Harvest the bounty
Harvest your cool weather crops before they go bad.
As summer descends upon us, many crops reach the end of their productive growing season.
Tom Carey: Squiggly garden helpers
Here's how to use worms to help make your garden beautiful.
Red wiggler earthworms create more of what we recognize as black topsoil than most other natural systems.
Tom Carey: Pests of spring
Here's how to keep the bugs out of your spring gardens.
The bugs are back from their winter hiatus and have their sights sets on our gardens.
Tom Carey: A mere sip of water
The Biblical axiom “for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” holds sway for most things in our lives.
As spring days get longer and warmer just as rainfall tapers off to a trivial memory, our garden’s potential for productivity soars to unexpected heights.
Tom Carey: Grow your own mushrooms
With thousands of edible varieties, our being limited to a few store bought examples of mushrooms is a tragedy.
Simple button caps or Portobellos are the least tasty or nutritious options we could be adding to our to our planetarily diverse menus.
Tom Carey: Regional garden choices
Understanding what grows best in our region.
Miniaturized industrial agriculture does not transmute to neat, short rows of wheat, corn and cotton in our backyards.
Tom Carey: No garden? No problem
Maximize your space for healthy crops, even if you only have a balcony to work with.
I am often disappointed when high hopes are dashed because of a lack of growing space or functional knowledge.
Tom Carey: Onions for all
Find your appreciation for all types of onions.
To be honest, onions have never been a favorite of mine.
Tom Carey: Kombucha tea another fad?
Home-brewed Kombucha tea: health trend or fad?
First impressions of what frequently is good for us often run contrary to our best interests.
Tom Carey: My neighborhood farm and farmer
Sundew Gardens sprang from the ground in 1983, one square foot organic garden at a time.
Unlike our early years when families would visit from all over Florida, today most of our “Harvest Gardening” members are practically neighbors.
Tom Carey: Garden chores
More than multitasking
Garden chores, unlike the one-off projects I live for, are those multifarious tasks repeated by necessity.
Tom Carey: Year-round successes
Having options to easily generate a crop during the summer bestows a whole extra dimension to the gardening experience.
Gardening options for off-months
Tom Carey: Starting seeds for the autumn garden
The majority of vegetable crops we grow at Sundew Gardens are started as transplants.
This initial chapter in a plant’s life is the best time to invest in quality, especially seeds and a seed-starting soil mix.
Tom Carey: Compatriot farmers of Florida
Only a small percentage of the expense of most processed foods actually goes to the crop producers.
With only a small percentage of the expense of most processed foods actually going to the crop producers, we have quite a bit of available margin to achieve.
Tom Carey: Fruits of our labors
Looking to grow berries in your backyard? Be sure you know what you're getting into.
Tips for growing tropical fruits in Central Florida.
Tom Carey: Huney bottles
American homesteaders knew the best place to plant an apple tree was the depression left at the location of last year’s outhouse.
American homesteaders knew the best place to plant an apple tree was the depression left at the location of last year’s outhouse.
Tom Carey: Types of tropical spinach
Prepare to be amazed by what tropical spinach can do.
The classic leafy green plant we call spinach may not survive Central Florida summers, but these numerous tropical plants of similar culture will.
Tom Carey: Summer vacation from your garden
It is time to take a summer vacation from gardening.
Although we can grow our gardens year-round here in Central Florida, a few of us would happily tag summer with the “off-season” moniker.
Tom Carey: Sowing safe seeds
Should you use GMO, chemically treated, organic or traditional seeds? Old fashioned could be the way to go.
Should you use GMO, chemically treated, organic or traditional seeds? Old fashioned could be the way to go.
Tom Carey: Peas right for summer
Who has time to shell peas and beans these days? If you harvest early, the solid, young pea pods can be prepared like snap beans, shell and all.
As summer growing conditions approach, black-eyed peas (not the hip-hop musical group), crowder peas, yard-long beans and cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) can be grown in our gardens as a substitute for green snap beans.
Tom Carey: Joel Salatin talks gardens, technology
I spoke with Joel Salatin who is working on the leading edge of sustainable farming practices.
Rollins College will host author Joel Salatin as he discusses his book “Folks, This Ain’t Normal” from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, April 18.
