Thanks to one of my wonderful readers, I was reminded that I never did a re-cap on my first attempt at organic gardening! Also, despite the loads of fruit and veggies that I brought home with me over the summer (my garden was in a family member’s backyard), I also never took a good picture of some of the produce!

The not-so-lovely photo above just “happened” to get taken while testing out a new camera I received as a birthday present. Nevertheless, those are some of my cucumbers and zucchini (no, the camera didn’t add ten pounds to that big zucchini- it was huge!) that I was able to enjoy.

I’ll re-cap starting at the beginning. I planted lettuce, spinach, beans, dill, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, marigolds, and cucumbers. By far, my most successful vegetable was the cucumbers. I have never seen so many in my life- there were days when I picked at least 20 and had no idea what to do with them all (after making pickles and cucumber salads, of course!).

I gave as many away to friends and family as possible, and learned a valuable lesson to limit the number of cucumber plants (when I only had 5!) so as not to have any go to waste! Obviously, I used nothing besides seeds, water, dirt, and sunshine and these babies came out pretty much flawless. Only towards the end of summer (when this picture was taken) did they grow a bit mis-shapen as the plants were winding down.

My favorite item by far that I grew was leaf lettuce- I picked these delicate leaves all summer and felt SO lucky enjoying many tasty salads and BLTs. I found that the leaves do wilt quick (I always tried to get them in a crisper in my fridge ASAP), especially with my commute home, but I noticed that they would fare better if I picked them in the morning or evening- anytime but when they were warm from the sun.

Unfortunately, I never saw carrots or spinach come up in the garden and I’m not sure if I accidentally “weeded” them when they started growing or if the seeds just didn’t take. I planted seeds for everything except tomatoes and cucumbers (free leftover plants from my mom!) and these are the only ones that just didn’t show. I may try them in a different spot next year to see if that also may have been a factor.

The marigolds (good for natural pest control in the garden), grew amazingly well from the seeds. I had NEVER seen such a healthy, bushy row of them. I was really, really impressed. I also planted zinnias just to have for picking (which did unfortunately upset a few bees) and they were beautiful, too. I had heard and confirmed with experience that they are very sturdy flowers, you can almost completely ignore them and they will still grow. :)

Zucchini, beans, dill, and broccoli were another success in the garden. A good amount of broccoli made it into the freezer, but that was before some deer figured out where it was growing (despite my small fence). The zucchini grew great and that big one pictured was definitely an accident. It spent a good amount of time growing in some weeds before I realized it existed and was HUGE! The beans were also good, but next year I need to be a bit more prepared with what I’ll use them all for!

Last, but not least, I had some tasty tomatoes from my garden, but most of them weren’t too pretty. I don’t mind cutting off the bad parts and still using them, but I think next year I’ll have to try to prop them up better to not be growing so much on the ground. The cherry tomatoes looked better than the big ones and that is really the only produce that really didn’t look perfect considering the whole garden was organic.

Overall, it was a bit of work for my first try at organic gardening, but I think it was very worth it and proved a good learning experience. If you had advice or experiences to share, I’d love to hear them and will save any tips for next year!

This is the first year that I’ve decided to try an organic garden and I’m really excited. Of course, since I’m so new at this, any tips or advice would be very welcome! Part of the garden (to the right) is just for flowers, but the rest contains many wonderful foods:

• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Beans
• Dill
• Zucchini
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes
• Marigolds
• Cucumbers

I started mostly with seeds, but also with a few tomato and cucumber plants that my mom had left over from starting her garden. I’m going to have to learn as I go a little bit with organic pest control, but hopefully some straw or grass clippings will help with the weeds.

I’m also crossing my fingers that there will be enough to eat and some left over to preserve. There’s nothing like eating homegrown food even in the winter!

Have you started a garden this year? I’d love to hear about it!

Today I’m participating in the Ultimate Blog Swap. You’ll find me posting over at 1 Mom’s Mission about Healthy Cookout Foods, and I’m excited to welcome Lisa from Granola Catholic to openeyehealth:

Where Did the Lawn Come From?

Did you know that the modern lawn got its start in Europe? The moist mild climate there made it possible to grow large open grassy areas.  The original lawns were probably grassy enclosures within early medieval settlements used for communal grazing of livestock. The livestock would graze and keep the grass cropped short while fertilizing at the same time. Talk about a sustainable lawn! Flash forward to manor houses of 17th century England. Rich land owners wanted a bucolic look, so they paid an army of workers to cut grass by hand with a scythe. Expansive lawns were the reserved for the extremely wealthy.

So how did the lawn become soon widely popular here in the United States? The growth of the suburbs in the 1950’s led to the development of the modern lawn. Cookie cutter houses on a small lots came complete with a front lawn. The lawns of these developer were meant to be weed free and kept cut short. Luckily for all those chasing the American Dream at this time they had help. The 1950’s gave us among other great inventions, the first rotary lawn mowers,  and mass produced effective pesticides and fertilizers. Up until this time dandelions and clover were considered beneficial plants.

While lawns may have worked well in a temperate climate like the mid-Atlantic, the rest of the country is different story. Yet as I said, everyone wanted a piece of the American Dream, a little house of their own with a front lawn. People began to devote more and more time and money to the upkeep of their lawns.

Reasons to Reconsider  Your Lawn

• Per acre, it costs more to maintain a lawn than it does to grow corn, rice or sugarcane. More than 40 billion dollars are spent on the lawn in North American each year.
• 10 times more herbicides per acre are dumped on lawns than on the fields of agribusiness.
• Phosphorus run-off from lawn fertilizer causes algae blooms that suck oxygen out of lakes, asphyxiating fish.
• 30% of the water used on the East Coast of U.S. goes towards watering of lawns. A single golf course in Tampa, Florida uses 178,800 gallons of water every day, enough to meet the daily water needs of over 2,200 people.

