The debate over whether or not goats should be allowed in urban backyards is a heated one, as I discovered after being interviewed for a New York Times article describing the difficulties of goat ownership. Unfortunately, the article failed to acknowledge the benefits of goat as pet beyond the delicious dairy factor. To be sure,…
Double Digging, Intensive Gardening, French Bio-intensive, whatever current buzzword is trotted out to sell the latest gardening book. The most sacred of sacred cows. And a complete waste of your time and effort. Compost Myth-busting returns! Digging and especially Double Digging (turning the soil completely over) is a backbreaking waste of time. Digging destroys the delicate soil structure which…
I know you want to start a worm bin and compost much of what you are currently landfilling. Earth Day is coming up and everyone wants to save the planet, so why haven’t you done it already? The barriers to getting started come down to four things: Time: Taking less than thirty minutes in the safety…
The continuing process for changing over to foundationless hives is very simple. Keep adding new frames to the center of the bottom box two at a time. When you add a new pair, move a pair of old contaminated foundation based frames up to the second box. Each time, you should place the new pair of foundationless empty…
What is natural comb? What is foundation? What do you mean by foundationless? It is apparent there is a lot of confusion out there surrounding this. I think this post will make things crystal clear! Most chemicaly managed hives are full of nasty old comb drawn over foundation by a hive of bees in the late…
I started out beekeeping on my own just the way I learned growing up. With foundation. I had heard the old saws: 1) “It takes twenty pounds of honey to make a pound of wax.” 2) “You can’t extract if you don’t have foundation”. 3) “You will end up with a hive full of drones”….
From Gerald in Cullowhee, NC So–I am now an organic beekeeper. But am cheating a bit–we have no other bees that we know of within a couple miles so no chance of catching something from other hives. Hi Gerald, Glad to hear you are interested in moving to a more beneficial environment for you bees. Regarding the distance…
There is something which happens to us mid-January. Almost a form of insanity which creeps into our lives, specifically mine. The moment the first Seeds of Change catalog comes in the mail. The Winter ritual of perusing seed catalogs and planning of the beds begins. Dreaming of the perfect garden. Exotic vegetables, fruit, and berries filling…
There was a plea for help from our friend Bryan, over at askbryan.com: Dirt whisperer I am not. Compost pile thawed. It’s a big heaping stinking pile of rotten leaves at the bottom. Not compost at all. I need some cover and food for my garlic, I think. Thought I could use my compost, but…
Backyard Ecosystem began as an expression of my determination to make a difference in our own backyard. Literally and metaphorically making a difference at the micro level of my yard and to operate at macro level of treating the entire planet as something I am an integral part of and whose destiny is shaped everyday by what I do in my corner of the world.
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