Tom Carey: Is your garden safe?
What could possibly be dangerous safely ensconced in the tranquility of my garden?
Sandals or flip-flops, let alone bare feet, are out of the question when considering garden attire.
From my garden to yours
Productivity gardening
I am not jealous or in a competition with any of my gardening compatriots. In an occupation as rewarding as food gardening, the more the merrier.
Tom Carey: Magic beans
Vining pole beans have been a staple crop for modern Americans since the first pioneers settled the continent.
To sell something as valuable as the family livestock for a handful of beans would put any of us in either the nuthatch or poorhouse.
Tom Carey: A visit with Tia Meer
Tia Meer, compatriot gardener and president of the Simple Living Institute, found a few spare moments to stop by my garden for a chat.
A visit with Tia Meer
From My Garden to Yours: Tom Carey
Some of the most productive plants I grow in my garden could be categorized as Asian greens.
Asian greens easy to grow
From My Garden to Yours
How does understanding our journey through the space-time continuum help us grow better crops?
Gardening in the fourth dimension
From my garden to yours
It's fall harvest time. Eat, share, waste or preserve?
It's fall harvest time. Eat, share, waste or preserve?
From My Garden to Yours
A traditional spread, including our efforts from the local garden, is an understandable way to manifest our contemporary Thanksgiving holiday.
Thanksgiving salad
From My Garden to Yours
If our elected representatives are unduly influenced by an advantaged percentage of the electorate, our voice must be heard through other methods.
Occupy my garden
From my garden to yours
Red, round radishes are some of the simplest crops to grow in the garden.
Red, round radishes are some of the simplest crops to grow in the garden.
From My Garden to Yours
Each crop you choose to plant will have two factors: how much you like them and how easy they are to grow.
So many options
From My Garden to Yours
To create a reliable foundation when building our gardens, try using a few of these practical tips.
Top 10 soil improvement tips, 6-10
From My Garden to Yours
As we approach the end of summer, preparations should be under way to start our 10-month gardening year.
Top 10 soil improvement tips, 1-5
Raising chickens in Central Florida
Backyard chickens
Predators, not disease, are a flock’s biggest threat.
From My Garden to Yours
A neighborhood’s market distinctively personifies the community’s version of the local food experience.
Neighborhood farmer’s markets
From My Garden to Yours
Nature’s simple method of littering the ground is a trick we can easily emulate.
Nature’s simple method of littering the ground is a trick we can easily emulate.
From My Garden to Yours
Starting over again
My crops of peppers, eggplant, collard greens, okra, scallions and herbs planted in early spring don’t stop producing just because the calendar clicked over to July and August.
From My Garden to Yours
Readily available, water-soluble chemical fertilizers lead to weakened plants and soil degradation
What I would not give to trade some of my sandy Florida scrub soil for that black Midwestern humus
To rise above
It’s already the middle of June and we have not received the first of our expected summer rains.
From My Garden to Yours
Now is a good time to create infrastructure for your future garden
Utter the word “farm,” and most everyone will picture vast acreages of monocrop agriculture undulating across broad sweeps of North America’s prairies or California’s Imperial Valley
Fungus among us
During my school days looking for shrooms, I became enamored with the beauty of the Great Cypress Swamp.
As our soils mature, a series of composting species evolve populations. Many agricultural practices can destroy this progression.
From My Garden to Yours
How have we ended up manipulating genes, terraforming, and changing the climate to satiate our hunger?
For gardeners to effectively compete with subsidized corporate plantations’ low-cost foods, we need to take advantage of recently developed appropriate technology
From My Garden to Yours
The fact that so many of us live Earth Day every day is a wonderful thing!
Living in the woods surrounds my family with what should be a daily reminder of why Earth Day is every day
From My Garden to Yours
When you start getting old like me, even your best efforts will not stave off the inevitable aging processes
Going to seed
From My Garden to Yours
The initial 20 percent of effort during any project will accomplish 80 percent of the intended goals.
Slow gardening: taking the time to garden right
From My Garden to Yours
When I ask fellow travelers about their projects, they usually describe their gardens in terms of size, shape and limitations.
Creative gardening
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