Click on the image below for a free digital copy of our Beginner’s Guide to Herbs ..read more

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has grown in popularity over the years. A CSA is a food subscription service. Customers pay for a subscription before the season begins, they then receive a weekly box of produce for a predetermined amount of time. This approach simplifies the weekly purchase of fresh produce for the customer, and allows the farmer to properly tailor their garden plan to accommodate the customer. Here are a couple of articles written on CSA’s that explain the concept in more detail https://www.localharvest.org/csa/ https://www.seriouseats.com/2013/05/should-you-join ..read more

“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” - Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus The quote above was said by a Dutch philosopher in the 1500’s. It is generally believed that he drew inspiration from a statement made in the 4th or 5th century CE. Needless to say, this concept has been understood for an incredible amount of time. The phrase can be interpreted in several ways. This can generally be understood, however, as a predecessor to the '“big fish in a little pond” cliche. It’s easy to be great when the subject is surrounded by substandard examples of itself. We can see countless ..read more

They are the most deadly creatures on the planet. With an annual death toll in the millions, mosquitoes are unmatched in their ability to end human lives. Malaria, elephantiasis, encephalitis, and the West Nile virus are but a few of the viruses that mosquitoes can deliver to us. With the recent explosion of the coronavirus from China, disease transmission is likely to be of great concern for many us. While it would be ridiculous to assume that we could eliminate mosquitoes entirely, it is quite possible to reduce their numbers. Chemical bug sprays work. That said, they are usually somewh ..read more

photo by xpda Melittia cucurbitae, squash vine borer, ID Confidence: 92 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ I have to begin this article by explaining why I hate growing squashes. I hate growing squashes, because I love growing squashes. This love-hate relationship has come to be following many years of watching vigorous squash plants wither and die at the cusp of their production. In the beginning, I was devastated as I struggled to find out what was causing my squashes to die. Today, I simply pull a withered squash plan ..read more

Gardening can be an expensive endeavor. Although people often plan on growing their own vegetables to save money, this doesn’t always work out. For the casual grower, big-box stores tend to be the suppliers of most of our supplies. This can quickly sabotage any plan to save money. Let’s take a look at the cost of some standard supplies. To do so, we will make a list of items needed to grow one tomato plant through the typical growing season in Northwest Florida. We will also assume, for simplicity, that this list is intended to demonstrate a typical growing effort for the casual home cont ..read more

Companion planting refers to the practice of planting different varieties of plants within close proximity of one another that benefit one or both of the plants in some way. There are many reasons to do this, but does it work? There is a plethora of information about companion planting scattered across the internet. Articles, videos, and podcasts discuss the amazing benefits of such a simple and natural technique. Unfortunately, my observations have not been so favorable. I want to state clearly that I have no way to measure the efficacy of companion planting. I don’t know how many pests ..read more

Dirt makes us happy. No, really! Stress seems to run rampant these days. Sure, life has always been stressful, but it hasn’t always had so many ways to reach us. People can call, text, email, or message us at any time. Our news outlets seem to use tragedies and political nightmares as weapons. Social media inundates us with all sorts of things that we don’t want to see. We also have to deal with stress related to relationships, and nobody can escape the stress that follows money. Side Effects of Chronic Stress Chronic stress can le ..read more

I’ll never forget the night I spent in the hospital in El Paso, Texas, in 2009. I had contracted the H1N1 virus (Swine Flu), and it was not an enjoyable experience. The Swine Flu originated in Mexico, initially only affecting people that came into contact with pigs. The virus changed, however, and it began to spread rampantly. The hysteria it created was significant, and it wasn’t without its merits. Many of us remember the mad cow scare in 1993. Farmers in the U.K. often fed their cows products that contained meat-and-bone meal…made from beef…and this led to the rapid spread of the dis ..read more

Myrtle is a proud momma! Our hair sheep flock just increased to 10! We were really excited to see these lambs running, playing, and feeding alongside the rest of the flock. “Myrtle”, their mother, actually took the lambs to see their father “Monty” for a little while! Monty had to be separated from the rest of the flock because he likes to assault everybody. That said, he does his job very well! Some of you might be wondering what hair sheep are. To put it simply, hair sheep don’t grow as much wool as the white, fluffy sheep that w ..read more