How I Made My Grow Light Stand

In a perfect world with unlimited funds my gardening adventures would be Instagram worthy all the time.  I like to garden pretty.  You can garden on the cheap, but often that means you sacrifice aesthetics.  There’s nothing wrong with that if it doesn’t bother you.  But for me, it does.  Neat and tidy things please me (I can hear my mother laughing across the country.  She might have a different experience of me…). But here’s my problem.  I don’t have a lot of money. And I don’t have a ton of natural sunlight shinging in any of my windows.  Growing Read More

How I Defeated the Fungus Gnats

If you read my December diary, you may remember that I was dealing with a pretty intense fungus gnat infestation.  It’s a super common , incredibly frustrating problem for those of us who keep plants indoors.  I wanted to expand my indoor vegetable garden, but before I could, I needed to get the gnats under control or I’d end up living in a very buggy house.   I’m happy to report that I am victorious in my fight against these fungus gnats.  But before I talk about how I did it, let’s get to know the enemy… (Not So) Fun Read More

Get Started Creating “Black Gold” aka Compost-Part 2

So now that you’ve read all about “black gold”, you’re ready to take on assembling your own compost pile.  First thing you should know is that there are so many different ways to compost which is both awesome and overwhelming.  Awesome because it means you have choices.  And overwhelming because, well, which method should you go with?  Heck, I was getting a bit overwhelmed just trying to write this post.  I even found two new composting methods I’d never heard of as I was researching for this (which I won’t talk about here)! So for simplicity’s sake, let me put Read More

All About “Black Gold” aka Compost-Part 1

One of the big reasons for me having to deviate from my initial gardening goals was due to the health of my soil.  As I began my lawn re-sodding project (more on that soon), I discovered I have nutrient-deprived, clay soil that would prevent the growing successes I’m looking for.  Truly terrible soil!  So, growing this year just didn’t make sense.  Rather I’ve concentrated my time on projects that will improve the health of my soil and set me up for success next year.   Composting is one of those projects.  Presenting the topic of compost so early on my Read More