Long Island Gardening Community Resource

Hey Readers,

I am teaching in Port Washington next Tuesday, June 9th, 2010 and  want to extent an invitation to readers of this web site to attend with a discount.  We will be covering topics such as whole grains, good fats, storage techniques and how to pick great ingredients. Here are the details (click the picture [...]

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These videos (courtesy of Cooking Up A Story) are part of an interview held with Vadana Shiva.
It was inspiring to me so I decided to republish it here with all three videos:
Cooking Up A Story: Food News
This 3-part series of interviews with Dr. Vandana Shiva about the future of food is one of the most [...]

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Using Native Plants in your landscape is a win-win for you and the environment.  Here are the top ten reasons to use native plants in your landscape:

Once Established, Native Plants Require Little Care and Maintenance
Native Plants Save Money on Landscaping Cost
Native Plants Are Pest and Disease Resistant
Once Established, Native Plants Require No Watering
Once Established, Native [...]

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Pesticides and Herbicides are poison, plain and simple.  They were created to help us manage pests such as harmful insects, arachnids, rodents and weeds.
Unfortunately, whatever is lethal to a pest or a weed will usually cause illness in human adults and even more severe symptoms in children and pets. They are poison for our families [...]

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I just harvested the first cutting of my four varieties of mint growing in various gardens. I am growing

Spearmint
Peppermint
Greek Mint
Another Spearmint Variety (Large Leafed)

Some techniques commonly used to dry mint are:

Bundle and hang from Stems in a dark, very dry place (if possible with paper bags around the bundles)
Put in Paper bags
Place in oven at [...]

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The first time I read the Mother Earth News article about Ruth Stout’s No-Dig Gardening, I said
“yesss!  I love this woman. This is one of those lessons of a lifetime.”
Her technique has faced skepticism from all sides but to me, has always seemed to be a fantastic approach:
“mulch everything…and mulch some more.”

Her attitude of “this [...]

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So you have some large and tight hosta plants just screaming to spread themselves far and wide?
Dig Them – Split Them – Transplant Them!
It doesn’t get any easier than this.  Hostas seem delicate but their roots are very strong and can bounce back from poor treatment.  I love to dig them up and split them [...]

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Companion Plantings with Reason:

Cabbage and Dill – As dill flowers it draws beneficial insects to eat cabbageworms and aphids.  If you don’t already know about cabbageworms, I had an issue with them.
Flowers like Calendula and Cucumbers and Squash – The pollen from the flowers attracts pollenators and thereby increases yields.

Please send in your companion plantings.   [...]

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Over the past few years I have come across many articles/books that discuss the importance of mirobial/bacteria/fungi activity in order to accomplish a healthy soil. They say in every handful of a healthy soil, there should be millions of cute little microbes that do the dirty work to make food readily available for [...]

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There are some thinks to think about when starting or preparing your garden.
1. One of the most important things is to know how much sun your garden gets everyday. If you gauge it at this time of year, remember the sun will be out longer and will be higher in the sky (and does take [...]

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