Self Watering Barrel Gardens, Aussie style

Gardening Australia did a video, well worth watching, of David de Vries’ self watering containers that he builds for the Red Cross in Alice Springs. De Vries has devised a simple and efficient way to turn drums into gardens. They look good too. We’ve featured self watering containers on our blog and in our books. They are a great way to deal with hot climates and bad soil. And, in many places, drums are as plentiful as people. Thanks to Helen in...

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Saturday Linkages: Chicken Hot Dogs and Toilet Museums

...How to Build a Gypsy Caravan from Recycled Materials… http://bit.ly/S8pABN Gardening Home Depot’s Leaf Bags and their Eco-Terrible “Tips” | Garden Rant http://gardenrant.com/2012/12/home-depots-leaf-bags-and-their-eco-terrible-tips.html … Design High-Hanging Tea House Offers Suspended Getaway | Designs & Ideas on Dornob http://dornob.com/high-hanging-tea-house-offers-suspended-getaway/ … ??? South Korea’s toilet culture museum: http://boingboing.n...

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Saturday Linkages: Dia de los Muertos Edition

Storing garden tools with style (aka Zombiewall) http://t.co/IapgFLe0xh #gardening pic.twitter.com/q8OaATUgaJ — Timber Press (@timberpress) October 31, 2014 The life-changing magic of Tidying Up http://t.co/YAqJoa1Vzk — Root Simple (@rootsimple) November 1, 2014 Neighbors raise stink about mothball driveway http://t.co/RehcKFDhfZ via @BigNewsNetwork — Root Simple (@rootsimple) October 30, 2014 Don’t Believe the Headlines: Bike Boom Has Been Fanta...

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The Hugelkultur Question

...hould be experimenting, I thought. And we have a pile of wood. But, like a gardening version of Hamlet, I started waffling again. I decided to post the hugelkultur question to the Garden Professor’s Facebook page. One of those horticulture professors, Linda Chalker-Scott is someone who I seek out when writing a magazine article. A civil discussion ensued on that Facebook page, proving that Facebook is good for something other than angry political...

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The Biochar Solution

...knee-jerk skepticism when it comes to the “notions and potions” school of gardening–the idea that some special substance will magically transform dead soil into a lush garden. That was my first reaction to biochar. But it turns out that there’s something to biochar. This informative research summary from the University of Washington, Biochar: A Home Gardener’s Primer, changed my mind. According to U of W, biochar can: Improve soil texture Upcycle...

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