In the days leading up to the American Revolution, where everybody had a sufficiency garden, or market garden, metal tools were necessary. Yet, Great Britain would not allow imports of metal shovels, hoes etc. Colonialists were forced to use wooden tools. A farmer rebelled and started forgoing metal tools. This led to the famous Ames™ […]
Corn for centuries has been used as a medicinal and food source. Although a high nitrogen consumer, water, and space waster (when planted in rows), it is on every gardener list-including mine. I am solely interested in growing a small open-pollinated sweet corn to fit in block planting inside my newly designed Grow-Haus-a boxed underground […]
Honeybee swarming time is natural, and expected in the warm months, not now in the cold and wet of early spring. To discover a swarm on a tree branch at this time of the year indicates gross neglect on the part of the beekeeper. Jon Ratner, a long time friend and publisher of www.floydcountyinview.com discovered […]
The small family farm in Virginia is perhaps 300 acres. In these mountains, a beef producer is an age 70 farmer, who is paying a dear and booming land taxation, and surviving on Social Security. The final blow to these ageing hearty souls is the doubling and tripling of commercial fertilizer necessary to maintain grass […]
The one most singular natural fertilizer is animal manure. Your ability to have chickens, rabbits, and even goats is a major advantage in making composts for gardens and fruit trees. If you are not in a position to raise small stock for food and manures you have the option of growing specific vegetation in separate […]
Worldwide food shortages-principally grains and rice are making an impact in our community with an 8% increase in costs. Major bakeries have closed shop driving up bread prices, more so by 18%, or so says the Government. Projected fuel costs, transportation woes at the pump with increased bio-fuel development at the expense of agriculture will […]
Many people haunting the garden centers are buying tomato plants. I looked at a few common hybrid early varieties about six inches tall and they wanted $5.99 each, plus tax. I was flabbergasted. They were also trying to sell strawberries at $2.59 each. I am happy to think that I have been steering my Dear […]
In days of yore, Merry Olde England hedgerows yielded the rare but rewarding “streawberry”, where one-pound weight would be sold for ten (English money) pounds. It was risky to race the highways to sell your pickings as highwaymen waited at every turn for money, or the berries. About 1830, in Boston, the first domestication of […]