Soil Health
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How-To
How to Pick the Best Mulch for Your Mountain West Garden Beds
Since entering horticulture professionally over a decade ago, I’ve noticed a correlation on the Colorado Front Range between wood mulch (also called arborist chips) and water-wise gardens. A beautifully designed…
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How-To
5 Easy Ways to Test Your Garden Soil pH at Home
Most people know that soil pH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline your soil is. Soils naturally have a wide range of pH values, with most ranging from…
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Article
Learn to Build Better Soil
A backyard is no place for a farm. My earliest vegetable gardens were small-scale imitations of large-scale farms. I rototilled the soil, spread bagged chemical fertilizer all around and built…
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How-To
Pine Needles, Oak Leaves, and Soil Acidity: What Does the Research Say?
In a recent Healthy Garden article, Paula Gross mentions research indicating that mulches of oak leaves and pine needles do not acidify the soil. In view of the tendencies of…
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Article
Should You Water Your Plants in Winter?
Those of us who have spent a few years (or more) in the American West know that winter here doesn’t look like winter in much of the country. As far…
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How-To
4 Ways to Get More Compost
My grandmother taught me that you cannot just take from a garden; you must always give back and care for the soil. This is a lesson I apply to any…
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Design
Tips for Creating a Drought-Tolerant Landscape
Drought-tolerant landscapes come in all shapes and sizes. From a large, expansive bed that runs the entire length of a property line to a small nook that bakes all day…
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How-To
Healthy Soil Is at the Heart of a Thriving Garden
Soil is a complex structure made up of mineral solids and organic matter interwoven with aggregates and open pore spaces. The open spaces between soil particles are just as important…
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How-To
What Is Sheet Mulching and How Do You Do It?
If you’ve ever started a new garden from scratch, then you’ve probably had to convert some amount of lawn into a planting bed. There are several ways to eliminate turf,…
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How-To
Getting Big Vegetable Production From a Small Space
I have lived—and gardened—in three countries: England, Barbados, and the United States. In the United States, I found myself settled on the eastern tip of New York’s Long Island, a…