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19 Articles

I ’ve gardened for 35 years. But several of those years included adolescence, with a considerable gap when I was a single mom working two jobs living in apartments. When I rented a house and returned to growing food, I bought plants. When the cashier rang up the total, my husband asked, “How is this saving us money?” At $5 to $6 per plant, I spent several hundred dollars for a small garden. By then, my mother had died, so I had nobody to laugh and say, “That’s why I always started seeds to feed five kids.” So, I took the education into my own hands and learned lessons the hard way. Each year, I memorized frost dates and my garden’s microclimates. I learned which varieties grew best in the short seasons…

“While some complain about small harvests, we feed ourselves and others in our food desert.” EDITORS’ PICK Rainwater and Hot Climates I want to add to the letter on collecting rainwater (Dear MOTHER Dec. 2023/Jan. 2024). Before collecting rainwater, know the state and local laws about water rights. Nevada had a law until about four years ago that made it illegal to collect rainwater. No interference with rain from the sky to the ground was allowed. That law was modified to allow people to collect rainwater if they purchased a permit from the state. As a desert state, Nevada has strict limits on water use. Also, being on a residential well for water comes with restrictions on how much well water I can use, with only a specific acre-foot of water allowed each…

Death-Care Options Gain Momentum

The Green Burial Council distinguishes a “green” burial with four criteria: “caring for the dead with the minimal environmental impact that aids in the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and restoration or preservation of habitat.” As of December 2023, the New Hampshire Funeral Resources, Education & Advocacy lists 443 cemeteries and burial grounds in the U.S. and Canada that have been reported to offer some form of natural burial. Adjacent to these green burial options is a process that’s risen in popularity in recent years by promising a more affordable and climate-friendly death-care option called “human composting,” “body composting,” “natural organic reduction” (NOR), “soil transformation,” or “terramation.” These are all names for an accelerated method of decomposing human remains. When a body is “composted,” remains…

Death-Care Options Gain Momentum

Organic Gardening in the South

The first year I tried gardening in Sugar Land, Texas, in the Houston suburbs, I harvested a grand total of four tomatoes. The fifth and final year I gardened at that house, I had so many tomatoes I had to buy a canner. In the interim, I learned that Southern gardens can be wonderfully productive, but it takes some planning. Heat and humidity dominate every aspect of gardening in the South. High levels of rainfall can lead to fungal problems and acidic soils. Summers are hot enough to prevent many popular garden plants from setting fruit. The high heat and humidity together are ideal for all kinds of insect pests. Fortunately, there are ways to cope with all of these issues that don’t involve chemical sprays. When planning your garden, ask yourself:…

Organic Gardening in the South

Plan a Garden for a Year’s Worth of Food

The best gardening advice I can offer is to start out simple. Most of us would love to cut back on our grocery bill, and growing our own food certainly helps. When we’re plunking seedlings or seeds into our garden soil, it doesn’t look like all that much work. But when all those plants start to grow and require care, a beginning gardener can wonder what on earth they were thinking. That’s why I recommend starting out by planting foods you and your family eat a lot and that will grow well in your region. Here in the Pacific Northwest, I can’t successfully grow okra, sweet potatoes, or peanuts, because the weather simply isn’t hot enough. Peppers and tomatoes don’t do well here except in a greenhouse, but they may thrive…

Plan a Garden for a Year’s Worth of Food

Simple, Affordable Seed Starting

Starting seeds at home enables gardeners to cultivate strong plants that are ready for the ground come springtime, while also bringing the joy of gardening indoors during the more dormant time of year. Luckily, you don’t need to spend much money on seed-starting kits and supplies. With just a few containers, homemade seed-starting mix, and some paper, you can grow excellent transplants for your garden. Start the Seeds Begin growing your seedlings in a controlled environment using a sterile medium. You can do this in a variety of ways. Peat pellets—compressed, dried circles of peat—have been prevalent in the gardening market for a while. Though inexpensive and simple to use, they also pose environmental issues. If you want an alternative kind of pellet, consider ones made from coconut coir. To forgo pellets…

Simple, Affordable Seed Starting

Can Coconut Coir Save the World?

