• Happy Worms
    Home Garden,  Organics

    Worms:

    A Solution for Improving Garden Soil & Saving the Planet Are you seeking a way to keep your garden plants healthy without harming the environment? Conventional fertilizers aren’t going to cut it, as they pollute the planet and don’t provide long-term benefits. A better option is to create fertilizer at home with worms by setting up a personal vermicompost that turns your wasted food scraps in plant energy.  Why is homemade worm compost so beneficial? It adds essential nutrients back into the soil, plus worms have the potential to make it easier to reduce your household trash. And, as you’ll learn next, that’s no small matter. Compost: Reducing Waste One…

  • FOOD,  Home Garden,  Organics

    Top 5 Organic Gardening Tips

    THE ORGANIC CENTER  1. Choose organic seeds Organic seeds are harvested from certified organic crops and therefore are not treated with fungicides like most conventional seeds.  Without the application of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, organic plants rely more on their own defense systems when battling pests and diseases and grow deep roots to extract nutrients from the soil. Plants grown from organic seed are typically stronger and more adapted to thrive and grow under organic gardening practices. 2. Fertilize your soil by using organic compost and manure Common non-organic garden fertilizers, found at your local garden and home store, may contain ammonium phosphate and other synthetic chemicals. These synthetic fertilizers…

  • Community Gardening,  FOOD,  Home Garden

    Urban Homesteading for Renters

    From the Landlord BY KIT It started eight years ago when one of my tenants asked if he could build two raised beds in the yard of the four-plex my husband and I own in North Portland. Being a gardener myself, I was thrilled about the request. I only asked that he garden organically, which he supported. From there, another tenant built more raised beds, and the next tenant constructed even more. We now have twenty garden beds of veggies with three of the four residents growing their own food. My husband and I moved into one of the units last March and after my first summer living on this…

  • Home Garden,  Publisher's Page,  Think Piece

    Homesteading

    Today, the western frontier has been settled and most of us live in urban areas, but that doesn’t mean there is no place for the homesteader. Rather than going extinct, the homesteaders of our species have adapted and have re-appeared as the solution to new problems created by urbanization. Thus was born the Urban Homesteader.