Aquaponic Farm with Fish & Vegetables at a Former Meat Packing Factory a...

How to Grow Chocolate M&Ms - Free Chocolate from Your Garden! (+playlist)

Knowledge Weighs Nothing

Free Step By Step Plans To Build A Barn Style Greenhouse
http://knowledgeweighsnothing.com/free-step-by-step-plans-to-build-a-barn-style-greenhouse/

Amazing FREE set of 'professional level' build plans! Now's the time to get building a greenhouse, so grab a copy of these free plans whilst they are online.

How cool would this be in a garden?

Aluminum Rainbow Bottle Tree (http://amazonmetal.com/bottletrees.html)

3 Easy DIY Greenhouses for Under $300

© Angela Davis

It’s seed-starting season and spring is just around the corner. If you’re looking to start seeds indoors and realize that you don’t have enough windows space to sprout seeds indoors, or don’t want to raise your electrical bill by installing grow lights, building a greenhouse from recycled and salvaged items might be the solution you need.

1. The Window Frame Greenhouse

© Angela Davis

Probably the most popular examples of DIY greenhouses you’ll find on the Internet. This greenhouse by Angela Davis of My Rubber Boots uses old wooden windows that you can pick up at the local dump, architectural salvage store, yard sale, or even in your alley.

The best time to salvage windows for this garden project is during construction and remodeling season where you live. Take Angela's awesome photo tour of her window greenhouse and garden.

© Michael Taeuber

Here's another window frame greenhouse, this one by Michael Taeuber, who created an Instructable to demonstrate how to build a greenhouse from old windows for his plants.

2. The Lean-to Greenhouse

© Alex Campbell

Alex Campbell built this lean-to greenhouse, also using old windows, for his food growing operation.

He graciously documented his project so others could follow along and do the same. One of the benefits of building a lean-to greenhouse is that you can passively heat it during the cold with heat from the structure it is attached to.

READ MORE: Build a Geodesic Dome Solar Greenhouse to Grow Your Own Food 

3. The Poly Hoop House

© Wolfie and the Sneak

Here's a simple greenhouse that you can build in one weekend. This was assembled by Wolfie and the Sneak blogger.

You’ll need a few pieces of lumber, a polyurethane sheet, and some “cattle panels” for support. Charlie Lybrand followed Adam Fyall’s directions for building a poly greenhouse. The temporary and portable nature of this example makes it a great option for gardeners who are renting or want to take advantage of the passive solar heating.

Check out the West Virginia University Extension Planning and Building a Greenhouse page for more ideas and directions.

Want more garden goodness? Follow the MrBrownThumb urban gardening blog, also on G+, Facebook, Flickr and Twitter

Tags: Agriculture | Architecture | Do It Yourself | Gardening

LEDs in greenhouses deliver same yield as grow lights, using just 25% of the energy

© Purdue Agricultural Communication

Even with our growing emphasis on and awareness of the benefits to the environment when eating locally and seasonally, there hasn't seemed to have been a major shift in our eating habits, as most of us still want to be able to buy any kind of produce we want, any time of the year that we want, regardless of the conditions necessary to grow those items.

We expect to find things like ripe, flavorful tomatoes and peppers in the grocery store during the middle of winter, and we also expect them to still be affordable. That's a tall order, especially in the northern parts of the world, as maintaining heated, lighted greenhouses all winter long consumes quite a bit of energy and money, which is something that small and local growers in the north can't generally afford to do.

To be able to still meet demand in the winter for out-of-season items such as tomatoes, grocery stores and restaurants depend on produce trucked in from a thousand miles away, with is also responsible for large amounts of energy consumption for transport and refrigeration. Those heavily-traveled tomatoes are often bland in flavor and high in cost, but still end up cheaper to produce than growing them locally.