As someone with a degree in global sustainability who runs a carnivorous plant nursery, I initially questioned the use of coconut coir in horticulture, as compared with peat moss. This was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when bales of peat moss disappeared off the shelves of big-box stores. Because of its high capacity for water retention, peat moss is in many store-bought soil and seed-starter mixes. It’s also used in the soil mixture for carnivorous plants and as a soil amendment for acid-loving plants, such as blueberries, camellias, azaleas, and tomatoes. Peat moss is formed when partially decomposed plant material accumulates at the bottom of a wetland (known as a “peatland” when there’s peat moss in it), and, over thousands of years, gradually turns into peat moss. The lack of oxygen…

Can Coconut Coir Save the World?

Machinery and Mud

Healthy soils are much more than dirt! In fact, some might argue they’re some of the largest living organisms that serve to help make this planet habitable. The structural, chemical, and biological diversity in healthy soil is mind-blowing, in spite of the affronts we’ve thrown at soil over the years. Rather than thinking of soil as some inanimate growth medium, consider it a complex ecosystem instead. Not Just Dirt! Soil structure is key to maintaining its productivity but also key to the ways water, gases, organic nutrients, and minerals move through the greater ecosystem of Earth. Essentially, soils consist of variously sized particles made with silt, sand, clay, and organic matter, bound together to form aggregates in a somewhat consistent way. The aggregates are stabilized by a glue of sorts that’s created…

Machinery and Mud

Lessons Learned from Selling Homemade Soap

Most people find that when they reveal the news of their soap-making endeavor, it sparks enthusiasm from friends, family, and would-be customers. People can’t wait to try your bars! You make piles of soap during your practice runs, tempting you to give them away freely just to keep from being overwhelmed. But eventually, the costs grow larger—so you think about selling. Consider these factors before you do. During 20 years of making and selling soap, I’ve developed opinions based upon firsthand experiences and conferring with other professionals. When my experience differs from that of my soap-making colleagues, I search out additional perspectives. I want to share the best of my research. May these lessons help you in your journey toward running your own soap-selling business. Truly Learn the Craft Take the time to…

Lessons Learned from Selling Homemade Soap

Foster Phenomenal Fungi

I embarked on my agricultural journey by delving into indoor hydroponics. It all began with my homemade deep-water culture system housed in a Sterilite tote bin. To kick-start my indoor growing experience, I converted a closet into my first cultivation space. The space’s design was rudimentary; it was mostly the hydroponic system and a light hanging from the pole where you’d hang clothes. However, as I progressed, I managed to accumulate savings and invest in my inaugural indoor hydroponic grow tent. Grow tents serve as an affordable, nurturing haven for plants, providing them with an easily regulated environment encompassing optimal temperature, humidity, and light levels. Designed to retain humidity, these grow tents also incorporate ports for efficient ducting and wire management. Consequently, this was the most economically viable method for me…

Foster Phenomenal Fungi

Bring New Chicks Home

Bringing home baby chicks for the first time is both exciting and terrifying. While most new chicken owners focus their energy on creating the perfect coop, there are other details to consider and decisions to make before the little bundles arrive. Delivery Day Many budding chicken enthusiasts purchase chicks at local farms or feed supply stores. If you ordered chicks from a hatchery, you’ll need to know the ship and delivery dates so you can be available to pick them up from your local post office. Most large poultry hatcheries ship new chicks in ventilated cardboard boxes with hot gel packs to keep chicks warm. A chick can live off its yolk sack for 48 hours after hatching, and hatcheries ship out chicks so they arrive in this window. Brooding Babies Baby chicks can’t go…

Bring New Chicks Home

Wheeled and Windowed Composter

Chickens are a fantastic way to repurpose food scraps, but if eggs aren’t in your diet or you’ve got scraps chickens don’t care for (I’m talking about you, citrus rinds and pepper seeds), composting is a wonderful way to go “table-to-farm,” as we say in my house. A pile on the ground is a simple system. If you can’t put a pile just outside your kitchen or you have limited space, buying a tumbler-style composter may be tempting. These make the turning a cinch, but because the compost isn’t in contact with the ground, it doesn’t benefit from the Earth’s heat. The compost itself will generate heat, but when the weather is too cold for the bacteria to work and your compost pile is only tumbler-sized, you’ll get frozen zuchini peels…

Wheeled and Windowed Composter

Should I Replace My Aging Solar Panels?

