Gardening Section

How To Compost Through the Winter in Cold Climates

Submitted by cactii on January 17, 2010 - 10:51am
Winter or Indoor Composting with Red Wiggler Worms

Composting with Red Wiggler Worms is great for people who like gardening, plants or fishing. Utilizing a limited amount of indoor space, your time, and a selected portion of your kitchen scraps you can make all natural compost for your garden or build a worm population for when the fishing season starts.

Unlike outdoor composting this method can be done all year round, even in cold climates. With this method of composting you’ll be ready with great compost or fishing worms at any time of the year. Read the full article »

The Secret to Impatient Composting - How to Make Compost Faster

Submitted by cactii on January 13, 2010 - 9:45am

Composting requires a lot of patience, it's a natural process that requires times for the things you put into the compost to break down.

But I'm one of those impatient people and when I want compost I want it right now so I'm always trying to speed up the composting process so that I can having it quicker than it would normally take.

There's a few things that you can do to help speed up the process of composting. Read the full article »

Finally Planted My Fruit Bearing Guamuchil Tree

Submitted by cactii on December 30, 2009 - 8:43am
Surprisingly Sweet Guamuchil Fruit

Although my wife doesn't much like the fruit bearing Guamuchil tree she's going to have to suffer because I really like the tree, its' fruit and I finally planted one into the ground at our property.

I'm thinking that my wife doesn't like the Guamuchil tree because it has a bit of a bad reputation for wrecking the foundations of buildings with its' very strong root system. I planted my Guamuchil very far away from any construction that I intend to do so this isn't going to be a problem for me.

The Guamuchil tree produces a bean like pod which turns a little bit pink and starts to pop open around July.

I really like the fruit this tree produces and it's for that reason that I want one growing on my property. Read the full article »

Interview With Hilery Hixon - Author of Desert Greenhouse Guide

Submitted by cactii on December 16, 2009 - 12:07pm
Hilery Hixon - Author of Growing Under Glass: Your Guide to Greenhouse Gardening Success

Hilery Hixon, the author of Growing Under Glass: Your Guide to Greenhouse Gardening Success which is available on Amazon.com lives in the famous Mojave Desert. The Mojave Desert is a very hot and dry environment that receives less than 10 inches (25cm) of rain per year, it has a climate that very few plants will survive in. Hilery uses her greenhouse to control the temperature and humidity in her plant growing environment which allows her to grow plants that would normally never thrive in the Mojave Desert climate. Read the full article »

Growing Moringa Oleifera - Progress Update

Submitted by cactii on December 9, 2009 - 8:48am

For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile you'll know that I have a few Moringa Oleifera trees growing.

My wife started them from seed back on October 11th and in the first month they grew to about 30 centimeters tall. The seedlings at the house still have nice luscious green leaves and look really healthy but their initial growth spurt has halted.

This plant had such a grand entry that I was expecting a little more from it. Here we are about a month after my last post about them and they haven't grown all that much since then. Read the full article »

Jackrabbits, Gophers, Mice and Other Scurrying Creatures - A Green Solution to These Pests

Submitted by cactii on December 4, 2009 - 7:29am
Rodent Repellent, Deterrent and Control

I was reading somewhere awhile back about the effects of shadows and silhouettes of birds of prey on mice and other small rodents. Basically, what the study did is cast shadows and show silhouettes of eagles, hawks, buzzards and other different birds of prey onto a large, closed cage of different types of rodents. The reactions of the rodents were noted over time to arrive at the results of the study.

The findings of the study showed that even though the shadows and silhouettes weren't moving very much, that the rodents were constantly terrified of them. This shows that the fear they feel for the birds of prey is an instinctive reaction. Read the full article »

Hand Picking Road Apples - Is This Supposed to be Embarrassing?

Submitted by cactii on November 24, 2009 - 9:35am

My property is 30 kilometers out in ranching country so there's almost always horses pasturing nearby. When there's horses you're bound to find fresh road apples close at hand.

The term "road apples" is new for me, it's something I picked up while discussing self-sustainability with some of my digital friends. Road apples is actually referring to horse manure, which probably doesn't sound so sweet and yummy as just a normal apple. Read the full article »

Underground Irrigation - Really Worth It?

Submitted by cactii on November 17, 2009 - 9:43am

I'm very water conscious with my plants. I haul all my water to my property 700 liters at a time in the back of my pickup - so I need to make every drop count.

I've installed the Orbit 2-Dial Digital Timer, it's a very reliable timed valve and it works off of 3 AA batteries which is perfect for remote locations that have no power.

I have an elevated water tank which goes to the timer and from the timer to three of my trees with buried HDPE (black sprinkler system hose) and a drip system that waters underground at the base of the tree. Read the full article »

My Mandarin Orange Harvest for 2009

Submitted by cactii on November 15, 2009 - 9:43am
Mandarin Orange Harvest for 2009

After almost 11 full months of caring for my newly planted Mandarin Orange tree I couldn't wait any longer, so yesterday was harvest day.

It wasn't a large bounty. It was just one whole brightly colored Mandarin orange. Pretty small harvest for the amount of work that I put into it, but this little tree has taught me so much about caring for citrus fruit trees and even more about trying to grow things in this harsh climate. Read the full article »

Recycle That Jack-O-Lantern

Submitted by cactii on November 3, 2009 - 10:56pm

Lots about composting these days but since Halloween is over I wanted to remind everybody that the pumpkin they carved should be composted!

Melons are a little bit tricky to compost probably because of their water content. Those old pumpkins will stink for a bit if you just throw them in your compost pile or bin so it helps to cut your Jack-O-Lantern into little pieces. Maybe you can make a video of it an put it on Youtube with some great effects. Read the full article »