We have been spending most of our days outside trying to keep the garden weed free and enjoying the sunshine. Not only does the sunshine feed the plants, but it feeds our souls too. As I water the garden I always mean to come here and talk about companion planting but I rarely have a chance to get on here and do so but I am here now.

I learned about companion planting back when I was working retail nursery selling plants and helping people figure

out their landscapes. It started with beneficial flowers and then I learned more about putting certain plants together that complimented each other either with growing habits or the fact that they just like each other.

For example, we have our strawberry bed dotted with heads of lettuce. And our melon mound is edged in lettuce also. Since lettuce doesn’t have a sprawling growth habit like strawberries and melons do they work great together. Cilantro is planted in between the climbing cucumber plants and basil is planted beneath the tomato vines. Companion planting is a wonderful way to add more variety to your garden and fill in spots where another of the same variety may not have room all while giving your organic plants a better chance at producing more and staying insect free. (okay, well….at least you won’t have to share all of your produce with the insects.)

Rather than making a list of companion plants I am simply going to direct you to a site that I think has the best list of companion plants and beneficial insects.

If you have any questions about companion planting or beneficial insects go ahead and post your question here. Happy planting.

Every spring or fall there are tons of people who break out a huge machine that processes the earth into tiny crumbles of dirt. They do this so they can add fertilizer, amend the soil and plant vegetables. The funny thing is that blending garden soil with a rototiller is doing the opposite of what each of us who use a rototiller are trying to achieve; loamy, fertile soil.

We nearly ruined our garden this year with the thought of using a rototiller. We looked upon the earth we had available for vegetable gardening and felt overwhelmed by the amount of weeds and the time it would take to clean the space by hand. Thankfully we used our good gardening instincts and started weeding by hand. As we dove into the project, each shovel overturned a handful of earthworms. I’m sure we lost a few worms to our hand-tilling with a shovel but had we opted for the rototiller, we would have had mass casualties.

At this point in gardening education, most people know that earthworms have a very beneficial purpose. They aerate the soil which is sort of like a natural tilling process, they break down organic matter and they leave behind fertile worm castings.

There is even more organic matter in your soil that you may not be aware of. Mychorrizae or beneficial fungi that live near and on the roots of plants. These symbiotic fungi allow the plant to increase nutrient uptake.

When a gardener plows the earth with a rototiller, these two very beneficial organisms; earthworms and mychorrizae, are destroyed…all in the name of adding organic matter. Is that irony or what?

Some tips for hand-tilling:

Get a good pair of gloves with rubber lining.
Have a good spade shovel on hand.
Give yourself the time you need. (Hand tilling will take longer but will save you money and give you richer soil)
Shake off the soil from the weeds you are pulling.
Get yourself one of the handy-dandy hand ‘rakes’ I have in this picture. It really helps separate the roots from the soil so you keep more soil in the garden.

Hand-tilling can be so rewarding when you are all done. It really gets you close to the earth you will be using to grow your food in. I think it’s also more effective in eradicating more weeds than rototilling with a machine.

Remember that sometimes organic gardening means not spending money on organic soil supplements but spending time doing things by hand in your garden. Also keep in mind that using chemical fertilizers and pesticides damages the delicate balance of garden soil also. Always use organic fertilizers that support healthy soil.

We are finally in a spot where we have a sunny backyard and vegetables will grow. Fortunately we have an area at our new house that is sort of a raised bed. It isn’t the prettiest thing considering it is built with cinder blocks but hey, I won’t be complaining come harvest of some fresh vegetables. And since we are making an effort to live more sustainably, we consider growing our own food to eat a great opportunity to practice sustainable living.

We spent 2 solid days weeding this garden bed which is about 7 ft. x 20 ft. Originally we were going to rototill it. Since we don’t own a rototiller we offered to trade some heirloom vegetable starts for use of someone elses rototiller. Once we got in the garden though we realized how important it would be for the health of the soil to till by hand and pull weeds. So we set on a weeding weekend extravaganza. Let me tell you, we had a lot of weeds. All sorts of dandelions, cousins of dandelions and lots of crabby grass. If you have even the slightest area of soil that isn’t rock hard you can hand till that section and you will save yourself a lot of money by not having to recondition your soil.

The kids were all around and we had to stop to help them, feed them and play with them several times during the day so I guess someone else could have weeded the garden even faster but after we were done weeding we made our pathways. Since our garden is 7 ft. x 20 ft. I made the row along the fence about 18 inches wide and it goes the entire length of the fence. We obviously won’t have a problem reaching for weeds with the planting row only 18 inches wide. We will use this space for small plants like lettuce, strawberries and cucumbers that will be trellised on the fence.

The walkway is about another 12-18 inches. Then there are 4 more garden beds that make up the rest of the area. Each one is about 4×4 ft. This means we will be able to reach 2 ft. into the garden area from each side so that weeding and planting will be easy.

Once I plotted the garden and had the walkways in now I could walk around in the garden without compacting my nice, loose, fertile soil. Well, at least I hope it’s fertile. Just in case it’s not, I added soil sweetener to it. Soil sweetener is very appealing because it actually smells really sweet. It’s derived from volcanic ash and remineralizes your garden soil. Next I added some really nice compost to the top of the soil. I spread it out, gently raking it into the surface layer of the garden. Then I got the soil all nice and wet so I could activate the soil sweetener since it comes in a granular form. (This photo is pre-compost and soil sweetener)

We are using what our garden has to offer by putting some dirt in the cinder blocks and adding some seeds of flowers that will bring beneficial insects to our garden. We will also be stringing some twine onto the fence to grow the vining cucumbers up. This will save garden space and give them the afternoon shade they prefer. This year we will also be trellising our tomatoes in the effort to save space.

The first items that have been planted in the garden are strawberries. We put in about 15 plants, courtesy of our nice neighbors who work for the University of Oregon Landscape Department. Lettuce makes a good border around strawberries so I will be companion planting lettuce seeds tomorrow.

I’ll share more pictures as things get interesting.

Sometimes the hardest gifts to think of are those for birthdays. We usually don’t plan ahead for birthdays like we might for Christmas. Christmas can also be much more simpler because we can buy in bulk and give everyone the same of similar gifts. Birthdays tend to be a little more personalized.

I started thinking about what good, sustainable gifts would be for birthdays when my daughter was invited to one of her good friend’s fourth birthday party. Most people assume buying a toy of some sort is the best gift for that age group and if you can find a sustainable toy or organic t-shirt then it is a good option. For our family though, a sustainable toy is usually out of our price range for a birthday party. So here are my ideas for sustainable and organic gifts. Read more…

Recycling is an admirable thing to do but alone it doesn’t serve a just purpose. Reusing items is also a wonderful and sometimes creative act; although beware of items that really aren’t safe to reuse, like certain plastics. I’m amazed by the people who turn normal household items into functioning decor, such as water fountains and such keeping them out of landfills. But the best thing we can all really focus on is reducing. Read more…