To grow your own groceries, you don’t need to be so experienced, or have a huge backyard garden. These delicious plants require very little effort:

Basil: Chop it up and freeze it in an ice-cube tray, then stir the cubes into soup or other dishes.

Blueberries: Get an older bush which is ready to start producing.

Green beans: Green beans are easy to grow and easy to prepare.

Peppers: Try the spicy ones – they dry well.

Perennial herbs: Oregano, rosemary, thyme and sage are all good, easy perennials.

Salad greens: Lettuce can last throughout the summer. Plant it in a shady area.

Strawberries: You will not get enough to make jam, but you can have some for breakfast.

Tomatoes: Beginner gardeners should start with seedlings. Use stakes for support.

Also see: Indoor Garden in your Apartment

How to Grow Edible Mushrooms in Your Home

By Anna Lynn Sibal

Mushrooms are simply delectable. They add a rich and earthy flavor to any dish you put them in. They are also very nutritious – they contain high levels of protein and potassium, but have very little fat and are low in calories. Mushrooms are delicious and are good for you.

It is just too bad, though, that fresh mushrooms can be quite pricey and the canned versions are just not as tasty or nutritious as the fresh ones. On the other hand, mushrooms can be easily cultivated at home under controlled conditions. So why not grow your own, as part of the organic living lifestyle?

Choosing Mushrooms to Grow

Of the 14,000 species of mushrooms identified by biologists, only 250 or so species are actually edible. Some of them lend easily to cultivation but others can only be found in the wild. Unless you can control the temperature and humidity in the place where you will be cultivating your mushrooms, your choice of what mushrooms to grow should depend on the climate in which you live. Some mushroom species grow best in cold weather while some like it hot and humid.

In addition, not all mushroom species are cultivated in the same way. Some mushrooms spawn best in damp sawdust, straw or sterilized wheat. Other mushrooms prefer to fruit in logs. So before you buy your mushroom kit, you should understand first the specific needs of the mushroom species you are going to grow at home.

General Guidelines for Growing Mushrooms

As mentioned above, the first step to cultivating mushrooms is buying a mushroom kit. This kit would be a packet containing straw or sawdust full of mushroom spores or mycelium. You can lay the spore packets in a pan filled with damp straw and then put the pan in a place that is damp, in total darkness, and where your mushroom spawn will not be disturbed. The ideal place for this is a basement, but you can use an unused closet or cabinet for this purpose. For the first three weeks, keep the temperature around your mushroom spawns at 70°F.

After three or four weeks, you will have observed the spawns taking root in their medium. When this happens, drop the temperature in the spawning area to 60°F. You will also need to put a layer of potting soil an inch thick over the spawn. Cover it all with a damp cloth. You need to spray the cloth with water whenever the soil begins to feel dry.

In another month or two, the spawns will have developed into small mushrooms. Just wait for them to grow bigger and continue spraying them with a little water. Your mushrooms will be ready for harvesting after two or three more months; you will know when they are ready when their caps have fully separated from their stems.

Mushrooms are remarkably easy to grow. With your own mushroom garden, you can be sure to have tasty and nutritious mushrooms in your dishes whenever you feel like eating them. You can even make money out of growing mushrooms by selling your produce to your neighbors. They will certainly appreciate the fresh mushrooms as much as you do.

How to Set Up an Indoor Garden in Your Apartment

By Anna Lynn Sibal

One of the many woes that some apartment dwellers experience is the belief that they cannot have a garden in their home. They think that to have a garden, one must have a plot of land – a backyard or a front yard, perhaps – where they could plant a few seedlings and coax them to grow. But you do not really have to have a plot of land just to have a garden if a garden is what you really want. If you want to grow a few plants, you can set up an indoor garden in your apartment.

It is not really that difficult to start an indoor garden in your home. You can successfully grow a few plants even if you think you do not have a green thumb. There are plants that will still thrive without you fussing over them as long as you choose a good location for them, water them daily and fertilize them occasionally. Here are a few steps to help you on how you can set up an indoor garden in your apartment that will not require constant care.

1. Decide on what plants to grow
Each plant has its own requirements for growing, and your own choice of plants will greatly affect how you will set up your indoor garden. If you have a lot of time to spend on your garden, then you can get any plant that will grow indoors. If you are too busy and you just want a few plants that will improve the air quality and aesthetics of your home, plants that are easy to maintain are what you need. You can also grow an indoor vegetable garden or herb garden if you cook at home often.

2. Choose a perfect spot for your indoor garden
As mentioned above, each plant has its own requirements for growing. Depending on the plants you have chosen, pick out a spot in your apartment where they will thrive. It has to be a place that receives sunlight, but not enough to burn or dry your plants. It should not be too dark or humid, or your plants will get moldy and rot. It should also not be a place where they will be disturbed by sudden drafts, such as near doors.

