Local Harvest Gardening

It depends on how the product is stored. Kept in a dark, cool spot and living soil will hold it's value for months.

I recommend that people mulch with nitrogen rich compost weekly throughout the growing season. Top dressing with compost rich in nitrogen around deep rooting plants in beds with lots of woodchips is the quickest way to build a healthy soil food web and improve soil fertility.

It was a cold spring and the bees were less active than normal. That could be one issue. Also, neighborhood trees that are too distant could mean that the bees weren't transmitting pollen between trees of the same type. It's not only important to have other trees of the same type in the area, they a...

Unfortunately, I don't have any remedies for this pest. Our biggest issue with flea beetle is on our mustard salad mixes, radishes and arugula when the days get warmer. By summer we move away from mustards, arugula, and brassicas choosing instead to grow other greens that don't attract the beetle. S...

Thanks for joining!

As a local you'll be able to benefit from the opportunity to visit and observe the growing that happens at Local Harvest and Fruits and Shoots. Participants in the gardening course are more than welcome to check out the gardens.

Enjoy the course!

You can snap off the scapes and eat them. Doing so will direct energy towards the bulb. Keep the scapes on the plant if you'd like miniature clones of the parent plant. The scape will produce bulbils that when planted for a couple seasons will produce new garlic seed.

Try to keep temperatures below 30C if possible. Good ventilation as mentioned earlier is critical. Some leaf curl on the upper branches isn't an issue. We'll release a video on cucumber pruning soon.

The lower than normal temperatures has lots to do with it. With all the rain, make sure they're not overwatered. Continue to mulch heavily around the base of the plant with compost. Feeder roots will find their way into the mulch and with warmer weather the plants will thrive.

I'm not sure of the beetle species. Where do you go to identify insects and bugs? Identifying garden critters is a fun and important activity. It helps us develop a greater appreciation for the soil food web and the importance of all the organisms in our garden ecosystem. In general, it's not accura...

I'm glad to here that. Thanks for passing that on.

I'll probably continue to focus on specific crops as we go through the season rather than giving a general overview.