Comments on: Backyard Farming (part 2)

By: sue

sue — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:00:22 +0000

Actually, nitrogen deficiency shows up as a yellowing of the leaves. They lack the deep green chlorophyll coloring.

Purplish leaves can be symptomatic of several deficiencies, the most common being manganese, a “trace” element. If you can find a tub of Nurseryman’s or Citrus Grower’s Mix (try Peaceful Valley Farm Supply in Grass Valley CA–they ship to organic market gardeners nationwide–they have it I believe) it contains all the trace or “minor” elements like zinc, iron, copper, calium, manganese, boron, and magnesium. Sometimes you can find a good packaged organic-source blend fertilizer that will have these trace elements included.

If you are serious about organic gardening, there is no better source for information than Rodale Press, which pioneered Organic Gardening publishing back in the 1940’s. Their Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening is the ‘bible’ of many an organic gardener. “All things explained”.

Good luck on your 2010 garden!

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:53:07 +0000

Ahhh, this is exactly what I was searching for – thanks!

By: LoveFeast

LoveFeast — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:28:19 +0000

I love edible flowers, such fun and color! My herb pots aren’t doing as well this year, every year is different! Some day a real garden! Fun stuff!

By: Giff

Giff — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:02:53 +0000

finally getting a chance to catch up on my backlog of zoebakes. It is fun to garden vicariously through you. I have stuck with herbs in pots! on the other hand, I’ve learned that my 4 yr old loves baking so I’m going to be scouring your archives. happy 4th

By: Dragon

Dragon — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:11:01 +0000

Everything looks so good but those radishes are stunning!!

By: Ellie

Ellie — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:46:55 +0000

Actually BT, which is fully organic and safe for humans and pets takes care of all the worm families. I’ve never been successful keeping up with finding all of them and lost enough plants to give up on many varieties. This year we tried the BT and it works. I spray everything down once a week with a hand spray bottle and poof, the little buggers eat a bit, and then they die. I also inject it inside the base stalks of my zucchini because there is a worm that gets inside and destroys the plant.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:08:20 +0000

Absolutely inspiring…your radishes look lovely…and so fresh, you can almost feel the crunch in the picture.
So happy for you.

By: Sue

Sue — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:06:54 +0000

I love the organic gardening tips you’re sharing. My husband does most of the gardening here so in a way I do have my own Stefan, but my version doesn’t have all of the gardening knowledge that yours does.
That first photo of him makes me think of a younger James Taylor. The rest of the photos of him don’t look so much like JT. I love JT!

By: Jackie

Jackie — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:08:30 +0000

Hi Zoë, I met you at the consultation (I’m one of the BH interns). I’m so happy to see that your garden is making a comeback, it looks wonderful in the second to last photo. Thanks for the educational blog post, too!

Jackie

By: Scate

Scate — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:32:35 +0000

Great progress. It looks like a lot of hard work and I’m happy that you are getting some ‘goods’ from your efforts. Makes me appreciate my patio pots and lack of work to make them grow (but at the same time- i have back-yard envy!)