Reporting on the Great Fava Versus Wilt Experiment! Some of you have been following my fava experiment, that, per John Jeavons, favas counteract the tomato Fusarium and Verticillium Wilts fungi, hoping it would work. Issues for me were lower leaves, humidity, low spots, nearby plant water needs. I religiously watered only nearby plants. But that [...]
Archive for the ‘Worm Castings’ Category
Tomatoes, Wilts, Fava, Coffee Grounds
Posted in Amendments, Bone Meal, Coffee Grounds, Compost, Determinate, Disease, Fungus, Fusarium Wilt, Heirloom, Indeterminate, Manure, Nonfat Powdered Milk, Succession, Tomato, Veggies!, Verticillium Wilt, VFN, Worm Castings, tagged bean, coffee grounds, compost, cucumber, determinate, disease, fava, fusarium, germinating, green manure, indeterminate, inhibited, Jeavons, resistant, seeds, spinach, straw, successive, suppression, tolerant, tomatoes, Varieties, verticillium, weed, wilt on March 4, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Give your plants a chance!
Posted in Amendments, Ants, Aphids, Biodiversity, Blood Meal, Compost, Disease, Disease Resistant, Eggplant, Fertilizer - Sidedressing, Foliar Feeding, Fish - Kelp, Heirloom, Hybrid, Manure, Mildew, Pests, Snails & Slugs, Soil, Time of Year, Tomato, Varieties, Watering, White Fly, Worm Castings, tagged amend, ants, aphids, balance, basin, beneficial, biodiversity, blood meal, bloom, cold, compost, day length, disease, drainage, drip, eggplant, fish emulsion, furrow, garden, germination, hot, insects, manure, mildew, N, Nitrogen, organic, organisms, overhead, patch, pest, plants, possums, production, raccons, raised bed, row, season, sidedressing, skunks, slugs, snails, Soil, temp, tolerant, tomatoes, variety, veggies, virus, water, weather, weeds, whiteflies, worm castings on February 17, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Give your plants a chance! Not too much N (Nitrogen) It imbalances your plants, just like too much sugar for us. You get lots of leaf, no fruit, growth is too fast and ‘soft,’ inviting to pests and diseases. Watering practices make a difference. Overhead watering is not good for most plants, but especially not for [...]
10 Easy Steps to Make RICH COMPOST for Fall Planting!
Posted in Amendments, Bat - Seabird Guano, Blood Meal, Community Gardens, Compost, Fertilizer - Sidedressing, Foliar Feeding, Fish - Kelp, Harvest, Innoculants, Lasagna Gardening - Food Not Lawns, Manure, Mulch, Soil, Teas- Compost, Manure, Worm, Time of Year, Winter Plants - Cool Season, Worm Castings, tagged alchemy, alfalfa, bat, beneficial, black smell, blood, brown, bulk, cardboard, cast, chicken, chocolate, coffee, cold, compost, cover, Craigs list, decompose, disesase, dry, earthworm, easy, eggshell, emulsion, enclosure, fall, fast, feeder, fish, foliar, garbage, garden, Ghiradelli, grass, green, guano, harvest, homemade, horse, hot, insect, island seed & feed, kitchen, lasagna, lawn, layer, leaves, manure, meal, mesh, micro, moist, mulch, N, nature, newspaper, Nitrogen, nutrient, Oct, organic, organism, oxygenate, pallet, pest, Plant, plastic, PVC, Red, seed, Sep, Soil, steer, straw, summer, surface, tea, trench, twigs, Val Webb, veggies, vermicompost, warm, waste, weather, wet, winter, wire, worm, worm casting, wriggler, yarrow, yellow on July 6, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I love Val Webb’s image and she and I both love COMPOST! She says: There’s an irresistible alchemy involved when you can start with garbage and end up with a wildly nutrient-rich substance that has been likened to Ghirardelli chocolate for earthworms. Composting is EASY! Start Now! The weather is warm, so your compost will happen [...]
Keeping Your Veggie Garden Happy – Foliar Plant Care!
