plants
How to Grow Rhubarb: Diseases, Harvesting and Recipes
Add to Favorites By Teresa Flora – In much of North America, spring is welcomed with the tart and tangy taste of fresh rhubarb. Rhubarb is one of the easiest and …
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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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Recycling Water at Home: Grey Water for the Garden
Add to Favorites Using pure fresh water in the garden — while sending only “slightly used” grey water into the septic or sewer system — is considered wasteful in some …
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Water on the Homestead: Is Filtering Well Water Necessary?
Add to Favorites Many homesteads have wells drilled for their water source. But is filtering well water necessary? There are, as usual, different thoughts on the subject. I grew up …
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Growing Jalapeño Peppers
Add to Favorites I remember well the first time I started growing jalapeño peppers in my vegetable garden. That was years ago, when growing jalapeño peppers was considered a novelty. …
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Wild Plant Identification: Foraging for Edible Weeds
Add to Favorites On a sleepy Sunday afternoon, on the grounds of an ex-horse stable, Nate Chetelat presents a wild plant identification tour for a local gardening group. The focus …
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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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How to Work a One-Acre Homestead
Add to Favorites When we purchased our home in upstate New York, we had no intention to create a one-acre homestead. We were thrilled that we had so much space …
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What Planting Zone Am I In?
Add to Favorites U.S. planting zones are based on the weather history of any given area. The question “what planting zone am I in?” is one of the most asked …
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Natural Dyes for Wool and Clothing
Add to Favorites Natural dyes for wool have been used for hundreds of years. Harvesting plants and extracting the color from the leaves, berries, and flowers is an enjoyable way to …
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Building a Productive, Safe Greenhouse For Less Than $1,000
With the short growing season in Wisconsin and the price of some plants in the nursery, I came to the conclusion that I needed a greenhouse to start my plants from seed instead of buying plants every year.
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The Biology of the Rumen
Add to Favorites By John Hibma – Ruminants have a special function in our world’s complex ecosystem. They consume grasses grown in pastures and on rangeland along with fibrous shrubs and …
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Recycling Materials on Hand for Compost Bin Plans
Add to Favorites There are endless compost bin plans available online. A basic understanding of what components a compost bin must have is essential. Composting is among the easiest, environmentally …
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The Joy of Growing Horseradish (It’s Great With Almost Anything!)
Add to Favorites By Sue Robishaw – Cold-climate gardeners can boast few crops that prefer their freezing winter abode, but the sturdy horseradish not only prefers it that way, it requires …
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