Sprouting seeds is a smart and healthy way to use up any leftover seeds you may have from your garden. Sprouted seeds have been recorded as being consumed and grown over many centuries. Not only does sprouting seeds provide a quick way to grow and provide fresh vegetables, but it also allows for a way for food to be grown indoors during the cold weather.
When your plants no longer have the space needed to survive in their containers, it’s time to transplant those babies. Taking growing plants and placing them into a larger space will give them room to spread their roots and develop successfully. For some gardeners, it can be something of the mundane, while for others it is something completely new to attempt.
In ancient practices, certain Ayurvedic medicines called bhasmas or paks could only be made on the fire of cow dung cakes. During this time, cows were left free to roam in forest meadows where they ate sweet grass, gave nutritious milk and their dung fertilized the forest further. While the same might not hold true today, cow dung – when composted – makes great slow-release manure for your garden and backyard.
Now that there are apparently several more weeks of winter (thanks, Mr. Groundhog), it is the perfect time to find creative ways to incorporate more green into your life. Not only is a thriving, jungle-like terrarium lovely in the colder, winter months when we’re all too ready for spring, but a cleverly crafted terrarium can bring joy throughout all of the seasons.
Running an organic, sustainable garden is not easy to do solo, especially when you have a larger garden with plenty enough to tend to. Having support and assistance from others within your community can really lend a helping hand, and there are often people within communities who could truly benefit from gardens. For those looking for ideas on how to gain gardening support within your community, check out these 10 ideas for connecting your garden with your community.
1. Give and Share
Mulching is an essential but oft underrated gardening tool. Let’s discuss some mulching recipes that are born of nothing but trash that even an amateur gardener can easily get to.
What does mulching do, and why should you do it? Mulching retains moisture so it’s a great tool for the dry season. It helps to maintain a warmer soil temperature and insulates plant roots, so it’s a great growing tool for the cold season. And finally, if you use appealing enough mulch, it adds great visual appeal to your garden.
For those of you who are looking for something easy and edible to plant in your garden or kitchen, look no further than microgreens! Microgreens are small, leafy vegetables that are fairly easy to grow for most home and backyard gardeners. They are grown from the same seeds as their full-sized counterparts, but the greens are harvested much earlier – earlier than baby greens, but later than you would harvest sprouts.
Maybe you’ve seen algae at a local pond, or returned home after a trip to find your pool teeming with green growth. Perhaps you’ve walked down the aisle of a health food store and seen the bottles and packages of spirulina, chlorella and other green powders, or heard that algae is coming to fuel your life–from your body, to your vehicle. Algae cultivation actually has its own name–algaculture–and while thousands of types of algae exist, the majority of algae being grown commercially is microalgae.
For a garden that’s best described as exotic, you could try some of these carnivorous plants! The fringe benefit is that a part of your garden can now be free of pesky bugs, allowing you to enjoy nature without irritants!
Someone gifted you a gorgeous, exotic plant and suddenly you see that you no longer have any bugs around your house…Strange, sure, but okay—maybe the plant repels bugs. But if you seem to be missing a canary or that friendly little lizard, you might have a plant that has a penchant for flesh…
Air purification, improving health, beautiful décor and adding moisture to the air—those are only some of the great rewards of having houseplants. I don’t know if it’s the same for you, but the larger the vegetation growing within my living space, the closer to nature I feel. Indoor trees are fantastic for adding a greater amount of green-environment to your residential setting. For those of you who would like to make your house feel more like a small forest—or at least close to it—try growing one or more of these 10 terrific trees for your home interior.