometimes deliberately stressed with saltwater at the end of the fruit-production cycle in order to encourage the plant to produce sweeter fruit. Conventional growers withhold water during fruit development to create the beneficial stress that produces sweeter melons. The production of more sugars in […]
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto/Thinkstock Some crops actually thrive on a little bit of salt in their water. If you want to perform experiments on your garden and contribute to the data mass on this topic, the following are four other vegetable crops that might be appropriate candidates for deliberate saltwater-irrigation experiments: Broccoli: Broccoli couldn’t be […]
Photo by Judith Hausman Matzoh brei is essentially French toast. Passover is the time of year (same time as Easter) when Jews commemorate the flight from Egypt by eating only unleavened bread or baked goods. People have come up with ingenious ways to create recipes with potato starch, finely ground matzoh meal or ground walnuts […]
Photo by Judith Hausman Well, it’s happened again. Even though I made a distinct effort to eat, cook and give away my stockpile of garden goodness, I’m clipping the new spring chard and spinach before the packets I froze are all used up. I have net bags of garlic still “perfuming” my pantry, and […]
Here are our winning honey recipes from our readers. Check out our City Buzz column in Urban Farm magazine.
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto/Thinkstock Worms can be picky, too! While your compost worms can survive on a limited diet, the larger variety of food you provide them, the more diverse and nutrient-rich their castings will be. Not to mention, they’ll be healthier, too. Follow these feeding do’s and don’ts for safe vermicomposting and happy worms. […]
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto/Thinkstock Making strawberry preserves with honey in place of sugar is a delicious way to keep the sweetness with the added benefit of nutrients. This recipe showcases the strawberry in all its glory — sweet, plump and juicy — with honey instead of sugar. These preserves make a great topping for ice […]
Photo by Judith Hausman The acidic vinaigrette in this salade lyonnaise balances the rich egg and fatty bacon. My garden-mate, Leslie de Noue, is indefatigable and knowledgeable about growing food and food itself … and is consistently cheery, to boot. Her French husband is also a chef, and together they garden a suburban lot in Ridgefield, […]
Giving a room — or your home — a new coat of paint with minimal environmental impact takes some research and forethought.
Most basic, 3-foot tomato cages are too flimsy for your larger tomatoes. Learn how to make cages that last.