"The average tomato is trucked 1,500 miles from where it’s picked in the winter and it sits on that truck for a week or more. By the time it gets to a northern market, it has been in the dark for a while and its quality is degraded. Yet you pay a premium for it—up to four dollars a pound in January." - Cary Mitchell, Purdue University horticulture professor

However, LED lights may soon enable greenhouse growers to grow affordable, vine-ripened tomatoes and other produce items much closer to the market, enabling more local food production, especially in the northern latitudes.

The results of a Purdue University study show that by using LED lights instead of the conventional high pressure sodium (HPS) lights for growing tomatoes in greenhouses, growers could get the same yields of fruit from the plants using just 25% of the energy required with current methods.

Because the LEDs produce far less heat than HPS lights, they can be placed very close to the plants to deliver high intensity lights to the surface of the leaves, including the lower branches and leaves in the understory.

"The leaves are photosynthesizing on the lower parts of the plants, and that may be helping with the plant's energy. We're getting the high intensity of the LEDs close to the plants because they're not hot like a high-pressure sodium lamp. If you put one of those close to the plants, you'd scorch it." - Celina Gómez, doctoral student

According to Txchnologist, only 30% of the energy going into an HPS light gets converted to usable light, with the other 70% being lost as heat, whereas LEDs can convert up to 50%, and can be optimized for different wavelengths that favor plant growth.

The study, which is published at HortTechnology, found that each plant grown using traditional HPS lighting used 1224 kilowatt-hours of energy through the season, while those under LEDs consumed just 294 kilowatt-hours.

That's a significant savings in energy, and therefore money, which could be just the advantage needed for local growers to compete with trucked-in produce during the winter seasons.

"The United States still imports one-third of its tomatoes from Mexico and Canada, as well as other countries. This technology could allow U.S. growers to create local jobs that shrink carbon footprints and produce better-tasting tomatoes." - Mitchell

Tags: Agriculture | Lighting | Technology

Build a $300 underground greenhouse for year-round gardening (Video)

Growers in colder climates often utilize various approaches to extend the growing season or to give their crops a boost, whether it's coldframes, hoop houses or greenhouses.

Greenhouses are usually glazed structures, but are typically expensive to construct and heat throughout the winter. A much more affordable and effective alternative to glass greenhouses is the walipini (an Aymara Indian word for a "place of warmth"), also known as an underground or pit greenhouse. First developed over 20 years ago for the cold mountainous regions of South America, this method allows growers to maintain a productive garden year-round, even in the coldest of climates.

Here's a video tour of a walipini that even incorporates a bit of interior space for goats:

How a Walipini works and how to build one

© Benson Institute

It's a pretty intriguing set-up that combines the principles of passive solar heating with earth-sheltered building. But how to make one? From American sustainable agriculture non-profit Benson Institute comes this enlightening manual on how a walipini works, and how to build it:

The Walipini utilizes nature’s resources to provide a warm, stable, well-lit environment for year-round vegetable production. Locating the growing area 6’- 8’ underground and capturing and storing daytime solar radiation are the most important principles in building a successful Walipini.

The Walipini, in simplest terms, is a rectangular hole in the ground 6 ‛ to 8’ deep covered by plastic sheeting. The longest area of the rectangle faces the winter sun -- to the north in the Southern Hemisphere and to the south in the Northern Hemisphere. A thick wall of rammed earth at the back of the building and a much lower wall at the front provide the needed angle for the plastic sheet roof. This roof seals the hole, provides an insulating airspace between the two layers of plastic (a sheet on the top and another on the bottom of the roof/poles) and allows the sun's rays to penetrate creating a warm, stable environment for plant growth.

SilverThunder/via

This earth-sheltered greenhouse taps into the thermal mass of the earth, so that much less energy is needed to heat up the walipini's interior than an aboveground greenhouse. Of course, there are precautions to take in waterproofing, drainage and ventilating the walipini, while aligning it properly to the sun -- which the manual covers in detail.

Best of all, according to the Benson Institute, their 20-foot by 74-foot walipnifield model out in La Paz cost around $250 to $300 only, thanks to the use of free labour provided by owners and neighbours, and the use of cheaper materials like plastic ultraviolet (UV) protective sheeting and PVC piping.

