If you’re a gardener, and you live in the Charlotte area, you’ve almost surely been to Blackhawk Garden Center, located in the back court at Park Road Shopping Center. They have the absolute highest quality garden merchandise, including live plants, garden art, imported ceramic planters, sturdy garden tools, organic insect pest control sprays, bagged organic soil products,  and much, much more. But what really makes Blackhawk Garden Center stand out among the many other places where you can pick up a shovel or a bag of potting soil, is their people. Every team member there is an experien ..read more

  It sure would make it easy if every grower had a spacious, level backyard with six hours of sunlight, a water supply nearby, and a convenient pathway that leads from the back door to the organic garden. But much of the world’s population lives in multifamily housing. There are lots of places to call home that don’t have a backyard ; from two-story townhomes in tranquil neighborhoods, to urban condo and apartment buildings that stretch high into the skyline of the busiest cities, and everything in between. Sometimes these multifamily communities have a site on ground level for an organi ..read more

A delightfully sunny location that you can even see from the kitchen window. A premium organic soil blend that drains well. Automated drip irrigation to make sure the plants thrive while you’re away on vacation. You’ve worked hard to get everything right in your garden, and now it shows with vigorous, healthy plants - all sprawled out and reaching high for the sun. And when your garden looks this good, it’s difficult - sometimes very difficult - to remember that snipping off perfectly healthy parts of these thriving plants will actually improve them.  But it will. Skillful pruning increa ..read more

Attentiveness to early warning signs. Proper nutrition. A healthy living environment. These sounds like like the core tenets of any health book or fitness magazine. But these wise steps that foster better health in the human body are also the most effective ways of preventing insect pests and diseases in plants.  The old adage that an “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” rings just as true with plants as it does with the human body. Research has proven that healthy plants can far more easily repel attacks from insect pests and diseases than ailing plants, and prevention is the ..read more

Understanding how plant fertilizers work begins with an understanding of the nutrients that plants need. And the focus of this short article is to cast a ray of light on plant fertilizers, which include both synthetic and organic fertilizers. Of course, there’s much more to gardening than simply plant nutrients and plant growth, but let’s begin with the basic science of how plant fertilizers work - both synthetic and organic.  Every plant  - from a blade of grass to a towering oak tree - needs varying amounts of the three primary elements Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium, at dif ..read more

William and Elizabeth McKee have a cheerfulness and contagious optimism that could thaw half of Siberia.  And it’s no surprise that when disease finally forced the removal of two colossal shade trees on the couple’s Chantilly property, they quickly separated the silver lining from the understandable disappointment. Areas of the their yard that once nurtured delicate, shade-loving ornamental plant varieties, were now opened up to hours of direct sunlight. So the McKee’s decided to plant an organic garden.   And the site that they selected for their new garden had all the key advanta ..read more

Making your own organic compost has to be one of the least complicated garden projects you’ll ever take on. And it’s no exaggeration to say that it’s one of the most useful steps you can take to improve the health of your garden. Simply put, the quality of your homemade organic compost will almost surely far exceed anything that can be purchased in a bag.   So the sooner you can turn all those orange peels, egg shells, leaves, and grass clippings into organic compost and add it to your garden, the better. And if you consider a few simple guidelines, you’ll speed up a process that Nature ..read more

Fresh. Organic. Packed with flavor. Harvested straight from the garden, most fruits and vegetables are richest in fiber and at their peak of their antioxidant, mineral, and vitamin content. And it would seem logical that eating your fresh produce uncooked would surely make it more nutritious. After all, wouldn’t the process of heating damage or destroy the nutrients that are naturally present in the produce? The short answer is ‘not always’.  In fact, research shows that some vegetable varieties actually offer new health benefits when cooked. During the process of cooking, cell walls are ..read more

Most organic gardeners are happy to share a little of their fresh produce with the area wildlife.  But even the most patient growers can get frustrated to find their entire garden continually gnawed down to the ground. Sometimes squirrels are the culprits, and other times, those nibbled leaves are the work of rabbits. And even in urban and suburban areas, but especially in outer-lying neighborhoods with larger lots, deer are the guilty parties. Under the cover of darkness, deer come in hungry and leave happy -  razing your carefully nurtured organic garden down to the very roots.&nb ..read more

Seed swaps can be a fun way to connect with other growers and share samples of favorite heirloom cultivars, and gardening knowledge and experience that will help other growers succeed in their own gardens next season. And not surprisingly, late fall and Winter are the most popular times of year for many seed swap events, as seed crops have been harvested and dried, and there’s still time to think over and plan what you’ll grow in the next season’s garden.    START SMALL Plenty of swaps are large, heavily promoted  events open to the public or are part of a large event, but a se ..read more