Welcome to our series answering reader questions and concerns about how to cut the utility company cord. Hoss Boyd is founder, president, and CEO of TeraVolt Energy and a recognized solar and energy-storage expert. Learn more about TeraVolt Energy at http://TVNRG.com. Someone told me I need to replace my 20-year-old solar panels because they’re no longer efficient. Is this true? Gary T. Like my Grandpa used to say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” Every solar panel has its own production profile depending on the type of solar panel you have (monocrystalline, aka “mono”; polycrystalline, aka “poly”; and thin-film are three main forms). Locate your specific solar panel on the manufacturer’s website under “product support,” and download the warranty provisions if they’re still available. Then, find the clause for the performance or…

Should I Replace My Aging Solar Panels?

My excuse to travel to India in 1982 was that I was studying Transcendental Meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I was also studying Indian culture, so different from American culture. One of the street foods I enjoyed most in India was chai. The drink mixture varied from vendor to vendor and could be as simple as tea with pepper and ginger, or as complicated as tea with five or six spices. Indian chai was usually made with buffalo milk, which is creamier than cow milk. When I got home to North America, I was unable to find chai. Years passed before it was available in cosmopolitan coffeehouses. Although it’s ubiquitous today, American chai isn’t authentic. It’s often made with a syrup and is tremendously sweet compared with real Indian chai, which…

Shrewd Seed-Starting Suggestions

Perfect Pockets While folding newspaper one day to make zero-waste liners for my kitchen compost pail, I decided to find a use for the single pages that were too small for my pail, which needed a double-page sheet. I folded half of a single sheet in the same pattern as the compost pail liner. It produced a sweet little pocket that’s the perfect size for giving away seedlings. I grow all of my vegetables from seed and often end up with more than I need. So, I gift the excess to neighbors and members of my Buy Nothing group (www.BuyNothingProject.org). With these little pockets, I don’t have to worry about getting my pots back! I write the plant name on the newspaper with wax pencil. Karen Dawson Santa Rosa, California Egg-cellent Eggshells A good way to…

Shrewd Seed-Starting Suggestions

Baking with Purple Carrots

Purple and orange carrots have slight nutritional differences: Purple carrots contain additional anthocyanins, which are anti-inflammatory antioxidants responsible for the blue, purple, and red hues of fruits and vegetables. Orange carrots instead take their color from beta carotene, a different anti-oxidant that’s converted to vitamin A in the body. All carrots, no matter their color, are a good source of fiber, potassium, manganese, and vitamins. While you can use purple carrots in the same recipes in which you’d use orange carrots, you’ll have to make some adjustments. Purple carrots tend to have a more peppery taste and sometimes don’t taste as sweet as orange varieties. If you’re making a sweet baked good, you may have to adjust the sugar to compensate. The texture of a purple carrot can also be woodier,…

Baking with Purple Carrots

Nix Fungus Gnats Organically

To get rid of fungus gnats, you’ll need to consider their life span, which includes eggs, four stages of larvae, pupa, and adult. Depending on the species, adults can lay up to 200 eggs. They lay eggs where fungus is growing, which usually corresponds with damp soils. The larvae feed for around two weeks, and they feed on organic matter and roots and can damage plants. When temperatures are low, this stage can last longer. They pupate near the soil surface for 3 to 7 days. Adults live a little over a week. Both larvae and adults can spread plant pathogens, such as black root rot, Botrytis blight, Fusarium wilt, Pythium blight, and Verticillium wilt. Here are some methods for addressing fungus gnats. Dry Soil Treatment Lauren Fordyce, an Urban and Community…

Nix Fungus Gnats Organically

Seed tape is a long strip of paper with prespaced seeds glued inside. When planted, the paper biodegrades and the seeds sprout, creating a neat row of ideally spaced plants. Making your own seed tape is a great way to save time—and seeds. You can sow more rows in less time, and the process leads to neat rows that’ll require less thinning. Plus, you can prepare large quantities beforehand. In addition to seeds, you’ll need scissors, measuring tape, a pencil, a paintbrush, white flour or starch, and toilet paper. 1 In a small bowl, mix white flour or starch with water to create a paste with the consistency of school glue. You won’t need much, so start by adding a tablespoon of each until you reach the right thickness. 2 Next, create the…

Photos from the Field

SHOW US! Share your unique perspective with our community by submitting photos of inviting gardens, nutritious foods, wild animals, and more to the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Photo Group on Flickr (www.Flickr.com/Groups/MotherEarthNewsPhotos/Pool). We’ll feature our favorites here and online!…

Photos from the Field

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