The potato tower project: an autopsy report

This is a post about a project that failed.... Nevertheless, I believe that gardening is a never-ending learning process, and making mistakes is one of the best ways to learn. So I'm sharing this mistake of mine with everyone so you, too, can learn from it. I posted in spring about testing out the potato …

Incorporating hügelkultur into community garden raised beds

I have a confession to make… I’ve only learned about the concept of hugelkultur about a year ago – shame on me! However, ever since I heard about it, I became a fan and started thinking of a way to incorporate it into my gardening practices. If you, like me, are not yet familiar with …

Harvesting my first batch of worm castings!

Hi there, gardeners! Today was a big day for me: I finally got to harvest my first tray of vermicompost (aka worm castings)! It actually took much less time than I expected, and I peeked into the second tray to see that it's 95% done, too. I bought a 5-tier VermiHut worm bin and set …

Notes from the field: how I fought off the aphids

Hi there, garden enthusiasts! A few weeks ago I discovered that my asian eggplant was infested by aphids, and now I am sharing a simple organic method I used to get rid of these pests. To get rid of the sap-sucking menace, I used this simple recipe for green soap (also known as insecticidal soap): …

My favorite green spaces in Philly: Blanche P. Levy Park

Hello and welcome to the second post of the series! Like the Kaskey Memorial Park, Blanche P. Levy Park is also located on the University of Pennsylvania campus. What can I say, I spend a lot of time on campus, and fortunately for me (and everybody else), there are a lot of wonderful green areas …

Yet another evil squirrel post: they’re getting smarter!

Greetings fellow garden enthusiasts! I know, I know, just over a week ago I've published a post about how I outsmarted the evil squirrels, and now there's a new post... I even had the nerve to say that they've calmed down somewhat. Guess what - now they've outsmarted me! Lately I've been seeing a lot …

Review: Bagged potting soils and mixes

In the previous years, I kept buying bagged soil (whichever looked most appealing on a certain day in a certain store) without taking the time to take notes on which ones were better, or which were a complete waste of money. But not this time! This spring, I set out to test a variety of …