How To Do it yourself

The author describes how he built this self-watering container garden inspired by the commercial EarthBox(TM) garden container. Here are the step-by-step instructions along with a few later improvements that Mr. Mandel discovered after putting his design to work for a season or so.

Easy to follow instructions and plenty of photos will help you enjoy building this nifty gardening container.

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We found a lot of web sites that talked about hoop houses, but not many that gave you the necessary details for designing and building your own. The two web pages we've selected are at two ends of the size spectrum, and give you loads of information on what you can do with a small bundle of inexpensive PVC pipe and a roll of clear plastic.

A hoop house greenhouse can be as big or as small as you want it to be. There's a hoop house not far from the How-2 Review headquarters in Oregon that must cover at least an acre, but if all you need is to protect a few tomato plants, your hoop house could be as small as a walk-in closet and be plenty big enough.

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"When crops are produced from soil, it is imperative that the organic residues resulting from those crops, including animal excrements, are returned to the soil from which the crops originated. This recycling of all organic residues for agricultural purposes should be axiomatic to sustainable agriculture. Yet, spokespersons for sustainable agriculture movements remain silent about using humanure for agricultural purposes. Why?

Perhaps because there is currently a profound lack of knowledge and understanding about what is referred to as the "human nutrient cycle" and the need to keep the cycle intact. The human nutrient cycle goes like this: a) grow food, b) eat it, c) collect and process the organic residues (feces, urine, food scraps, and agricultural materials), and d) return the processed organic material back to the soil, thereby enriching the soil and enabling more food to be grown. The cycle is repeated, endlessly. This is a sustainable process that mimics the natural cycles of nature and enhances our ability to survive on this planet. When our food refuse is instead discarded as waste, the natural human nutrient cycle is broken, creating problems such as pollution, loss of soil fertility, and abuse of our water resources."

This web page, from chapter 8 of The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins, shows us step-by-step how to construct a clean, odor free composting toilet that can be built in a few hours for pocket change, but will return huge dividends in garden soil fertitlity.

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"Vermicomposting uses earthworms to turn organic wastes into very high quality compost. This is probably the best way of composting kitchen wastes. Adding small amounts of wet kitchen scraps to a large compost pile in the garden day by day can disrupt the decomposition process so that the compost is never really done. But it works just fine with vermicomposting."

There's loads of good information on this web page about selecting or designing your worm box, how to set up and use the box, and details about the benefits to your soil fertility and pH.

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Photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,
(LC-USZ62-93779) Pick up just about any gardening book that promises some revolutionary new method of growing vegetables and you may find all manner of glowing promises about the labor-saving wonders or potential yield of the author's pet method. But what many such books don't tell you is that there is no such thing as "one size fits all" where food gardening is concerned. A method that works fine in New Mexico may fail utterly in Idaho, and vice versa. It may work great for your neighbor down the street, but fall on its face in your denser hardpan soil two blocks away. Every method of soil preparation and soil management needs to be tried and tested in your specific soil and weather conditions.

The author of this report, who holds a Master's degree in soil science, compares what no-till methods work and don't work in Georgia and in Minnesota, the two locations where she tested these methods. So before you decide that one method or another is the magic bullet that will solve all your gardening problems, read through this report. If you learn nothing else from it, take away the lesson that whatever methods you choose, you must be prepared to experiment, adapt, and experiment some more to find what actually works in your particular climate and soil conditions.

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Growers often neglect the annual training and pruning of fruit trees. Without training and pruning, however, fruit trees will not develop proper shape and form. Properly trained and pruned trees will yield high quality fruit much earlier in their lives and live significantly longer.

A primary objective of training and pruning is to develop a strong tree framework that will support fruit production. Improperly trained fruit trees generally have very upright branch angles, which result in serious limb breakage under a heavy fruit load. This significantly reduces the productivity of the tree and may greatly reduce tree life. Another goal of annual training and pruning is to remove dead, diseased, or broken limbs.

Proper tree training also opens up the tree canopy to maximize light penetration. For most deciduous tree fruit, flower buds for the current season's crop are formed the previous summer. Light penetration is essential for flower bud development and optimal fruit set, flavor, and quality. Although a mature tree may be growing in full sun, a very dense canopy may not allow enough light to reach 12 to 18 inches inside the canopy. Opening the tree canopy also permits adequate air movement through the tree, which promotes rapid drying to minimize disease infection and allows thorough pesticide penetration. Additionally, a well shaped fruit tree is aesthetically pleasing, whether in a landscaped yard, garden, or commercial orchard.

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