Comment

Comment by Chuck a Muck on March 21, 2010 at 4:56pm

I would prefer to avoid craigslist due to the flakes and time wasters that seem to be in the majority over there...

Comment by igz on March 21, 2010 at 4:42pm

chuck, i would craigslist that and see if any local composters would share...

Comment by Chuck a Muck on March 21, 2010 at 4:24pm

I need lots of cheap or free clean top soil. Anyone got any suggestions? By lots, I mean about 32 square feet...

Comment by Laura on March 16, 2010 at 12:04pm

I saw that last year you guys were talking about guerrilla gardening rides. did anything ever come of this?
If you guys think about doing it this year I would love to join! I am not claiming that I can garden or that i own any tools but it sounds like a fun idea!

Comment by Anne Alt on March 16, 2010 at 10:27am

I was cleaning up one of my flower beds this afternoon. Now the tulips are unburied. One bed done, two more to go.

For starting veggie seeds, I use a 4 foot fluorescent fixture with 2 40W wide spectrum tubes. That works nicely.

I agree with Todd's tip about cutting peat pots for many types of plants. Something really agressive like green beans doesn't really need it, but it helps for many other types of veggies and herbs.

Comment by Todd Allen on March 15, 2010 at 6:30pm

It's 13.8 watts, so at best about 1300 lumens, probably more like 1000. A single decent 4 foot florescent tube will put out at least twice as much light. Also, you don't want the red light for seed starting.

As for the jiffy pots, they tend to be pretty small and only plants with extremely aggressive roots can penetrate through them. You'll need to cut the peat pots open for many plants.

Comment by Duppie on February 12, 2010 at 4:52am

Family Farmed Expo - March 11-13th UIC Forum - University of Illinois at Chicago.

This is the Midwest's premier Local Grown/Raised food expo.

Besides demo's and vendors hawking their locally grown foods, they also have workshops. Look at the Saturday schedule here

Comment by Todd Allen on January 29, 2010 at 5:51pm

The Horner Park Organic Community Garden Project is hosting a gardening workshop tomorrow from 11 AM til 1 PM in the Horner Park fieldhouse. The workshop is free and all are welcome.

I'll be doing a presentation on indoor vegetable seed starting for transplants and there will be a second presentation on indoor worm compo...sting.

http://www.hornerpark.org/veggie-garden

Comment by nhylc on November 8, 2009 at 7:40am

you are correct sir :)

Comment by Todd Allen on November 8, 2009 at 5:10am

nhylc, if it was salt/mineral build up I'd expect to see a lot of brown tips, not just one. And probably some yellowing too. Although perhaps it is just the first stages of it.

As for our water, the white scale that precipitates out is lime not salt. With salt your flushing solution is the best. But lime can be tolerated so long as you manage the ph of your growing media. Lime makes your soil more alkaline, ie it raises the ph. This is bad for acid loving plants. You can use acid growing media such as peat (but not peat sold with added lime to make it neutral) or you can use acidic additions such as garden sulfur and more acid fertilizers. I make and use an evergreen needle compost that is fairly acidic.

The best though is to use rain water when possible. Rain water tends to be slightly acidic due to air pollution.

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