How to Build a Grow Box

Here is a video showing how to build a grow box.

Happy Gardening!

Growing a Greener World

The following post is from a guest writer to my blog named Joe Lamp’l. Thanks Joe for the great advice!

Summer is officially here and with temperatures on the rise, now is the perfect time to be outdoors! A 2012 study conducted by NASA revealed temperatures all across the United States have been hitting all-time record highs and rising! The Month of July is typically the hottest month of the year, and with the average household using about 60% of their daily water use on gardens and lawns; Now is the perfect time to learn about water conservation and what we can do to protect our landscapes while saving millions of gallons of water this summer

The EPA estimates that about 7.8 billion gallons of water – or anywhere from 30 to 70 percent depending on the region – are used outdoors in the U.S. each year. And as much as half of that is wasted due to inefficient watering methods. Today’s homeowners should know the methods that allow them to efficiently utilize their natural resources, which as a result saves them money on their utility bills and minimizes their time spent on upkeep.

Learning how to properly maintain and keep lawns and landscapes healthy, green and thriving is not easy as temperature rises in summer, especially for the water conscious landscaper.  Certified Landscape Professional and Master Gardener Joe Lamp’l of ‘Growing A Greener World’ shares his expert advice to help bring out the green in everyone’s yards. Joe Lamp’l offers consumers water conservation tips and techniques to help build consumers’ master garden or landscaping plans, such as:

 

•          Simple tips on how to keep yard and garden weed free
•          Ways to keep your lawn and garden healthy while minimizing outdoor water consumption and maintaining sustainability.
•         Which plants help achieve optimal water efficiency
•         Easy methods to properly water our yards
•          Tips you can share that will benefit everyone when they start to tackle their lawn and landscape

 

 

ABOUT Joe Lamp’l:  

As a Certified Landscape Professional and Master Gardener, Joe Lamp’l combines his television experience and expertise of landscaping, environmental stewardship and passion for living a more eco-friendly life, as creator, host and executive producer of the award-winning national public television series Growing a Greener World®. The show, which is entering its fourth season, focuses on the stories of people, places and organizations that are doing good things for the planet, with an emphasis on landscaping topics. He also serves as a landscaping and sustainability guest expert on national morning shows like NBC’s TODAY Show, ABC’s Good Morning America and The Weather Channel, among others.

 

 

5 Things You Should Be Doing in the Garden Now

What should you be doing in your garden right now? There are many things you could be doing in your garden right now and really it depends on what your particular garden needs but here are a few ideas for you.

1. Adding organic matter. I add organic matter AT LEAST twice a year. One is in the fall we grind up our leaves with the lawn mower and spread them all around the grow boxes after they are all cleaned out for the winter. Then we also add a nice thick layer of mulch around

How to Easily Start Vegetable Seeds Indoors

Watch this video to learn how easy it is to start your own seeds inside!

Happy Gardening!

Check out our video about making your own light garden.

How To Easily Rotate Your Crops

So why is it necessary to rotate the crops in your garden? Simply, it will help slow down or stop the spread of diseases and pests in your garden, and improve the soil of your garden. Pests and diseases usually attack plants of the same family, and can linger in the soil to pop up again the next year or two. So by proper planning and rotation with plants of different families then  you can help prevent the survival of those pests and diseases from year to year.

Top 5 Vegetables That Grow Well In Shade

Having enough space in your yard to grow every thing can be a big problem for a gardener. Especially because most of those vegetables and fruit like to have full sun! I have good news for you. There are some vegetables that do well in part shade. Of course they will need some sun during the day say about 3 hours to get what they need from the sun. Planting some in the shadier areas of your yard will save those sunny spots to grow the sun lovers like tomatoes, peppers, and squash plants.

The trick to knowing if your plant will do OK with less sunlight is this: If the vegetable is grown to eat the leafy part, or possibly the roots, they do well without as much sun. If the vegetable is grown to eat a fruit that is produced by the plant, it needs lots of sunlight. Growing these vegetables in part shade might also help to keep the soil from drying out so quickly.

3 Important Things to Consider When Choosing a Location for Your Vegetable Garden

1. Sunlight– How much sunlight will your plants need. Most likely if you are growing vegetables they will need AT LEAST 8 hours of sunlight a day during the growing season. If you have a shady yard, this can be addressed by building a grow box with a bottom and on wheels that you can move throughout the year to get enough sun light. Or you could consider growing your vegetables interspersed in the landscaping of your yard.
2. Proximity– Having a location that is close to the kitchen door is ideal,

Why Tomato Plants Get Diseases

We have always planted most of our tomato plants all together in the same grow box, or close together. Last year, after planting our tomatoes, they started going wonderfully like always, but then somehow one of them started looking dried out and soon died. So I pulled it out and threw it away quickly. However, it sadly and slowly it started to happen to the tomato plants closest to it. There were 3 left at the end of the season that were left untouched with disease. I had a tomato plant in the front yard, and it was very healthy all year. So as I analyzed what went wrong, I realized that if I had not planted them all together like that, they would not have spread the disease to each other as easily. So one of the lessons I learned this year:

The 3 Best Vegetables for Your Home Garden

How do you choose what to plant in your garden? Well that all depends on what you like and what your family will eat. Here are 3 vegetables that most people like to grow in their home gardens, and one of the reasons why is they taste so much better when home grown and they are also easy to grow and get a bountiful harvest. So if you can only grow 3 vegetables in your garden this year- try these 3.

5 Reasons to Grow a Vegetable Garden

There really is no possible way to put a number to the benefits of growing a vegetable garden, but if you are thinking of putting one in, here are 5 reasons that you absolutely have to.

1. It gets you moving. You have to do some lifting, and moving around to put in and maintain a garden although it can be as much or as little work as you want, the work is great to keep your body moving.
2. Relieves daily stress. Our modern world has countless benefits, however those pay it’s toll and we live in a very stressful world. Being part of a growing process brings you back a little bit and can help aliveiate that stress in your life.
3. Produces yummy fruit and vegetables to eat. Tomatoes, peas and corn- oh my!