About the Author
Marissa Ames
Articles by Marissa Ames
Avoid Plant Sunburn and Summer Garden Disasters
Plant sunburn, floods, heat and hailstorms. Planning now protects your garden from disaster later.
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Selling Homemade Food: Laws and Considerations
Cottage food law is the legal permission or ban on selling homemade food. And it’s gotten a lot of attention lately. Within the past few years, states have either tightened or loosened their laws concerning who can sell their breads, pickles, and jellies; and the ways they can go about doing it.
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Families Learning Together
Deep in Appalachia lies a verdant paradise of sustainability. The brainchild of Eustace Conway, mountain man and naturalist, Turtle Island Preserve now serves to teach forgotten skills back to the community while protecting a pristine environment that would have otherwise become a development for the wealthy.
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What is the Best Mulch to Prevent Weeds?
Add to Favorites All Photos By Shelley Dedauw The best mulch to prevent weeds depends on where the mulch lies, what else you need it to do…and, of course, cost. …
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Garden Hoops: Low Tunnels for Frost and Insect Protection
Add to Favorites When you’re itching to get your hands dirty, garden hoops can extend the season enough to avoid disaster. Midway between full-sized greenhouses and the gamble of throwing …
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Early Spring Vegetables List: Don’t Wait on Winter Waning
The snow is melting and daytime temperatures are calling you outside. Leaf buds swell on trees and your hands long to feel the soil once again.
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Planting for Seasons and Garden Zones
Add to Favorites Knowing when to plant your garden involves a combination of researching garden zones and knowing the individual crops. If you’re new to gardening, you may not know …
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Crop Rotation: Benefits and Why it Matters
Add to Favorites Not sure about crop rotation benefits? Here’s a science lesson for you. Our produce contains wonderful nutrients. After all, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants are the reasons our …
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Facts about Floods and Surviving Them
Tornados, hurricanes and earthquakes come on fast and strong. But floods can be just as devastating.
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A Guide to Growing Vegetables in Pots and Containers
How often have you strolled through a farmer’s market or eyed a friend’s fresh produce and wished you had your own garden? Perhaps you lack space.
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Avoiding, Recognizing, and Treating Hypothermia Symptoms
An enemy lurks in the coldest depths of the land, taking thousands of victims. But it’s not wildlife. It’s the cold itself.
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Putting Agritourism Ideas to Work on Family Farms
Add to Favorites Farming is tough. Often, farms stay afloat because one parent works outside the home. But agritourism ideas help both parents pay bills and create the lives they …
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Self-Watering Planters: DIY Containers to Combat Drought
What holds five gallons of soil, uses 80% less water and costs less than a dollar? Self-watering planters! DIY instructions are simple and most materials can be recycled.
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An Easy Guide to Tanning Rabbit Hides
Many homesteaders see the value of raising rabbits for meat. Rabbits reproduce well, grow fast, eat food you can grow yourself, and produce manure for the garden.
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Sprouting Seeds at Home for Winter Nutrition
Sprouting seeds at home has long been an easy and delicious way to gain nutrition when greens are scarce. You can do it for you or your chickens.
During the springtime and summer, sweet greens grow all over our yard in the forms of cultivated vegetables or simple grass and weeds
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