Worm Assisted Compost vs. Commercial Topsoil

So, today I would like to take a moment to show a comparison from this year's garden.

Since last year's turned out to be a bust, we were originally planning on just having one tomato plant.  So we poured our 10 gallons of natural, worm assisted compost we'd been saving all year into a single, 3' x 3' box.  

Shortly after, we all decided on a bit more garden and added a bigger 4' x 8' garden bed which now holds 30 onions, 1 green pepper, and 2 more tomato plants.  This one we just filled with your ordinary, run of the mill topsoil, peat moss and a bag or two of commercial compost.  Now let me just add in that we planted the larger one a little earlier and right after wards it got almost completely killed with frost.  

I'm talking only one part of a leaf to speak of.

Only a few weeks in now, and we are shocked at the difference in the beds.  Worm compost beats the pants off of miracle grow. The race is on!  Worm compost is ahead by a mile.

Growing Celery in Water

We began the experiment of growing celery from our scraps just five days ago and you can already see a big difference.  All you have to do is cut off the bottom and place it in a dish of lukewarm water.  Make sure the water doesn't reach the top of the celery.  Then stick it in the window sill and wait.  Once the leaves come up, plant it.  That's it!

Here is day One:

Day 2 (Switched Containers):

Day 3:

Day 5 (Forgot day 4):

This is just so fun to watch and I love the fact that I don't have to waist our scraps!

Compost Tea - The "It" Factor

If you are an organic gardener this is something that could benefit you greatly.  Compost Tea is a tea made from completely decomposed compost that is added to water and stirred vigorously over a 3 day - 1 week period.  It is extremely nutricious and builds soil structure as well as fertilizing in a safe organic way.  Also, if the tea is added to live plants it will help create a bio-film on the leaves making the plant much more pest and fungi resistant.  This is such a natural & safe fertilizer, you could drink it! 

This is a very simple way to create a concentrated, liquid fertilizer that will benefit your garden in many ways.  Let me know how this works for you.

A word from The Digger

Gardening With Bricks

So, I feel the need to add my opinion on raised garden beds.  They are a great benefit to your garden, but what material is best to use?  I'm not a big fan of the kind with store bought, treated wood or the awful looking concrete blocks.  Too many chemicals leaking into the soil and contaminating all future plants in that area.  Using logs is very eco friendly and pleasing to the eye, but its not very permanent.  The solution to this problem was found by my husband in a trip to Lowes.  BRICKS!!  They are the very best material to use in my opinion.  They stay where they are forever without leaking chemicals and if you decide to widen the bed or change the layout of your garden it's easily movable.  Just lay them out, add soil, and plant!  Seems like a small topic, but so many people are opting for treated wood and concrete when bricks are easily find-able and long lasting (just don't drop them.)  In my opinion, the best brick to use is the kind you find from somewhere lost and forgotten.  The older ones are sturdier and add character.  Here are some photos of our garden beds from last year.

Do you have another
eco-friendly idea?
Please share! 
We are always
looking for new ideas.

Arsenic & Where Its At

Chances are your "organic" garden is full of this Crap...

Feed companies add arsenic to animal feed because it reduces the animal's calorie and nutrient intake, meaning the feed is less nutritious and has less calories (energy)...
This makes for a cheaper product, at the expense of public health!  They have capitalized on this.
They are putting money before lives.  The main sources of this are cow (bovine) and chicken manure - store bought - So my advice is to replace your dirt (if you have added store bought manure to it) or to never use these products - this will extend your life!
Also, mushroom compost is not any better because of how a mushroom works/ feeds.  It will actually absorb heavy metals/ chemicals into itself and concentrate them into the flower (the bit of mushroom you actually see.)

In my opinion, any compost or manure you buy in a plastic bag is BAD, it will hurt you.
It is not safe.  Do not use it!!

Death to store bought manure!

- A word from The Digger