I’ve written several articles on how to start raised garden beds—including what to put in the very bottom of raised beds to get the most out of them—but when I started composting in my backyard, I began thinking more about how to start compost piles as well. What should I put in the bottom of…
Last year, my neighbor had a truckload of wood chips delivered to his property by a local arborist, and he told me I could carry away as much as I wanted to use in my backyard garden and around my property. I was excited (because who doesn’t love free mulch!), but this also made me…
Diatomaceous earth (DE) has a well-deserved reputation as a natural and effective pest control. You’ve got to be careful when using it—which I’ll explain in more detail below—but overall, I’m a fan of DE when it’s applied carefully and selectively. The beauty of DE is in its simplicity: It’s not a chemical insecticide, but rather…
Composting is kind of magical (seriously…here’s why). You take something you can’t eat or don’t want, you toss it in a pile of other stuff you can’t eat or don’t want, then you wait several months. At the end of the process, you’ve got nutrient-rich material that your garden plants are going to love. But…
Composting is one of the cheapest ways to create great garden soil, turning kitchen scraps and yard waste into rich, nourishing soil amendments. But when you set up a compost bin for the first time, you might be wondering about what to put at the bottom of your bin. Should you put cardboard at the…
As an longtime gardener, I hate to toss something in the trash or recycling bin that could have instead gone in my compost heap to help out my garden later in the year. But what about the leftover boxes from last night’s pizza dinner? Can you compost pizza boxes? Cardboard pizza boxes can be composted,…
As a longtime gardener, I try to compost as much as possible, but I’m also a pizza lover and someone who particularly dislikes food waste. Every once in a while, I forget about my leftover pizza and find it days later, when it’s not something I really want to eat. The idea of throwing it…
As a longtime gardener, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for composting. It’s an amazing way to turn kitchen and yard waste into incredible (and free!) soil amendments. However, I’ve learned that I need to be selective in what I toss into my compost bin, as some plants can introduce problems into my garden rather than…
I love composting since I can reuse my kitchen scraps and yard waste by transforming them into a nutrient-rich soil amendment (instead of just sending them off to the landfill). However, things get a bit more complicated when we’re talking about pesky weeds or unwanted grasses that pop up around my property. Should they make…
Over the years, and after much trial and error, I’ve developed a simple DIY solution that’s been highly effective at stopping pests from destroying my plants: an easy-to-make soapy water spray + a highly effective treatment schedule. To make my homemade soapy water spray, fill a 2-gallon garden sprayer with water, then add 5 tablespoons…