3. Buy pots that drain well
Pots for indoor plants come in many different forms, shapes and finishes. But whatever pots you choose for your indoor garden, choose one that has a drainage hole at the bottom. If it does not have one, you can drill a couple of holes underneath. These drainage holes will let the excess water from the soil out of the pot when you water your plants. If the soil in your pots becomes too moist from lack of drainage, the roots of your plants will rot.

4. Keep a gardening journal
A gardening journal is very handy in helping you remember things about your indoor garden, such as the proper care of your plants, when you fertilized them last, or when you repotted a plant. Your gardening journal does not have to be something fancy. Just buy a notebook, stick in the care tags you got from the nursery when you bought your plants, and make note of when you fertilize or repot them, as well as other details you may need to bear in mind when it comes to your indoor garden. Having a gardening journal will help you take better care of your plants.

Setting up an indoor garden is not as difficult as you think. Also, it will be beneficial for you to have an indoor garden in your home, even if it is just a tiny apartment. You are guaranteed to have clean air, temperature control and something beautiful to look at when you maintain an indoor garden in your apartment.

Also see: Organic Gardening Natural Gardening

By Gabor Timis

A long term study published in the American Journal of Alternative Agriculture shows that organic crops yield 35% to 100% more under drought conditions.
Organic crops also retain water better in the root-zone soil under flood conditions and give better yields.

Quite remarkable and very useful, particularly in these times of extreme climate fluctuations and global climate change.

See this image showing the organic crops on the left:

Source: Lotter, D.W. et al, 2003. The performance of organic and conventional cropping systems in an extreme climate year. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 18(3):146–154.

By Anna Lynn Sibal

We need to fertilize the plants in our garden every so often.  Fertilizers are necessary because they replenish the nutrients in our garden soil and thus ensure that our plants continue their healthy growth.  Unfortunately, if the fertilizer is commercial and made from synthetic chemicals, it will only cause more harm than good to the soil and to our plants in the long run.  As thus, it is very important that we switch to organic fertilizer for our garden.

 You can easily buy organic fertilizer from any gardening supplies shop.  However, before you buy any organic fertilizer, it is important that you know exactly what kind of fertilizer that you need for your soil and for your plants.  Your garden soil and your plants have varying requirements, and the kind of organic fertilizer that you will get for them should address these requirements effectively. 

Nutrients in Organic Fertilizers 

Just like us, our plants need a wide variety of nutrients to ensure their healthy growth.  Of these nutrients, the three most important ones are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.  Nitrogen is required to produce plant proteins and to stimulate leaf growth while phosphorus encourages the development of strong and healthy roots.  Animal manure is an organic fertilizer that is rich in nitrogen and you can find high levels of phosphorus in rock phosphates and bone meals.  Potassium, on the other hand, helps the plant absorb and retain water as well as produce more flowers and fruit, and seaweed meals are examples of organic fertilizers that contain lots of potassium. 

The kind of nutrients that you need in an organic fertilizer as well as in what amounts depends largely on what your plant requires.  For example, if you are growing green and leafy vegetables in your garden, you would need organic fertilizer that is rich in nitrogen.  If you have flowers in your garden that you are coaxing to bloom, maybe you need to use an organic fertilizer that has a lot of potassium. 

Using Organic Fertilizer 

Aside from mineral content, there are different kinds of organic fertilizers for the different stages of a plant’s growth.  These fertilizer types are: 

1. Base fertilizers.  Base fertilizers are nutrient-rich fertilizers that are meant to prepare the soil for planting, to rejuvenate it, and to replenish nutrients lost in continuous planting.  You should apply base fertilizers to your garden soil once a year and at least two months before you begin transplanting your seedlings. 
2. Top dressing fertilizers.  Some of us take food supplements to boost our vitamin and mineral intake.  Top dressing fertilizers perform the same task for our plants.  This type of fertilizer adds to the vitamins and minerals that our plants regularly get from the soil so that they can continue growing healthily as the year progresses. 
3. Special fertilizers.  Our plants need specific nutrients throughout their life cycle, and certain soil types need to be treated with certain types of fertilizers as well to make them more nourishing to plants.  For example, if the soil is too sandy, some rock phosphate organic fertilizer can bind the soil.  If you need to coax your plants to bloom more or to bear more fruits, a good solution would be applying bat guano to the garden soil.  If the soil is too cold, you may need to spray folia feed on the plants. 

You need fertilizers to keep the soil in your garden properly nourished.  When the soil is rich with nutrients, you can expect healthy plants to grow in your garden.  But to promote a truly healthy garden, you should use only organic fertilizers.