Posted in Amendments, Baking Soda, Bean, Community Gardens, Compost, Cucumber, Disease, Eggplant, Epsom Salt, Fertilizer - Sidedressing, Foliar Feeding, Fertilzer, Fish - Kelp, Germinate, Green Beans, Home Remedies, Legumes - Peas, Beans, Fava, Manure, Melon, Mildew, Nonfat Powdered Milk, NPK - Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium, Peas, Pepper, Potato, Pumpkins, Seeds, Squash, Summer Plants - Warm Season, Teas- Compost, Manure, Worm, Time of Year, Tomato, Veggies!, Watermelon, Worm Castings, tagged 18 Karat Gold, alkaline, Ambassador, amino, ATTRA, baking, bean, bicarbonate, Care, casting, caution, cell, chlorophyll, compost, cucumber, cucurbit, disease, dish, Diva, Dramm, eggplant, emulsion, enzyme, epsom, eyes, fertilizer, fish, foliar, fruit, fungal spore, fungicide, garden, germicide, germination, Gladiator, growth, healthy, humid, immune, inhibit, insecticidal, kelp, leaf, leaf blight, liquid, magnesium, manure, milk, mite, Nitrogen, nonfat, nontoxic, nuts, oil, pepper, pest, pesticide, phosphorus, phytotoxic, Plant, pm, powdered, powdery mildew, prevention, protein, psyllid, pumpkin, rose, rot, rust, salad, salt, seed, skin, soap, soda, sodium, solanaceae, spray, squash, Success, sulfate, sulfur, summer, Sunglo zucchini, Sunray, surfactant, tea, thrips, tomatillo, tomato, uptake, veggie, Vitamin, Wildcat, worm, yellow on June 24, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Foliar plant care is so easy! Use a Dramm Can, the Perfect Foliar Machine! Worm Castings, Compost, Manure Tea, Fish Emulsion/Kelp for FEEDING – All in ONE! You can easily make this tea! A handful of castings, a handful to a cup of compost, handful of manure, stir and let them soak overnight in a [...]
Mulching/Composting in Place – Some Like it HOT!
Posted in Amendments, Bean, Beets, Carrot, Chard, Companion Plant, Compost, Cucumber, Disease, Eggplant, Fusarium Wilt, Green Beans, Heat Tolerant, Jicama, Lettuce, Manure, Melon, Mildew, Mulch, Mycorrhizae, Okra, Onion, Pepper, Pests, Pumpkins, Radish, Raised Beds, Snails & Slugs, Soil, Squash, Straw Bale, Strawberries, Summer Plants - Warm Season, Teas- Compost, Manure, Worm, Tomato, Turnip, Veggies!, Verticillium Wilt, Watering, Watermelon, Worm Castings, tagged air, bale, bean, beet, berm, bugs, cage, canopy, capture, carrot, chard, chop and drop, coastal, community, companion, compost, cucumber, debris, degradable, disease, dry, earth, eggplant, erosion, feed store, free, fungi, fusarium, garden, germinating, grass, habitat, heat, hillside, hot, humidity, inoculate, jicama, kitchen, layer, leaves, lettuce, light, living, manure, marine, Mediterranean, melon, mildew, moist, mulch, mycorrhizal, okra, onion, organic, organism, overwintering, pepper, pest, Pilgrim Terrace, pine needle, Plant, pumpkin, purslane, radish, rainwater, raised bed, Red, redwood, root, salad, seed, slug, SoCal, Soil, Southern, sprout, squash, staw, strawberry, sunny, sweet, tea, terrace, tolerant, tomato, transplant, trellis, turnip, verticillium, water, weed, wilt, wind, winter, worm, wriggler, yarrow, zone, zucchini on June 11, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I used to be a total mulcher, covered my whole veggie garden. I’ve adjusted my coastal SoCal mulch* thinking to match the plant! Same goes for composting in place. That’s a good idea for some areas of your garden, other areas not at all! If you are coastal SoCal, in the marine layer zone, your mulch, or composting in place, may [...]
In honor of Earth Day!
Posted in Community Gardens, Compost, Lasagna Gardening - Food Not Lawns, Manure, Mycorrhizae, No-dig, Raised Beds, Soil, Worm Castings, tagged aerate, air, alfalfa, amendment, bloom, brown, build, cardboard, casting, chop and drop, circulation, compost, Day, deck, decompose, dry, earth, FNL, food, food miles, Food Not Lawns, frameless, front, fruit, fungi, garden, grass, green, innoculate, landscape, lasagna, lawn, layer, leaves, manure, microclimate, minerals, mulch, mycorrhizal, N, newspaper, niche, Nitrogen, no dig, nutritious, organisms, phosphorus, pollution, raised bed, Red, restoration, rock, roots, scraps, seeds, sheet, Soil, South, straw, sun, sustainability, tarp, terrace, transplant, trim, uptake, veggies, wet, wetted, worm, wriggler, yard on April 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Food Not Lawns is all about raising veggies not grass. Studies show they both take about the same amount of water, but veggies pay back sustainably with fresh highly nutritious food on your table and no-food-miles or pollution. Plus they make seeds for their next generation, adapting to your microclimate niche! http://www.sbfoodnotlawns.org Do I have [...]
