yard " garden
Everyday Food From My Yard
Greg Peterson
Farming the city spaces around us presents a whole new paradigm for growing our own food and reigniting our connection to nature.
Greg's Favorite Tree
Greg Peterson
My favorite plant to nurture at the Urban Farm is the fruit tree, as it appeals to the lazy gardener in me: I can plant a tree once and reap the bounty for many years to come. The selection of fruit trees that grows in the Valley is vast -- peaches, apples, apricots, plums, pears and citrus -- and discovering just what works here and how to pick the perfect fruit trees for your yard can be perplexing.
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Growing to Market
Greg Peterson
Start with the love of gardening, sprinkle in a desire to grow food and add the persistence to get your “groceries” picked at their peak and you will find yourself well on your way to becoming a successful urban farmer. Step out and share the bounty beyond your family, friends and neighbors. Go ahead, take the plunge – grow to market!
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Bugs - We all got em
Greg Peterson
Garden pests … we all got ’em. The question is, what do we do about them?
Over and over I have found two things that make the whole bugaboo less of a concern: soil and balance.
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Sweet Smell of Victory
Greg Peterson
I smell the sweet success of victory on the horizon and the timing is perfect. The victory garden concept was born in World War II to nurture home gardens, build community, and to feed our families. It appears that we are on the verge of planting seeds once again. Recently I was chatting with Bonnie Baker of Baker’s Nursery here in Phoenix and she told me that they are having trouble keeping seeds in stock. Well you can imagine my excitement in hearing that.
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Parri's Instant Garden
Greg Peterson
Parri lives in the typical desert landscaped home her in Phoenix Arizona. In the spring of 2008 she decided that she would like to start gardening. The problem was that there was really no place to garden in her yard as the yard is primarily made up of a 2 inch layer of a magical desert landscape cover called decomposed granite. Think rough pebbles the size of small marbles.
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The Seed is Hope, the Flower is Joy
Kathleen Davidson
"We really don't know how long seeds can last, " explains seed expert Bill McDorman. "But we know for sure that they can last many decades. There are actually reports that a handful of Kamut (a grain) seeds found in a Pyramid in Egypt from 3,000 years ago were planted and now are growing gluten-free kamut. And blue corn seeds discovered in an old clay bowl, thought to be hundreds of years old, grew a good crop of blue corn"
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Spring Chicks Yield Fall Harvest
Greg Peterson
Chickens...I believe that EVERYONE who has even a postage-stamp-size yard can easily raise chickens. Yes you heard me right, they are easy to keep, quieter than your neighborhood dog, live as long as dogs, eat your food scraps and give you something to eat just about every day.
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One City-Dweller's Story of
Margaret Bruning
I live in a condo and like to walk through my neighborhood looking for edible treasures as the alleys in Phoenix are loaded with figs and citrus. As a way to meet my neighbors I always ask their permission to pick. I have found that they love to share their abundance and have someone else help ‘harvest’ and enjoy their fruit. This is also how I stumbled into my own garden.
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What's in Your Valentines Day Roses???
Maura Yates
Love is in the air as Valentine’s Day approaches and rose growers everywhere have geared up once again to help Cupid’s arrow fly. So let’s take a look at the pesticide content of conventional roses and see if they are really providing the kind of ‘I Love You’ message we are sending or receiving.
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Recycle useless items into new garden tools
Yvonne Savio
Dreaming about buying that new "perfect" tool? Let me suggest that you first consider recycling and inventing new uses for household items, which often proves to be more productive and certainly less expensive.
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BackYard Orchard Culture
Greg Peterson
When you think of an orchard, do you envision acres of perfectly spaced apple trees and workers on ladders picking the fruit with harvest colors in the background? Are you then discouraged because you realize you don’t have the property to produce a bountiful harvest to delight your family’s taste buds? No so any more!
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Tomatoes in December
Steven Garrett
There is an easy way and a hard way to get ripe tomatoes in December.
The easy way is to head to your local supermarket and buy them. The hard way is to raise them, pick them green in early November, put them in a box in the basement, cover them with a newspaper, and then be patient.
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Permaculture: Pathways to Sustainable Communities
Bob Ewing
A society is defined, in large part, by how it grows and transports food from the farm to the kitchen.
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Mesquite: It's Not Just for Barbeque Anymore
Kevin Dahl
Charcoal made from mesquite wood gives grilled meats a unique, rather western flavor, but the seedpods from this common Arizona tree are a culinary treat as well.
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To Compost or to Non-Compost? That is the Question
Greg Peterson
Have you ever wanted to start composting but the prospect of building your compost pile stopped you in your tracks?
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The Community Garden
Bob Ewing
Everyone likes to win. Everyone wants to live in a neighborhood that is clean and green. Everyone benefits from eating fresh, naturally grown food. And most everyone likes a sense of community with the people who live around them.
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