I don’t spray anything on the garden, not even Neem oil. I have been observing which plants do well in what section of the garden as well as watching bug issues come and go. The fact that Dino Kale isn’t liked by the Aphids is beyond me, but no complaints! I have moved the Kale plot this year for a little crop rotation. We’ll see if the Aphids like this new spot or if in fact the Dino Kale is Aphid proof.

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1. How to Plant and Organic Herb Garden

• Keep potatoes out of the light
• Don’t wash the potatoes you have dug up
• Keep enough dirt on top to keep potatoes from freezing
• Keep them dry -  ie… Don’t water anywhere around your hole

Potatoes generally will keep well in a cool dark area for about 2 months or so. If you see them begin to sprout, it’s time to make some twice baked potatoes or maybe some really nice Organic Potato Salad. Make sure you cut off the little sprout eye as it doesn’t take real good and some say can make you a little sick.

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When to Harvest Your Zucchini

Zucchini can grow rather large in a hurry. My favorite size to eat are the 8″ or so long Zucchini. They are really tasty and very full of moisture at this point. The young Zucchini are great for soups and fritters. If you wait a few more days the Zucchini will be amazing for the grill as the larger size is a little less moist.

How to Harvest Your Zucchini

Zucchini is easy, and fun for the kids to boot, to harvest. Finding a nice ripe Zucchini on your plants, grab a hold of the vegetable and give it a little twist. It should snap right off. Don’t pull hard or jerk on the Zucchini, it will come off best with a twist. Sometimes you leave a little Zucchini meat on the plant, but don’t worry, another will grow near by in the new space you’ve created. If you would really like a clean break, use a good pair of larger scissors and snip them off.

Delicious Zucchini Recipes

I’ve got a few really yummy recipes to share below. When possible, go Organic!

• Zucchini Fritters (from: Smitten Kitchen – My wifes favorite kitchen / cooking blog)
• Herbed Zucchini Soup (from: Delish.com – 5 Stars!)
• Zucchini Bread (from: FoodNetwork.com – I’d leave the nuts out)
• Gluten Free Zucchini Muffins (from: The Gluten Free Homemaker – Super Yum!)
• Parmesan Encrusted Zucchini Recipe (from: Kalyn’s Kitchen – If you let the Zucchini sit for about 30 mins covered in salt, they’ll be less moist)
• Got a Recipe to Share?!

Leave a comment below and let me know how your Zucchini turned out this year! Thanks for reading my little garden blog :)

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Organic orange peels offer a variety of health benefits most people are unaware of. The number one benefit is the anti-inflammatory benefits. Inflammation has been linked to chronic disease as one of the leading factors overcoming the sickness. The orange peel contains phytonutrients and flavonoids that are in much higher concentrations than in the juicy pulp.

A study done by “Arland T. Hotchkiss, a carbohydrate chemist at the ARS Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) in Wyndmoor, Pa., and cooperators demonstrated for the first time that pectin, a type of carbohydrate in orange peel, has “prebiotic” properties. These prebiotic carbohydrates, also known as oligosaccharides, are found in certain fruits and vegetables. Prebiotics are nondigestible foods or nutrients that increase the growth of beneficial “probiotic” bacteria in the large intestine. Probiotic bacteria stimulate health and help prevent foodborne pathogen growth.”

Orange peels also contain hesperidin which helps to lower Cholesterol and Blood Sugar levels.

How to Make Dehydrated Organic Orange Peels

You can eat the organic orange peels right off the fruit or you can dry them. Dried orange peels is one of my new favorite snacks. After enjoying the juicy organic orange, I take the peels and put them in the dehydrator at around 100 degrees for about 8 hours. They come out like thick cut potato chips! Stick them in a glass jar or plastic bag and bring them to work to share with your coworkers. You’ll be amazed at how good they are.

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Shasta Daisies are not the most wonderful smelling flower, but they sure attract a host of beneficial insects to help protect your organic produce growing in the garden. Beneficial insects that the Shasta Daisy attracts butterflies, green lacewings, ladybugs (as well as their larvae!), praying mantis and other such wonderful garden helpers.

How to Plant Shasta Daisies

Plant your Shasta Daisy root ball in the fall. Not only will this allow time for the roots to get established, but you can get them much cheaper from the nurseries! Shasta Daisies like an easy to root in soil. Decomposed granite with a good addition of compost will work great and allow the roots to really establish themselves. If you have clay type of soil, or a very compacted area, break up the soil to a depth of 16″ or so and add a good mixture of compost, potting soil or the like to the clay. Water the root ball really well, allowing it to almost dry out before the next watering.

Plant Shasta Daisies around the garden and let them grow into tall thick bushes, then divide them after a few years and plant them in other areas around your yard. The more beneficial insects, the healthier your landscape. Here’s to the natural way to keeps the pests away!

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1. Attract Beneficial Insects by Planting an Organic Wildflower Garden
2. How to Plant and Organic Herb Garden
3. Organic Daffodils

This year I wanted something different. There are a few reasons for this Wildflower Garden. The main one the wonderful beauty that wildflowers add to the yard. Next, they are, for the most part perennial. This makes next years wildflower garden even better by default. The last reason, but the most important, is the diversity of insects that it attracts. My bees now have a larger diversity of flavors on their plate, the butterflies have been much busier and more prevalent and the beneficial insects such as ladybugs, lacewings, parasitic wasps and many, many more are everywhere in the garden. Native wildflowers will help your garden grow bigger and better eliminating the need to use any type of harmful chemical pesticides on those pests that insist on eating your dinner.

