Urban Organic Gardener

It’s December that means it’s time to start breaking out the “2011” lists. Here are five things that I learned about gardening in 2011. Getting a Better Yield in Your Container Garden One way to achieve this is through succession planting. That is when you space out your plantings, so as you are harvesting one crop another is growing right...

I was out of town for 10-days around Thanksgiving and filled up the the self-watering containers on my balcony garden the morning that I left. When I came home you would never know that I wasn’t there to water and take care of them. Just check out the pic above and watch the video below. This is partly due to how the self-watering containers work and how the...

There is nothing more fun than being able to laugh at yourself. Ok, there are many things that are much more fun, but I was stuck on writing an intro to this post. Here are more out takes and bloopers from the past few months. I’ll be taking a break and back to posting on Monday, December 5. Hope you enjoy the video and have a great Thanksgiving. ...

Here’s what you’ll need: Butternut squash 2-3 apples of your juice (I prefer Granny Smith) or fresh apple juice 1 teaspoon of oil (I prefer coconut) Optional: Ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves How to make: Cut butternut squash into cubes and put into bowl. If you are using apple juice, pour that into the bowl or cut up the apples and either juice or blend them...

Thanksgiving is a little more than a week away. It’s a time for us to get together with our friends and family. One of the biggest parts of Thanksgiving is the food. The Thanksgiving dinner is one of the main things that the holiday is based around, getting together to share and enjoy the company of each other over food. Whether that’s what happened with...

The fall time is perfect to plant garlic to be ready during the spring. It’s also simple to do. Each clove that you plant winds up turning into a clove of garlic. The larger the clove you plant, the larger the bulb it produces. I saw a tip on soaking the cloves in Organic Gardening Magazine to help prevent rot from occurring. Here is what you’ll need to...

Here’s what you’ll need: 2-3 carrots Ginger knub the size of your thumb 2-3 cloves of garlic Teaspoon of cumin 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon Tablespoon of olive oil How to make: Cut the carrot into thin rounds. Mince up the garlic and ginger. Add the garlic and ginger to the pan that’s heated with oil. Stir it up until it’s lightly browned. Add the carrots...

Mark Bittman wrote a piece for the New York Times titled Local Food is Not Elitist. It’s American. The food industry has done a great job of making it seem like wanting or eating foods from local sources is an elitist act. I mean no one wants to be an elitist and it’s easy to dismiss that way of eating if it’s deemed so. This justifies eating cheap,...

The following sentence was posted on the Urban Organic Gardener Facebook page, “My special fall vegetable gardening tip is _____.” Here are some of the tips that were left: Justin J Stewart summed it up best when he said, “Don’t give it, you’d be surprised what plants can survive what!” I couldn’t agree with Justin more....

There has been a bit of an issue on my balcony garden lately with some ants. One of the swiss chard containers dried up and ants have gotten to it. I’ve been using coffee grounds to help deter them. I’m not sure why exactly this works, but when the ants go near the grounds, they freak out and won’t cross them. The first thing that I did was line...

Here’s what you’ll need: Butternut squash 1/2 onion 3-4 cloves of garlic Dark leafy greens (I used collards and kale) Dash of cayenne pepper 3-4 tablespoons of vegetable broth Teaspoon of cumin 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon Tablespoon of olive oil How to make: Cut the squash into cubes. Cut up the onion and mince the garlic. Add the onion to the pan that’s heated...

I was asked to speak at Occupy LA about growing your own food. The speech touches on how the food industry is similar to the financial world and what we can do to bring about the change that we want to see. Excerpts from the speech: This Occupy movement that started out on Wall Street was started because of the outrage at the outsized power of the banks and financial...

I received an email from Amy asking what she should do with the extra peaches that she harvested. She wasn’t talking about 10-15 extra peaches. She was talking more like 150lbs worth of extra peaches. She said, “I like peaches as much as the next girl, but there is no way, even after jams, jellies, preserves, conserves, chutneys, freezing, and all the...

Mint grows like crazy and can easily take over your garden if grown in a raised bed or in ground garden. After all mint is a weed. You almost always want to grow mint in a container. What you will need to transplant your mint into a container: Container filled with potting mix Mint plant Water How to transplant the mint: Pour a little bit of water into the plastic...

Here’s what you’ll need: Pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin you just carved 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil Cayenne pepper, paprika, sea salt and black pepper to taste How to make: Soak the seeds in water for 10-15 minutes to get off the orange stringy stuff. Strain the seeds and put them in a bowl. Sprinkle sea salt, black pepper, cayenne and paprika over it. Put in...

The Wisconsin Judge, Patrick Fiedler, who said that we do not have a fundamental right to consume the food that we grow or raise has stepped down. This might seem like great news at first, but he now works for the law firm, Axley Brynelson, LLP. Why is this such a big deal? Because according to InfoWars.com, this firm has worked for and defended Monsanto in the past. This...