Garden Maintenance

Garden MaintenanceSoils & Fertilizer

How to Grow: Hugelkultur

Learn how to build mounded soil beds and grow plants with logs through Hugelkultur. Listen to podcast: Permaculture is a whole system garden design that seeks to reproduce the sustainability of a natural system. I have used some permaculture techniques over the years, such as keyhole raised beds, but not hugelkultur. What's hueglekultur? This German word roughly means “mound beds”. It's a technique used in Germany and Eastern Europe for hundreds of years and has newed popularity. A simple version is to take logs, old firewood, or branch...

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Garden Design & CareGarden MaintenancePerennialsPodcastSoils & FertilizerVegetable

How to Grow: Lasagna Gardening

Learn about the simple technique to build a new garden end without having to dig up the lawn. Listen to Podcast: I'm an Italian-American and if there's one thing I know about it's lasagna. I've been eating it since I was a little bambino. While lasagna is a great food, it's also a great gardening idea. Starting a new flower or vegetable bed can be back breaking work. Many gardeners dig out sod and weeds, bring in topsoil and compost and generally sweat a lot. My solution is to borrow the wisdom of the lasagna. Lasagna gardening is a way to...

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Garden Design & CarePodcastVegetable

How to Grow: Making a Raised Bed

Listen to this podcast on how to build, plant and care for a raised bed in the vegetable garden. One of the biggest trends in the last 20 years in vegetable gardening has been the expanded use of raised beds. It's not a new idea, but it seems everyone is embracing a raised bed to grow better tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, and many other crops. It's a smart idea. Raised beds are more productive. The soil warms and dries out faster and it doesn't get compacted because you don't have to step on the beds. Raised beds are easier to weed, water,...

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Garden Design & CareSoils & Fertilizer Videos

How to Grow: Making a Raised Bed Garden

Learn how to build a raised bed garden including the materials to use, the size of the bed, and what to grow and hot to care for them. For more garden videos, check out the National Gardening Association. Transcript Hi I'm Charlie Nardozzi of the National Gardening Association. Today I'd like to talk to you about raised bed gardening. Raised beds are just what they sound like; mounds of soil that made it to various shapes. They offer lots of advantages in the garden. They warm up sooner and dry out faster in the spring making it easier for...

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AnnualsGarden Design & CareSoils & FertilizerUncategorizedVegetable

How to Grow: No-Dig Gardening

Listen to this podcast on gardening easier and smarter with no dig gardening.   I'm starting to work on a new book. It's on No-Dig Gardening. It's a topic that I've been playing around with in our vegetable and annual flower gardens for years and I'm excited to dive deeper into it. I'm rereading the classic No-Work Gardening by Ruth Stout, checking out No-Dig Gardening experts on Youtube and refreshing my understanding of some permaculture techniques. The idea behind No-Dig Gardening is to retire the tiller and not dig your annual...

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AnnualsGarden MaintenanceSoils & FertilizerVegetable

How to Grow: Organic Fertilizer

Learn about organic fertilizers including the best types to supply nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium to your soil. Listen to Podcast: Spring is time to get your soil ready for planting. Organic matter is key to soil health and building it with annual additions of compost is a good idea. But sometimes, especially in a vegetable or annual flower garden, there is a need to add more than compost. Annual flower and vegetable plants pull many nutrients from the soil. Based on a soil test you may find deficiencies and may need an organic...

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Garden Design & CarePodcastVegetable

How to Grow: Permaculture

Learn about some simple permaculture techniques to save space and grow better plants in your vegetable garden. Listen to podcast: Winter is a great time of year for garden planning. Whether it be a trip to Italy or a new garden bed, now is the time to get ready for the coming garden season. I've been reading Toby Hemenway's permaculture book, Gaia's Garden, and I have a few new design concepts I'm going to try. Many gardeners are shrinking the size of their gardens to reduce work and save space. But we still want to grow everything under...

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Garden Design & Care Shrubs Trees

How to Grow: Planting Shrubs

  Frugal folks will enjoy the fact that, come fall, any trees and shrubs that you plan to plant are probably on sale at most garden stores and nurseries! And fall is the practical time to plant them, too, as the air is cool and the soil will stay warm enough for roots to start getting established. The old way of doing this is dig a hole, put in the shrub, water it and be done. But his year, gardening experts have come forth with some new recommendations on how to plant your trees, including pruning the roots, to help ensure your tree...

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Garden Design & CarePodcast Shrubs Trees

How to Grow: Protecting Evergreens in Winter

Learn how to protect your evergreens trees and shrubs from damaging winter winds and cold. Listen to podcast: We've all seen it happen. A beautiful, broad-leaved rhododendron looks great going into winter. But in spring the leaves have browned and curled, turning our beautiful specimen into a deposit for the compost pile. So how do we get our broad-leaved evergreens such as rhodis, mountain laurel and pieris shrubs to make it through winter? It's all about protection. Broad-leaved evergreens continue to transpire moisture through their...

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Garden Design & CarePodcast Shrubs

How to Grow: Protecting Roses

Learn how to protect your roses from winter's cold and winds. Listen to Podcast: I'm Charlie Nardozzi and this is the Vermont Garden Journal on Vermont Public Radio. Fall is a time for wrapping up the garden, both figuratively and literally. It's time to pull out frost-killed annual flowers, cut back perennial flowers, compost leaves, and protect tender shrubs. One of the most precious flowers to protect are your roses. Because there are so many different types of roses, it's often confusing which ones to protect and how. Overwintering...

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