Your local nursery will most likely have a native wildflower mix that you can buy in bulk. I had probably 50 packages of old wildflowers seeds that were laying around that we needed to plant. I just mixed the seeds all together in a big bucket and broadcasted them over my prepped bed then gently raked them over and began watering them. It took about 2 months for everything to really show, but the results are just wonderful! See for yourself in the picture below.

Wildflower Garden attracts Beneficial Insects.

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1. How to Plant and Organic Herb Garden
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If you just want the quick how to, here is a quick bullet list to get it done… Read on below for the details.

• Get out your containers
• Mix up the Organic Soil and Organic Fertilizer
• Buy some plants
• Tickle the roots and dip the root ball in water / Super Thrive mixture
• Put in a sunny spot
• Water before the soil dries out
• Enjoy the bounty!

The first thing you need to ask yourself is, “how big do I want this organic herb garden to be?” After you’ve made that decision, you can head into the potting shed, garage, or nursery if you need to in order to get things set up. Get your window box or containers out and into a good location you can get a little dirty. Don’t forget to add a few rocks in the bottom of the planter so that it drains well and the hole doesn’t get plugged with soil.

Soil is the basis for all amazing organic gardens, so start by selecting some premium organic potting soil. Soil like Fox Farm or Dr. Earth make a great foundation for your editable Herb garden. Adding a good general purpose Organic fertilizer to the mix and you are well on your way!

After the soil comes the plants! Support your local nursery by picking up  some herbs such as Chives, Parsley, Rosemary and Sage which are very popular. You can sprucing up your herb garden with some Thyme, Fennel, Basil and even Lavender really adding some variety to your cooking. MMMMM! I just thought of how good a glass of Lavender infused lemonade would be! Amazing is all I can say. When you pick out your plants at the nursery, don’t worry so much about size, try and pick out healthy stout plants. Also, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a small bottle of Super Thrive.

Back at your planter box or containers, dig out the soil a bit, take your herb plant out of it’s container from the nursery and tickle the roots a little to loosen up the root bound that generally happens to nursery plants. Dip the root balls in the water (and super thrive mixture if you have some) and plant it piling the dirt around the moist root balls. Pack the dirt a little and give your container a moderate watering.

Put the organic herb garden in a sunny location away from the deer and squirrels. After a couple weeks of love and care you should see some new growth happening in your herb garden. Let everything get fairly established before you go hacking away at it and you’ll have a sustainable herb garden that will grow for years to come as long as you keep adding a good organic fertilizer as the soil begins to deplete over time. Get a good set of sharp scissors or clippers and shape the Rosemary, Thyme and Sage plants a bit. The Chives will get thick, the Parsley get’s a little leggy if you don’t trim it and the Basil will get thicker the more you pick the leaves and trim the height.

Any questions, or thoughts?! Please comment below. I’d love to see what your herb garden ends up looking like and more, how it tastes!

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Easy Lemonade:

• 4 cups of water
• 1 cup of lemon juice
• 1/2 cup of sugar or substitute like Stevia leaf

Adding the Lavender Infusion:

• Steep 2 tbsp of dried lavender in near boiling water for 10 to 20 minutes
• Add infusion to Lemonade
• Add a few handfuls of ice to cool the mixture
• Serve

Enjoy this super simple and easy to make organic lavender infused summertime lemonade!

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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

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Plant Daffodils in the Fall

In the Fall plant them about 6" deep in a well draining bed of organic soil from your compost bin. Daffodils do not like soggy soil. I prefer to plant them about 3" apart since I like a really thick bed of flowers. Planting them in the fall is best since Daffodils need plenty of time for roots to dig deep into the soil to gather moisture and nutrients enough to support their wonderful leaves and colorful flower. As with all new plantings, give them a good water before winter really hits to encourage as much growth as possible.

Daffodils Love Sun

Plant your daffodils in a sunny location. During the later winter months the sun is beginning to move further south, so take good notice of your yard and the aspect available and plant them in the sunniest spot you can. Those pictures you see of Daffodils in Holland are in the direct sun in big fields.

Feed Daffodils with a Low Nitrogen, High Phosphorus, Mid to High Potash Organic Fertilizer

Daffodils love a small dose of organic low nitrogen, high phosphorus, mid to high potash fertilizer when they first begin to poke their green shoots through the soil in the early Spring. Something like the Dr. Earth 700 Organic Bulb Fertilizer, which is NPK 3-15-2 or FoxFarm Happy Frog Bulb Food Fertilizer, which is a little more balanced NPK 3-8-8. Either will do wonders for your Daffodil growth.

After the flowers shrivel up and fall off and the leaves turn yellow, you can cut them back. If you notice a decrease in your bulbs, it might be time to dig them up, wash them off and store them in a dry area for the Fall. Your bulbs will continue to grow needing a little division after some time as they begin to crowd out and need more and more resources to survive. Just a quick hint on buying Daffodils, I always find them for way less if you buy them in the Spring. You might not get flowers this year planting them, but they'll have a great root for the following Spring! Daffodils are a wonderful and classic addition to everyone's yards!

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