What Is Kapok

It is one of many techniques associated with permaculture, a philosophy that seeks to understand, mimic and incorporate natural relationships and systems into the garden. Just know that the results of the bed will improve as the wood breaks down over...

(As was the imminent discovery that my car's driver's side door was frozen solid—it finally thawed Thursday morning, making for some interesting car entries in the early part of the week.) I begrudgingly scraped my car out of the ice and climbed in...

Lower potencies work as well as higher potencies, but they have to be administered more frequently. Ask Martok! Do you have a livestock or wildlife question you want me to answer? Homeopathy was born in 1870, when a German doctor named Samuel Hahnemann,...

Tolerance to caffeine is different for everyone, so amounts necessary to produce adverse symptoms vary from person to person. Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), also known as winterholly, brightens winter landscape with brilliant berries.

It may not necessarily be a concrete one, but where else do ideas begin if not with thoughts and dreams? Something will spark one of these thoughts, and I'll wind up daydreaming about my three-armed life or my alternate British self for a minute or two...

Right now there is a lot of buzz about a plant called ashitaba. And then every once in a while, we catch wind of a new plant. It seems that people enjoy the flavor of ashitaba more.

But then I realized that these little nymphs were immature leaf-footed bugs , which aren't beneficial at all and are actually quite nefarious. First, the legs of these particular insects were too short and dark in color.

Determining if the soil is frozen is paramount to your garden's success.Just walking across your soil or patting it with your hand will give away whether it is still frozen or not.

Other preventative measures include using well-drained soil and avoiding overcrowding of plants. Seeds that have already germinated develop brown water-soaked spots.Seeds may be infected as soon as moisture penetrates the seed coat or later as growth...

Longbeachae.Paronychia is a local infection that occurs in the tissue around the fingernails and toenails. DDT was banned for most uses in the early 1970s and bifenthrin is classified as a possible human carcinogen and is highly toxic to fish.

There is a growing concern over our food supply, and gardeners everywhere are joining in the effort to increase the quality of our foods. That is because they are slower to develop, which gives them stronger bones and organs before developing muscle,...

I just emptied the bags into a large box and stored all the laurel dry leaves in my pantry. You may not believe it, but I still have laurel dry leaves from my store! Since the business didn't work, I closed the store and got myself a pantry full of groceries.

This high-humidity houseplant can grow to heights of nearly five feet.Dracaena sanderiana is considered non-toxic to humans.The ASPCA's Poison Control Center lists lucky bamboo as a toxic substance to dogs and cats.Although Dracaena sanderiana is considered...

"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings," sings poet Robert Louis Stevenson in an apt summary of the wealth and diversity in nature's plant kingdom.

Alternating different plants helps keep that balance intact. To replenish the chemical composition of soil after annual crops such as these, some farmers and gardeners let their land go fallow -- or unplanted -- so that the soil's natural nutrient balance...

The cut wood is not resinous, and lacks any pronounced odor.Okoume has a low density, with a mean weight of 25 pounds per cubic foot. Okoume is the wood of the Okoume tree (Aucoumea klaineana), a species native to west-central Africa, in particular Gabon,...

We live too close here. We are really enjoying them, but to our surprise, one of our ladies has grown up to be a gentleman! He's a beautiful Rhode Island Red rooster that has taken nicely to his little harem of hens.

Maybe you'll even discover a brand-new appreciation for your agricultural endeavors, similar to my fostered love of mustards and spicy foods. « More Farm Inspiration » Tags farm inspiration , food , Robert South quote , vegetables

For this reason, bougainvillea is often grown in a container and brought indoors for the winter. Still, some plants are less attractive to deer than others. It grows best in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 10 and warmer.

The concentration of hydronium ions at pH 4 is ten times greater than it is at pH 5. Although plants tolerate a small range of soil pH quite well, extremely acidic or alkaline soils need to be adjusted for good plant health.The easiest to understand definition...

Certain mulches, like grass clippings and straw, can be laden with herbicides that will contaminate the soil and reduce plant vigor. Here in my Ohio zone-6a garden, I keep my garden deeply mulched in the early spring to protect against late cold snaps...

The technicians insulated the entire house in less than four days, including clean up. Different climates and housing zones (not to be confused with hardiness zones ) perform differently, requiring varied levels of thermal protection to be cost-effective.

Is there any way of telling them apart?” If your chick order includes a handful of different breeds , learn as much about each of their physical characteristics as possible. Maybe it's the human need to classify all the things ! A reader has asked,...

One folk remedy combines sugar cane juice with dry ginger to stop hiccups, another uses equal parts sugar and yellow soap to treat boils. It also has the highest number of calories per unit area of any plant.Sugar cane is comprised of stalks, leaves and...

Other varieties include Jaio Scarlet Eye, Peppermint Cooler and the unusual Blue Pearl, which is an F-1 hybrid with light blue blooms. Heatwave Pink is a low-growing plant that will remain small all its life.

However, neither of these items contains animal fat.Despite its resemblance to lard, vegetable ghee is cholesterol-free. It is also used as a spread on bread or vegetables.Both traditional ghee and vegetable ghee have a texture and appearance similar...

These grain blocks provide a longer-lasting source of food for the deer. It is used by individuals who are concerned about the potential threat of starvation in deer populations during the winter months and by hunters who bait deer.Corn left to dry on...