Cheap but effective, the underground greenhouse is a great way for growers to produce food year-round in colder climates. More over at the Benson Instituteand the Pure Energy Systems Wiki.

Tags: Agriculture | Do It Yourself | Food Security | Gardening | video

B.I.G. Tip of the Day!

Rinse veggies right in the garden and then re-use the water on the plants. 
Plastic bucket and small laundry basket/colander from Dollar Tree would do nicely.

Wheatgrass: a chlorophyll-rich superfood bursting with nutrients

Three reasons to love wheatgrass

1.) Rich in chlorophyll -- Wheatgrass is one of the world's finest sources of chlorophyll, often containing over 70 percent of it. Chlorophyll is the molecule that gives plants their green color, and which helps them to photosynthesize (convert sunlight into chemical energy). In humans, chlorophyll is a powerful blood cleaner and builder. It delivers a continuous energy transfusion into our bloodstream, increasing and replenishing our red blood cell count while increasing our hemoglobin levels so that our red blood cells can deliver us increased amounts of oxygen. Since destructive bacteria cannot exist in the presence of oxygen, eating more chlorophyll-rich foods like wheatgrass can help guard us from a host of serious diseases, including cancer.

2.) Treats digestive conditions -- Wheatgrass contains a large number of digestive enzymes (substances that help reduce toxic and indigestible materials in food), and is known to treat several digestive conditions. One 2002 study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, for instance, found that wheatgrass juice could help treat ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease similar to Crohn's. Additionally, the UCLA Brain Research Institute found that wheatgrass can help improve indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome and acid reflux. Moreover, due to its high fiber content (weight by weight, wheatgrass contains 200 percent the fiber of bran), wheatgrass is also a well-known cure for constipation.

3.) Extremely nutrient-dense -- Perhaps wheatgrass' biggest draw is its phenomenal concentration of minerals, which rivals (and, in some cases, exceeds) that of better-known supergreens. According to a spectral analysis provided by Self's "NutritionData," four grams of wheatgrass (equivalent to one tablespoon of powder or 8 x 500 milligram tablets) contain 1,600 percent of our recommended daily intake (RDI) of vitamin E, 733 percent of our RDI of thiamin, 15,293 percent of our RDI of riboflavin, 1,250 percent of our RDI of niacin, 1,950 percent of our RDI of vitamin B6 and 7,000 percent of our RDI of manganese.

Wheatgrass also contains huge amounts of zinc, copper, iron, pantothenic acid and vitamin K, as well as smaller amounts of vitamins A and C. This nutrient profile makes wheatgrass an excellent health supplement, and one that is far more potent (and natural) than the synthetic multivitamins found in supermarkets. Like most plant foods, wheatgrass contains no vitamin B12.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/044142_wheatgrass_benefits_superfoods_healthy_digestion.html#ixzz2vKRBGj00

Cold Frames!

Read Here:  http://www.fortheloveoflillian.com/2012/03/cold-frames.html

How to Keep Squirrels and Birds From Eating Your Fruit

Photo by Noel Ramos.

Got a tip from Noel Ramos a.k.a. Florida Green Man on how to deal with those pesky squirrels and birds in your fruit orchard. Noel says:

I use those clear plastic fruit containers that are used for packing strawberries and grapes. I personally don’t buy fruit in these containers but I asked some neighbors and friends to save them for me and in a short time amassed a large collection. They snap shut over most fruit like these mangos and this helps to control fruit damage. Since they have vent holes, they don’t collect water inside. They can be washed and stored and are durable enough to last several seasons. After they serve their duty, they can be put in the recycling bin.

Noel is the person who sent the picture of all the winter fruit he grows in Florida that we put on the blog on Sunday. Judging from that picture he’s got a handle on critters issues. Thanks Noel!

