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5 Simple Ways to Prepare a Garden for a Bountiful Harvest

To have a bountiful harvest from your garden, you need to be able to make it through the cold winter months. By following these suggestions, you can ensure that your garden will flourish even in adverse weather conditions.

1) Preparing the Soil

The key to getting a successful garden is having great soil. It’s best to have an area that receives lots of sun for at least six hours a day.

The best way to prepare the soil is by mixing in a lot of compost or manure. If possible, try and get a mixture that has a lot of different nutrients because your plants will be able to use them when they need them most.

Another great idea is to add in some grass clippings and dead leaves from your yard so that you can recycle these items instead of throwing them away.

2) Protection from the Elements

If your garden is not protected at all, you should look into getting an old storm window to use as a makeshift greenhouse. The great thing about using this method is that it isn’t expensive and if you aren’t planning on having one of these items permanently set up in your yard, then it’s easily storable.

You need just enough heat and light to make it through the winter, but you also want to be able to control how much is inside the structure. Too much and the seeds will be overwhelmed; too little and they will die off before they even have a chance of growing into something beautiful.

3) What Seed Varieties Should I Buy?

You must buy seed varieties that will grow in winter. This is because you can’t just expect a plant to sprout up from a cold, lifeless environment. If the weather isn’t warm enough then your plants won’t be able to survive and you’ll have nothing but wasted money.

It might also help if you choose plants that are native to your area. These will be able to handle the conditions a lot better than most other types of plants simply because they have been around them their entire lives.

4) What Insects Should I Look Out For?

One of the best things about gardening in winter is that there aren’t many insects around. This means that you won’t have to worry too much about bugs eating your newfound crop and ruining months of hard work in only a few seconds.

Of course, there is always a slight chance that one might be hanging around out of sight, but if you notice any activity then it’s best to cover your seedlings with bee-proof mesh or aluminum foil. This will prevent the bugs from reaching them and ruining all of your hard work.

5) Harvesting in Winter

If you’re in an area where the ground tends to be a little bit frozen, then it can hurt a lot to try and pull up the vegetables. This isn’t going to harm the plants themselves, but there is a risk that it will damage their root systems if you aren’t careful.

The best way for harvesting these items is by using a fork rather than your hands. The latter might be a little bit easier, but it will also have a higher chance of ruining your plants if you aren’t careful

Article reference

Top 5 Tips for Growing Your Own Mushrooms

It is normal and understandable for new mushroom growers to get mystified. Beginners have tons of information to digest when they get started, including terms such as laminar flow, agar transfers, and inoculation. There is a lot to research before you delve into mushroom cultivation. Meanwhile, these tips can help you get started growing mushrooms.

Get a Mushroom Growing Guide

A well written mushroom growing guide may appear old school. However, learning from the tribulations and trials of other mushroom growers and experts can help you avoid experiments and methods that don’t work. An example of a comprehensive growing guide is Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms. Beginners can transfer the knowledge in this book to techniques for farming mushrooms at home. The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms is a recommendable guide for a beginner looking for a little easier and approachable guide. It is a well suited book for new mushroom growers looking to get the basic skills for home cultivation. The book is loaded with plenty of pictures and provides readers with step-by-step guides of cultivating mushrooms at home.

Get a Mushroom Growing Kit

Using a mushroom growing kit is by far the easiest way to get started in this field. The kit will introduce you to the process and help you understand everything that is needed to grow mushrooms. The kit will also familiarize you with how to grow healthy mushrooms and give an overview of the mushroom life cycle. Various oyster mushrooms farming kits are available online. However, there are also kits for other types of mushrooms, including Rieshi and Lion’s Mane. But Oyster mushroom is highly recommended for beginners.

Join Mushroom Growers Clubs

You are not alone. Many more people are learning to grow mushrooms at home, so it would be wise to try to connect with them. Online platforms such as Reddit and Facebook are ideal places to meet fellow mushroom growers. There are thousands of helpful experts and novice over there who are willing to share their experience in mushroom farming. Platforms such as Facebook allow users to post pictures of their products, share their experience, and ask questions. Connecting with other mushroom growers can accelerate your learning. Looking up your mycological society would also be a wise idea. You could find a helpful group near your area. Signing up for various mushroom growers mailing lists may also accelerate your learning. Most of these mailing lists will only email when there is an exciting and nformative article or news, so don’t be afraid that your inbox might get littered.

Invest in the Right Equipment

Investing in the right mushroom growing equipment can make a significant difference. Special tools and techniques that are irreplaceable with makeshift alternatives are often required in mushroom growing. However, mushroom growers are free to explore new ways to do things once they have learned the basics. It is best to use the techniques and methods that you know well when you are starting out. You can use a regular stock pot as a sterilizer if you don’t have a pressure cooker. Also, mushroom growers can save on costs by making their gar dishes using pectin and tart shells. Using known and proven techniques and getting the right equipment can help avoid a lot of frustration and save money and time.

Set Your Goals

Start by determining the mushroom variety you want to grow. There are various approaches to becoming a mushroom grower. You can choose to grow mushrooms inside a lab or grow them outside. You can also be mushroom farming for fun or business. So, set your goals to increase your success chances in mushroom growing. Having clear goals helps determine which techniques to deploy and where to invest your money and time. Experts recommend beginner mushroom growers to experiment on different techniques with one mushroom specimen. For instance, learning to grow a mushroom specimen on grain spawn can equip you with skills that you can use on other techniques. Learning to grow mushrooms on sawdust can be a little costly and difficult, but it can help you pick up some skills that might be useful in the future. So, start by setting your mind before you start growing mushrooms either for fun or business.

Health Benefits of Cactus

When we think about the health benefits of cactus, there is a good chance that our imagination whisks us off to a scene involving some unfortunate soul being stranded in the desert with little to no water. Anyone old enough to have received survival training via cowboy movies knows that a cactus will materialize at the last moment to save the day. All we have to do is cut off the top and drink our fill. Fortunately, today’s extensive lineup of reality-based survival shows has taught us just how bad an idea that is. Instead of finding water, that cactus is filled with an alkaline substance that will only make matters worse. (more…)

Popular Edible Flowers

We don’t just love food: we are obsessed with it. Multi-million dollar industries are based solely on our preoccupation with food, whether with regard to ways of preparing it or programs for attempting to temper our choices to make them more health-oriented. There are books, magazines, online productions, entire broadcast networks and dozens of other types of media dealing with some aspect of food. The interesting thing is that, while our ancestors spent most of their day and energy foraging, hunting, preparing and storing enough food for survival, many people now spend more time watching someone cook on TV than any other food-related activity. (more…)