organic gardening

The environmental benefits of a compost pile are pretty huge. Let’s first consider what happens when we don’t compost. Landfills have become the third largest source of human-caused greenhouse gas.…

Despite the bad news about honey bees, there is a tremendous amount you can do. Here is my take on it. Many of these steps also help other pollinators too,…

Besides tasting great to us humans, bees and beneficial insects love dill too, gathering both pollen and nectar from its flowers. I love it with smoked fish and potatoes–but I…

Watch a bee on the gorgeous annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus), and the phrase “busy as a bee” comes to mind. A sunflower’s head is actually composed of hundreds of…

  Several years ago my lawn and gardens were infested with grubs and Japanese beetles. Dig anywhere in the lawn and you would see many of the white wormlike larvae known as…

Watching pests eat our gardens may be one of the most frustrating aspects of gardening. Your plants look great, until one day the bugs descend to eat and eat and eat…… A…

While honey bee losses have gotten lots of attention, native bees have been largely ignored. But they are in trouble too. Scientists have seen a dramatic drop in the number of…

It starts out innocently enough. You go into one of the big box stores to buy something, let’s say lightbulbs. While you are there, you wander through the nursery department…

Beekeepers were the first to sound the alarm of neonicotinoids, seeing a connection between bees dying in large numbers, colony collapse disorder (CCD), and these chemicals. Neonicotinoids threaten not…

Years ago when I planted my early vegetable gardens I chose non-organic seeds because they were cheaper. I was buying lots of seeds! I believed in organic gardening, but I…