Edwin McLeod Organic Gardening

Growing plants from seed can be a lot of fun.   With a little knowledge, you can improve the germination rate of vegetable seed you purchase.   Excellent seed germination depends on a few factors: oxygen, water and temperature.   In general, seed germination is closely linked to the ecological conditions of a plant’s natural habitat.   All seeds need oxygen in order to germinate.  Oxygen is needed for respiration.  Respiration allows the seed to convert starch or oil into energy so the seed can open up and grow.  Do not  bury your seed too deep because you may reduce the amount of oxygen that is able to reach the seed.  Good soil structure - plenty of pore spaces between soil aggregates - aids in the transfer of oxygen to germinating seeds.  Adding compost increases soil organic matter.  More organic matter improves soil structure and increases pore spaces.   A basic rule of thumb is: Small seeds are planted shallow and bigg...

EUROPEAN ROMANESCO. (See the fractals?).   Credit: Jitze Couperus        Attribution 2.0 Generic  license.   You should eat and grow cabbage family plants.   Are you eating broccoli, cabbage, kale and cauliflower every so often?   You should since these cabbage family plants are rich in essential nutrients, including Vitamins C and K.   Consuming these vegetables have even been reported to reduce the risk of cancer.   The cabbage family is worthy of your attention.   It has a fascinating history and you should definitely include some cabbage family plants in your garden every year.   They are not difficult to grow if you have some basic knowledge of their growth requirements. The cabbage family was once called Crucifereae because all members of this family have flowers with 4 petals forming a cross and thought by medieval Europeans to form a crucifix.  Today, the new name for the group is Brassicaceae.  The word...

You may have had this experience:   We bought two flats of Impatiens and spent the afternoon transplanting them into flower beds that were shady.   They looked beautiful.   We had hopes of enjoying their growth and blooms throughout the growing season.   Well, we woke up the next morning to find all the Impatiens had been eaten down to the ground.   Money and time wasted.   I was pissed. Deer populations are spreading more and more into suburban areas, even urban areas.   Friends of ours, who live in my childhood neighborhood near 8 mile and Woodward, Detroit, have deer that visit their yard.  This is an inner ring suburb with lots of cars.  The deer seem to find their way down the railroad tracks and then spread out into green areas in neighborhoods.  It is fun to see the deer, but not fun to have them eat your plants. So what plants will the deer not eat? I want to discuss some vegetable plants not palatable to deer and then ment...

  Pollinators are key to our production of fruits and vegetables.  If you are old enough, you probably remember seeing honey bees in your yard.  Unfortunately today, we have a growing shortage of honey bees worldwide.  There is something you can do to counteract this shortage of honey bees other than becoming a beekeeper.  Your part in the solution is really quite simple. Colony Collapse Disorder was first recognized in honey bee colonies in 2006.  It is a mysterious plague that destroys honey bee colonies.  CCD occurs when the majority of worker bees in a bee colony disappear, leaving behind a queen, plenty of food and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees.  Several possible causes of CCD have been investigated.  The possible causes of CCD may be a complex of factors including: pesticides, pathogens, climate change, migratory beekeeping, lost genetic diversity in industrial apiculture, malnutrition, electromagnetic radiati...