So What Can You Do?

• Have a combined use yard, with perennial grasses, flowers, herbs and vegetables
• Plant a  kitchen garden – mine is in my front yard so it is close to the house
• Xeriscaping
• Encourage native plants to grow back
• Plant a variety of low  ground covers such as creeping thyme and chamomile
• Try a meadow
• Use native plants
• Plant a habitat gardens
• Put in a courtyard a la paved Spanish style
• Try a wildlife garden

For more information check out American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn

So I did not always know that it was possible to repair a leaky garden hose. I had thought that once one starts leaking it simply has to be replaced. Luckily, this is not always true. According to Better Homes & Gardens magazine (June 2010), fixing a leaky hose can be quite easy.

To do this, cut off the end of the hose with the leak and if possible take it to a home and garden center and purchase a hose repair kit that matches the thread and size. Once you return, simply put the replacement piece of the kit in the section of good hose and then screw the hose clamp on. Specific instructions included with your kit may also helpful with this step.

You can also buy a repair kit online if you choose (maybe even read some reviews); from my searching it looks like most of these repair kits are under $10. Much cheaper than buying a new hose, and of course more eco-friendly! I know I have one hose that I can repair this spring, have you tried one of these kits before or do you have a hose you can repair this way?

Last month I attended a local meeting on gardening and learned a lot of great tips from the presenter, Katie Brandt, one of the founders of Groundswell Farm. She has a great amount of experience growing food as this farm offers a CSA program and also sells at our local farmers market.

While Katie offered lots of in-depth growing advice (some a bit over my head as a beginner gardener), but I took note of a few handy tips to share that are easy, but could make a difference in your produce and supply.

• Harvest lettuce in the morning so that it is crisp and not yet wilted from the heat
• Keep picking green beans or the plants will stop producing (they think that they’re done!)
• It is stressful for a plant to be planted after it has a flower or fruit on it
• Laying straw in the garden helps to control weeds, but keeps soil cool so it’s not as good for tomatoes
• If sending in soil to be tested, make sure to not dig it out with an iron shovel
• For a bushy basil plant, always cut above the second set of leaves, wait for additional growth and then cut again at the next level
• When moving plants from the greenhouse to the garden, try to plant before a light rain (the same goes for planting seeds in the garden)
• When planting seeds in pots for the greenhouse, cover lightly with soil (especially lettuce)

While these tips are a bit random, they are all simple to do in the garden. Do you have any helpful tips to share as we approach spring and gardening time?

I love, love, love Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap and it seems that I am constantly finding new uses for it. I have read about people using it for shampoo, face/body wash, use it for cleaning myself, and now I hear that it can be used for pest control on plants and gardens, indoor or outdoor.

Since one of my goals for this spring is to get (and keep alive hopefully) at least a few plants in my house, I think I’ll have to try out this simple recipe for a natural pest control spray using Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap (I prefer to keep the baby-mild kind on hand since it’s unscented). The recipe calls for 1 quart water to 1-2 Tbsp liquid castile soap transferred into a spray bottle.

The spray won’t harm most plants unless it contains too much soap (but it’s a good idea to test on a few leaves and check back a few times before spraying whole plants). A comment also stated that the salts in the soap will dehydrate a number of pests such as mites, aphids, and mealybugs, but won’t affect your honeybees or lady bugs. This person also recommended spraying the base of the plant and underneath the leaves where these pests hang out.

I am already thinking of spraying this on some of my hostas in the backyard that get pretty well attacked in the summer and I’ll post back with how it works. If you use this and have feedback, or have your own natural pest control remedy, please feel free to share with us!

I don’t have a very green thumb, so I was particularly interested in a an article from babyfit.com on a few easy, homemade fertilizers you can mix right in your kitchen. Unfortunately, I cannot provide a direct link to the article as usual since it was only an e-mailed article called “DIY: Houseplant Fertilizer”. You can bet; however, that I will be trying these out especially as I am struggling to keep my beloved aloe plant and a few favorite herbs alive.

The three easy fertilizer methods featured in the article are as follows:

• Mix 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar with 1 gallon of water and use this to water your plants. The apple cider vinegar lowers the pH of the water and contains up to fifty trace minerals
• Add one ounce of each of the following to a one gallon container: nettle leaves, kelp powder, and comfrey powder. Then fill the container with water and allow this mixture to “steep” in a dark place. Use this tea every few weeks in watering your plants
• Add water to your leftover coffee and pour it right onto your plants (yes, I couldn’t believe this either, but here are some testimonials I found!) This only needs to be done every week or so- make sure to use one part coffee to four parts water. If your coffee is already weak, one part coffee to two parts water is okay

I’d be excited to hear if any of these work for you or if you have any other good ideas- I know I sure could use them!

If you’re anything like us, you’re going to spend a lot of time in your garden this summer – and you also don’t want to waste it all pulling weeds. It’s only the middle of May and I’m already battling weeds overgrowth, but not quite ready to break down and buy a chemical weed killer.

So I voiced my concern to a new friend of mine, and she shared a fantastic little tip to actually prevent weeds from growing in the first place, and simultaneously gives me something to do with mown grass without paying the city $1.50 a bag to take it away.

It’s simple – rake and collect your grass cuttings in a bin (it’s easier after they’ve dried out on the lawn for a day or two). Once you have a good amount, pull the weeds from your landscape or garden (for the last time!) and apply a thick, tight layer of your cuttings to the ground surrounding your plants. Pat it down firmly to create an impenetrable mat; cover the entire area where you don’t want weeds to grow . . . and they won’t!