http://doorgarden.com/2008/10/27/50-dollar-hoop-house-green-house/
Related: Gardening and Foraging • Greenhouse • Ideas for growingLiving Fences: How-To, Advantages, and Tips - Modern Homesteading - MOTHER EARTH NEWS Living fences offer a more sustainable, longer-lasting fencing option for your homestead. Fences on your farm or homestead define property boundaries and separate production zones (garden, pasture, orchard). They provide privacy and security from animal (and perhaps human) intruders. They confine livestock and protect them from predators. Off Grid World – Get Free Home Heating With an Attached Greenhouse Greenhouses are amazing for their traditional purpose – growing plants and extending the growing season in cold climates, but did you know a greenhouse can also be used to heat your home? A greenhouse attached to a home works as a passive solar heater by collecting solar energy during the day and transmitting heat into the home. Some homes are built with attached sunspaces, conservatories, or solariums, which are a similar idea, but are primarily intended as extra living space, whereas a greenhouse is intended for plant growing. Heat that is collected by the greenhouse during the day can be transferred into the house through windows or vents, or with fans for increased heat flow.
Building Fertile Soil - Organic Gardening Building fertile soil means learning how to feed the soil to feed the plants. It's a fundamental axiom of organic gardening and farming, and once you understand what "feeding the soil" means to building fertile soil, you'll also understand why organic methods, and no-till techniques in particular, work so well. Even though you can't see most of it, a complex soil food web lives in your garden; it's teeming with earthworms, mites, bacteria, fungi — all kinds of mostly microscopic, interdependent organisms that release mineral nutrients and create the loose soil structure crops need to thrive.
What is a rain chain? What is a rain chain? Artistic Downspouts™ for your home Rain chains are a beautiful and functional alternative to traditional, closed gutter downspouts. Farmers Markets Farmers markets are an integral part of the urban/farm linkage and have continued to rise in popularity, mostly due to the growing consumer interest in obtaining fresh products directly from the farm. Farmers markets allow consumers to have access to locally grown, farm fresh produce, enables farmers the opportunity to develop a personal relationship with their customers, and cultivate consumer loyalty with the farmers who grows the produce. Direct marketing of farm products through farmers markets continues to be an important sales outlet for agricultural producers nationwide. As of National Farmers Market Week, (the first full week in August), there were 8,144 farmers markets listed in USDA’s National Farmers Market Directory. This is a 3.6 percent increase from 2012.
2014 BONAP North American Plant Atlas BONAP maintains relatively complete phytogeographic and related botanical databases for all free-living vascular plants found in North America (north of Mexico). For over four decades, we have worked collaboratively with many federal and state government agencies, private groups and individuals across the continent to produce and edit our databases. Therefore, we feel that our county-level database has matured sufficiently to allow us to post all of our integrated county-level maps for the North American ferns and allies, conifers and flowering plants. BONAP plans to provide periodic updates of these maps at regular intervals. Please see our TDC page for additional data.
Northlands Winter Greenhouse Manual by Carol Ford A Must-Have Manual! I've wanted to build a greenhouse for years. This manual is exactly what I've needed. The narrative lays it out pretty simply: dig down a certain distance, fill with certain materials, etc. Tips on how to properly store fruits and vegetables Mon. Dec. 23, 2013 by Linda Kordich (NaturalHealth365) Whether we are juicing, blending or eating fresh fruits and vegetables, there’s nothing more frustrating than to witness our produce going bad, either because we forgot about it, or we didn’t store it properly. In this article, I have listed several fruits and vegetables, commonly used, and will show you how to store them effectively – so you can extend their freshness as long as possible. Be sure to read, at the end of this article, about our “End of the Week” juice.
I-BEAM DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE The Pallet House project by I-Beam Design, was initially conceived as a transitional shelter for the refugees returning to Kosovo after the war. These people needed an immediate alternative to the typical tent solution that could potentially transform into a new permanent home over time, even without access to sophisticated tools and materials. It has since become our aim to also develop the project as a more permanent housing solution to serve not only refugees in disaster stricken areas but also as a modular, prefabricated solution to affordable housing everywhere that can improve people's lives, the environment, society and even inspire greater diplomacy among the various cultures of the world. The Pallet House is an inexpensive, efficient and easily realizable solution to the problem of housing people displaced by natural disaster, plagues, famine, political and economic strife or war. The Pallet House is made of wooden shipping pallets. Photos by Peter Miller
How to Grow 100 Pounds of Potatoes in 4 Square Feet On many occasions, we've been tempted to grow our own potatoes. They're fairly low maintenance, can be grown in a pot or in the ground, last a fairly long time if stored properly, and can be very nutritious (high in potassium and vitamin C). Here's more incentive: according to this article, you can grow 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 sq. feet. Learn how after the jump... According to this article from the Seattle Times, potatoes planted inside a box with this method can grow up to 100 pounds of potatoes in just 4 square feet.
Alternative Edible Leaves Alternative Edible Leaves Most of the leaf crops we grow for food are annual plants - with all the work and problems associated with the growing of annuals such as digging the soil, preparing seed beds, sowing seed, weeding, more weeding and yet more weeding. This section is going to look at a few of the many perennial leaf crops that can be grown in the garden with a fraction of the work and often with higher total yields. Whilst many perennial food crops can be slow to begin yielding, growing perennial plants for their leaves will usually give you at least a small crop in the first year and this will then increase in the following years. The variety in tastes and textures is quite staggering - especially for those people who regard a salad as consisting of the standard lettuce, spring onions, radish, cucumber and tomatoes.
Greenhouses from Old Windows and Doors Greenhouses made from Old Windows and Doors Calling all used awning windows, bay windows, storm doors and clerestories... back to service. Greenhouse made from recycled windows by Jan and Ed Vitse of New Look Floral (a garden and floral business) in Rochester, Mn.. This little gem, made from recycled windows was built in 2003.