A Chicken Coop that Enhances the Garden

Read Here:  http://centralcoastgardening.com/2009/09/a-coop-that-doesnt-look-coopish/

DIY: Green House

Read Here:  http://yearroundveggiegardener.blogspot.ca/2013/12/im-back-with-wonderful-winter-garden.html

Black Soldier Fly Composter / Automatic Chicken Feeder

This composter can turn everyday food and garden waste in to a nutritious food source for chickens and rich compost.  Read More:  http://gardenpool.org/beneficial-insects/black-soldier-fly-composter-automatic-chicken-feeder

Suburban Farming

Read Here:  http://www.katefoxmicroholding.co.uk/

Vertical Garden Ideas...

For more > Cool Gadgets Concept

Knowledge Weighs Nothing

Even Simpler Vertical Gardening Method!

http://knowledgeweighsnothing.com/simple-vertical-gardening-method/

This is cheaper and way, way easier than the vertical barrel method we posted about last week. 


I think this method is superior in every way. Find out more...

How To Build DIY Vertical Barrel Planters

I believe for many folks, vertical gardening is the way forward. It is the only way people with limited space can get anywhere near growing enough food for their families. Sure, this is not going to be of much interest if you live on a nice homestead with several acres of space for growing crops, but the fact remains that most of us don’t have enough land to grow enough food to feed our families…

These vertical barrel planters are easy to build (create a template for the cuts if you are making several!) and you could grow a huge amount of food in a small space with several of these. Personally I would only use food-grade barrels, but barrels like these (and smaller) can be acquired from local factories, fast food joints and bakeries etc. I am sure they can be purchased on eBay etc as well. Watch the video to see how they are made and how they work.

(Image from: Halfpinthomestead)

A Little Girl’s Project Shows Us Why We Need To Choose Organic Produce

Support Local Food! Please Share...

As part of a simple school project a young student by the name of Elise was tasked with discovering how long it would take for a fully grown sweet potato to grow vines. The project itself is quite simple, and is a regular part of many elementary school curriculum’s since all that it involves is the sticking of toothpicks into the sweet potato and the suspension of it into a glass of water. If left near a window that receives sunlight the sweet potato should grow vines, which is the exact process that Elise was looking to monitor. (Click HERE for an exact step-by-step guide on how to do this)

Elise’s discovery however went a lot further than this when she initially purchased sweet potato failed to grow vines after three weeks of following the given instructions. Here is the full video featuring Elise’s discovery:

What initially started as a simple science experiment quickly evolved into a potent and unintentional piece of evidence in support of the purchase of organic rather than conventional produce. As Elise so adorably mentioned as a part of her explanation, the conventional sweet potato was sprayed with bud nip, alternatively known as Chlorpropham. Bud nip is just one of the many chemicals widely used in non-organic farming and agriculture.

What Is Bud Nip?

Bud Nip is a plant growth regulator used for the control of grass weeds on several fruit and vegetable plants. In potatoes, such as the sweet potatoes that we conventionally purchase, bud nip is used primarily to inhibit potato sprouting -the exact process that Elise was looking to create as a part of her experiment. On the surface bud nip seems relatively harmless, however certain studies show that it also comes with a fair level of potential side effects -many of which Elise mentions -that do more than an adequate job at justifying the ‘caution’ warning that it is labelled with.  Bud nip is considered moderately toxic for ingestion, an irritant for the eyes and skin and was responsible for a number of side effects and even death of several of the animals that it was tested on. Despite this, bud nip is regularly used directly on an abundance of non-organic produce, and indirectly on other produce due to its highly soluble nature in both soil and groundwater. This could potentially explain how even the organic sweet potato that Elise had purchased from the conventional grocery store did not sprout nearly as impressive as the final one that she had purchased from the organic food market. Elise’s experiment serves as a simple yet profound reminder of the option that we have to grow or purchase organic produce. It may currently be the more expensive of the two product options that exists, but when it involves our health it certainly cannot be overlooked.

Read more about fruits and vegetables you should always buy organic...

Support Local Food! Please Share...

ARTICLE TAGS

• Health
• Education

Author

Collective Evolution

The Farm Meaning & Reflections

http://TheFarm.CobblestoneProject.org