Mulch is a gardener’s best friend, offering numerous benefits like moisture retention, weed suppression, and improved soil health. While you can buy mulch at the store, making your own from cover crops is a sustainable and cost-effective way to nourish your garden. By growing and terminating cover crops, you can create a rich, natural mulch that boosts soil fertility while promoting healthier plant growth. In this article, we’ll explore how to grow and terminate cover crops to make your own mulch.

The short answer: Yes, if left unchecked.

You're doing everything right-- watering, fertilizing, staking, spraying, planting at just the right time in the season-- yet for some reason your garden isn't producing the way you thought it would. Or perhaps your houseplants just aren't ~thriving~ like everyone else's, but instead are yellow, lanky, or just plain sad-looking. You may ask yourself, "what am I doing wrong?!" In truth, it may not be what you are doing, but what you're not doing. No matter what kind of soil you buy or have naturally on your property, without proper maintenance it can lose its ability to sustain healthful plant life. Overtime, the macro- and micronutrients are sequestered by the resident plant life, leaving your once rich, fertile soil as dusty as the Oklahoma prairies. This is especially true on farms that cycle the same few crops over and over, leaching the soil of those macro- and micronutrients and altering the composition, resulting in unbalanced, infertile, dusty soil. So, what do we do to fix this? How do we know that the problem is empty soil and not something else? We test our soil!

What is a stumpery?

Discover this transformative approach that requires no back-breaking digging, allowing you to cultivate a flourishing garden without disturbing the soil. From preserving soil structure to promoting biodiversity, delve into the world of no-dig gardening and unlock the secrets to a low-maintenance, eco-friendly oasis right in your backyard.

In our six-part series, we explore the benefits of creating a safe space for local pollinators in your backyard.

Whether you are growing plants in containers or outdoors, making your own potting soil is cheaper and more rewarding than using expensive commercial brands. Plus, you have more control over the contents and properties of your soil, which goes a long way to helping your plants grow.

Earthworms are ecosystem engineers because they modify the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil. The earthworm is mostly known as bait for fishing, but they also improve the soil by eating debris and adding nutrients to the soil which helps improve its structure and porosity.

Water, sunlight, and fertilizer are all important parts of growing healthy plants, but soil pH if left unchecked can make or break the success of your crops or lawn. How do you test soil pH? How do you raise or lower the pH levels? Find out here!

What you need to know about raised beds vs traditional gardening. There are options out there for every gardener.

Deciding on what fertilizer to use for your plants can be confusing and sometimes overwhelming. Organic or inorganic? We explore the benefits and drawbacks for each type.