Tomatoes & Wilt Part 2, Favas, Basil
Posted in Amendments, Basil, Bat - Seabird Guano, Community Gardens, Determinate, Disease, Disease Resistant, Fava, Fish - Kelp, Fusarium Wilt, Late Blight, Mycorrhizae, Summer Plants - Warm Season, Tomato, Verticillium Wilt, VFN, Worm Castings, tagged airborne, April, ArcaMax, basil, bell bean, blight, canner, companion, counteract, cure, dandelion, determinate, diagnosis, disease, dompost, Earlly Girl, early, fava, Gene Bazan, Genovese, heat, humidity, Jeavons, Jetsetter, lab, Legend, lemon, lover, March, New Hampshire Surecrop, Nov, Nufar, Nursery, pathology, Penn State, pesto, purple, resistant, seed, Sep, slicer, SoCal, Soil, Surecrop, tolerant, tomato, variety, verticillium, VF, VFFNTA, VFN, wilt, windborne on March 27, 2011 | 4 Comments »
It may seem a bit early to talk about tomatoes, but tisn’t! Hey, it’s always ok to talk about tomatoes, right?! There are important things to know about that start well before planting time! Read on…. Last year I tried the dandelion cure – either I didn’t do it right, not enough dandelions soon enough, or [...]
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Read me at Santa Barbara View!
Farmers’ Almanac BEST PLANTING DAYS!
Gardening Tips!
- All Season Plants
- Amendments
- Antioxidant
- Ants
- Aphids
- Artichoke
- Arugula
- Asparagus
- Aspirin
- Baking Soda
- Basil
- Bat – Seabird Guano
- Bean
- Beets
- Beneficials
- Biodiversity
- Biofumigation
- Birds
- Blood Meal
- Bolt Resistant/Slow Bolting
- Bone Meal
- Brassicas
- Broccoflower
- Broccoli
- Brussel Sprouts
- Bunch onions
- Cabbage
- Carrot
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Chard
- Cilantro
- Coffee Grounds
- Collards
- Community Gardens
- Companion Plant
- Compost
- Container Gardening
- Corn
- Cucumber
- Cucumber Beetle
- Cultural Control
- Design – Layout
- Determinate
- Disease
- Disease Resistant
- Early Blight
- Edible Flowers
- Eggplant
- Epsom Salt
- Event!
- Fava
- Fertilizer – Sidedressing, Foliar Feeding
- Fertilzer
- Fish – Kelp
- Flea Beetles
- Floating Row Covers
- Frost tolerant
- Frost, Freeze
- Fungus
- Fusarium Wilt
- Garlic
- Germinate
- Go Vertical!
- Gophers
- Green Beans
- Greenhouse
- Greens
- Guild
- Harvest
- Heat Tolerant
- Heirloom
- Herbs – Culinary, Medicinal Food Magic!
- Home Remedies
- Horseradish
- Hybrid
- Hydrozone
- Indeterminate
- Innoculants
- Inoculate
- Interplant
- Jicama
- Kale
- Kohlrabi
- Lasagna Gardening – Food Not Lawns
- Late Blight
- Layering
- Leafminer
- Leeks
- Legumes – Peas, Beans, Fava
- Lettuce
- Manure
- Melon
- Mice – Rats
- Mildew
- Moon Planting
- Mulch
- Mycorrhizae
- Nematode
- Nitrogen
- No-dig
- Nonfat Powdered Milk
- NPK – Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium
- Nutrition Specifics
- Okra
- Onion
- Parsley
- Parsnip
- Peas
- Pepper
- Permaculture
- Pests
- Pollinator
- Potato
- PreSoak, PreSprout
- Pruning
- Pumpkins
- Purslane
- Radish
- Rain
- Raised Beds
- Raspberry
- Recipes
- Rhubarb
- Seed Balls
- Seeds
- Seeds – Planting
- SeedSaving
- Sheet composting
- Skunks
- Snails & Slugs
- Soil
- Solarization
- Squash
- Stacking
- Straw Bale
- Strawberries
- Succession
- Summer
- Summer Plants – Warm Season
- Sunflower
- Teas- Compost, Manure, Worm
- Time of Year
- Tomato
- Tools
- Turnip
- Varieties
- Veggies!
- Verticillium Wilt
- VFN
- Watering
- Watermelon
- Weather
- White Fly
- Winter Plants – Cool Season
- Worm Castings
- Yam
- Zucchini
Planting at the Right Time!
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
