Making a Beautiful Garden a Food Forest (part one)

Everyone has a dream to walk out their door and pick delicious things to serve their family.  The reality can be harder and takes a bit of planning.  BUT there is good news... there are simple things you CAN do that make your regular gardening and landscaping take on part of the work.



We have heirloom Pears that survived fordecades on very little care. 

Start with Fruit Trees

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Farms Come with Amazing Stories... This one is maybe the very best....

You never know what you will run into when you are farming.  But this story takes the prize...

enjoy...









Farm story with a very happy ending

Expandable Building.. Instant Greenhouse?

Sometimes there is a better mousetrap.    Getting greenhouses (or any building) onto a site for a reasonable price is a challenge.  Hat tip to this Australian  group who says these can be shipped all over the world. Watch this one min video and be inspired.





We suspect there will be more of this kind of thing,  ready to go wired and piped for greenhouses and more.

 http://expand-isbu.us/

The Dollars and Cents of Growing your own Strawberries

Strawberries are one of the easiest plants to grow.  They are perennial and will produce year after year with a minimum of fuss.  Most important?  They are a huge money saver for a family....Did you know that  25 plants will produce over 30 pounds of strawberries a year ?   Do the math.  Three 6 packs of organic strawberries will cost about 2.50 -3.50/pack  and 30 pounds of strawberries at 3.00

6 Natural Solutions To Decontaminate Soil

With a progressively educated population becoming more aware of the inherent dangers of the conventional food supply, urban farming has become hugely popular. However, more people are also becoming aware of contaminated soil and how heavy metals pose potential risks to their food crops. As backyard gardening continues to explode in popularity, we must ask how contaminated is our soil?

Top 10 Reasons To Grow Your Own Organic Food

1. Get The Nutrition You Need and Enjoy Tastier Food!Many studies have shown that organically grown food has more minerals and nutrients that we need than food grown with synthetic pesticides. There’s a good reason why many chefs use organic foods in their recipes—they taste better. Organic farming starts with the nourishment of the soil, which eventually leads to the nourishment of

Keep Squash Bugs Away Organically this Year

There was a big infestation of Squash Bugs and Borers last year, and many lost a portion or all of their crop. The best way to treat them is by Natural (Organic) methods. I'll list a few of those methods for you. Some of these methods will work better than others for your specific situation, so if one method doesn't work for you, then you might try another.COMPANION PLANTING--One of my favorite

Have YouTried a Raised Lasagna Bed Garden?

A great no-dig, no-till organic gardening method that will give you rich soil, and best of all, it's not labor intensive. The name "Lasagna Gardening" is actually the method of building the garden. You will add layers of organic material that “decompose” over time, and the result will be soil that will help your plants thrive. It's great for the environment, because you use your yard and kitchen

Getting Your Potatoes in the Ground

Potatoes are easy to grow, but like cool weather, so you should try to get them into the ground at the right time. You can order seed potatoes through mail-order garden companies or buy them at local garden centers/ hardware stores. Supermarket potatoes are usually treated with chemicals to keep them from sprouting, so they may not grow well, but then on the other hand....I've heard that some

Soaking your Seeds will give you Faster Germination

Soaking Seeds gives them a Jump Start



When you soak your Seeds, water will fully penetrate the hull of the seed, nourishing the germ that will bloom into a plant. Seeds get food from the nutrients in the soil once they are planted, but for a good start they need plenty of water. It can be difficult for seeds to take on enough water once they are planted, because soil can wick moisture away

10 of The Most Functional Foods In The World Which Destroy Cancer Cells

Many specific proteins, enzymes and coding within our immune system may be activated to kill cancer cells. There is no such thing as a cancer cell that cannot be defeated by the human immune system. The difference between cancers that grow and those that don't are what we put in our bodies to prohibit their growth. Proteins can be rendered ineffective if cells experience uncontrolled growth

Small Farms Are Better For Food Security and Biodiversity

We often assume the only way to feed the world’s rapidly growing human population is with large-scale industrial agriculture. Many would argue that genetically altering food crops is also necessary to produce large enough quantities on smaller areas to feed the world’s people.









But recent scientific research is challenging those assumptions. Our global approaches to agriculture are

9 Herbs and Spices That Heal - We Need To Talk More About Their Power

It's time to turn your spice rack into a medicine cabinet. Herbs and spices hold much higher antioxidant values than foods and they can add incredible taste especially when used correctly with the right dishes. Personal chef and registered dietician Diane Hendricks shares her top picks.





Red Pepper or Cayenne -- Great for adding heat and color to just about any dish, cayenne pepper or

How To Grow Organic Apples Without Any Kind of Pesticide or Spray

Apples may seem like the last bastion of pesticide-dependent gardening. In many commercial orchards, apples are sprayed 10 to 20 times per year. It's not hard to find organic home gardeners who still believe it's nearly impossible to grow good fruit without pesticides. Furthermore, most people probably expect organic fruit to come with a few spots or chew marks. I used to rely on insect

With Just 2 Square Feet of Space Indoors or Outdoors, You Can Grow Your Own Vertical Barrel Garden

Regardless of space constraints, there are no more excuses for not growing your own garden. Whether indoors or outdoors, for less than $10, one recycled barrel can be an entire garden in itself growing 19 plants on the outside edge, and another 6 on top. With immense interest in organic produce worldwide, and the freedom to grow pesticide-free and Non-GMO fruits and vegetables, the demand

10 Simple Hacks For a Successful Garden

Plenty of research has shown that people who have small plots of land for gardening, especially those aged over 60, tend to be significantly healthier than those who do not. Growing your own garden gives you the ability to grow your own organic vegetables at a cost that is affordable for almost everyone. Many of the best gardening hacks come from those on budgets as they teach us methods to

New Research: More Than 50 Percent of People In Developed Nations May Soon Suffer Malnutrition If Bees Continue To Decline

Simple, straightforward and commonsense protections have not been updated for more than 20 years to protect bees. Our imperiled pollinators are in trouble and so are we. Despite popular reports that pollinators are crucial for food security and human health, no scientific studies have actually tested how pollinator declines may impact nutritional health - until now, say researchers. 




BEE

How Leafy Greens Boost Activity of Vital Immune Cells To Prevent Disease

Leafy greens are likely the number one food you can eat to regularly help improve your health. They're filled with fiber along with crucial vitamins, minerals, and plant-based phytochemicals that may help protect you from almost every disease known. Immune cells play an essential role in protecting intestinal health and could be boosted by consuming leafy greens, say researchers.



You can

Neonicotinoids and the dangers they pose to honey bees and insects

There is a huge fuss about neonicotinoids and the dangers they pose ...to honey bees, but remember that they are not native to North America. Everything in the insect world suffers from these chemicals, especially native pollinators, through ground dwelling cicada nymphs, to even our lovely monarch butterflies both as caterpillars and adults. The simple definition of neonicoinoids is that they

Planting it Forward. Turn your Christmas tree into a 100 year statement

We envisioned a Grove to lift your Spirit


It started out easy enough.  We have a beautiful ranch where we decided we wanted to plant a grove of trees that would last 200 years..... Thus started our journey so search out live christmas trees, rescue any orphan trees we came across that would grow in our area from the nursery sale piles and, buy en mass, any broken off problem trees on sale at