The Amateur Farmer

Urban Farming, the Productive Way

Posted on by Jean Campbell

"If you plant it, it will grow," turns out to not necessarily be the case. I'm approaching my third summer of attempting to supply our little two-person family with wholesome, organic, homegrown vegetables. My original idea was to use only the composts I created from my kitchen scraps and fall leaves. Fail. :( Things grew. They did not flourish. Reality hit me square across the face about a month after I purchased my EarthBox. The kit comes with a cool little rectangular planter, complete... Continue reading

Apartment Gardening

Posted on by Jean Campbell

Just because you don't have an inch of earth where you live doesn't mean you can't have a productive and yummy garden. There is always the glass jar sprouting method described early in March. But I've learned a new way to make a garden happen indoors, and FAST! I took some pint-sized plastic to-go food containers and poked a knife through the bottoms in several places. I filled them with potting soil and watered well first so as not to upset the seeds. I added a pretty thick layer of... Continue reading

Windowsill Salad Garden

Posted on by Jean Campbell

I'm ready for a big, hearty salad out of my own garden -- NOW! But my lettuces, although lovely and green, are still rather small. If I picked them all I could come up with one good chef's salad, but that would be it, and I'm impatient! What's a girl to do? Sprouts to the rescue! Sprouts of edible plants are packed full of goodness. In order to ensure the plants-to-be get a good start, sprouts begin life overloaded with nutrients. They contain significant amounts of vitamins A, C, and D,... Continue reading

Beekeeping in the ‘burbs

Posted on by Jean Campbell

I'd seen an ad for a meeting about beekeeping in the Homewood Star, a paper and online publication for news and entertainment in Homewood, our little community. The talk would be held at the new Sims Ecoscape site, a plot of land donated to the city of Homewood for ecological efforts by Catherine Sims for the use as a community park and outdoor classroom. It was a very chilly day, but the sun was shining and the information was interesting enough to almost not notice how cold it... Continue reading