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The Simple Vegetable Gardening Cheat Sheet: All You Need to Know

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When to plant, when to harvest, and more

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Mike Barrett – With Spring coming through, it’s time to start planning for that beautiful organic garden. Let’s face it; one great way to avoid the threat of genetically modified foods, pesticides, and toxic additives is to start your own organic garden. Whether you have gardened before or you will just be getting into it for the first time, below you will find a very helpful infographic with tons of information to make your experience that much easier.

From choosing the right seeds to knowing where and when to plant the seeds, there are tons of bits of information to know for a successful gardening venture. In addition to checking out NaturalSociety’s earlier posts on basic gardening skills and how to choose the best seeds, you must check out the infographic below to learn numerous essentials for vegetable planting.

As the infographic, courtesy of AnglianHome, shows:

10 Things This Vegetable Growing Cheat Sheet will show you

  1. When to plant
  2. How far apart to plant seeds
  3. What needs propagating
  4. What needs to be in a greenhouse
  5. What size pot to plant in
  6. Distance to thin seedlings out to
  7. Germination & maturation times
  8. Which pests to look out for
  9. What veg works best together
  10. When to harvest!

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You Can Be a Gardener

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seedOne of the most beautiful occupations on Earth is that of the gardener.

You may witness as a small seed turns into a sprout, and then becomes stronger, striving to reach for the sunshine faster and faster. In the meanwhile, the gardener protects, nourishes and helps the small plant to develop as best as it can. Thanks to the diligent work of the gardener, the small plant grows into a mighty tree, offering cool shadow in the hot summer days and delicious fruit in the autumn, thus rewarding the hard work of the gardener.

The tiny seed of Truth is found in every human being, including, naturally, the Wanderer. Similarly to the seed of a tree, the tiny seed contains great potentials. If the Wanderer protects and nourishes that tiny seed, it will grow into the mighty tree of Truth. Continue reading →

Fukushima Spring: 50% Genetic Damage Found At Trader Joe’s

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CVNews  April 4 2014 (Thanks, Minty)

Perusing the floral section in the supermarket is usually the first thing on my grocery list these days. For the past 3 years I have documented genetic damage not only plants growing locally in SE Michigan, but in domestic and imported plants, fruits, and produce being sold to the public. Some of my best finds have come from items grown along the Pacific Coast, and this week a recent shipment of spring bouquets and potted plants at Trader Joe’s proved the same is still happening, as I suspected it would.

AbnormalFlower1First, I comb through the bouquets, camera in hand. I look at the most obvious part of the plant, the flower head including petals and center. If I can spot a mutation, I check the stem and related leaves included. I look for color anomalies as well, as we know from past research mutations in color genes is another known effect of exposure.

During normal plant growth, the cells are self-organizing and grow in a symmetric pattern, following the Fibonacci Sequence of phyllotaxis. Phyllotaxis is the study of fractions and spirals in plants, which includes fruit and flower number, divergence angles, and petal numbers and formation. This pattern allows the plant to use the least amount of energy needed for amazingly rapid growth to maturity. Once the plant has reached it’s full potential, the perfect geometry of a plant allows it to absorb the sun’s rays and collect rainwater as efficiently as possible, channeling it to the stem fornourishment.

AbnormalFlower2Plato, Fibonacci, and Johanes Kepler all made contributions to the discovery and application of the Golden Ratio in nature. It appears in many aspects of our everyday world, including hurricanes, ram horns, spider webs, and snail shells, and even in the arrangement of our facial features. Also, take a look at our galaxyfrom above…we live in a Fibonacci Sequence. Our world is filled with many mysteries that scientists and mathematicians alike are working to figure out if this was just a coincidence, or something else. For whatever reason, it’s how normal plants grow, and it is also how we distinguish the normal from the mutated.

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11 Reasons To Grow & Eat Sunflower Greens

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NaturalSociety September 19 2013

In just seven days after planting sunflower seeds, you can munch on some of the most beneficial micro-greens around. Sunflowers offer incredible health benefits, and you can eat many parts of the plant. Finding fresh sunflower sprouts is very difficult, but it is so simple to grow your own. You can also allow a few of the plants to grow into mature sunflowers which will then yield thousands of new seeds for you to grow again – an entirely sustainable way to feed your body and mind.

Here are 11 reasons to grow your own organic sunflowers:

1. Sunflower greens offer one of the most balanced forms of a complete plant protein around. They provide all the essential amino acids and help to repair muscle tissue while supporting the enzymes of the body to do their jobs as well.

2. Sprouted sunflower greens, known as microgreens, also contain up to 100 times the enzymes of regular, full-grown greens. This means your body can more easily assimilate important phytonutrients, vitamins and minerals.

3. Sunflower greens are full of folate (folic acid), and B complex, vital nutrients for pregnant women and a developing baby. Continue reading →

9 Healing Herbs For A Natural Medicine Cabinet

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NaturalSociety  August 21 2013

Instead of filling your medicine cabinet with a bunch of questionable pharmaceutical drugs that keep Big Pharma in business, why don’t you just grow your own inexpensive, natural healing herbs at home? This way, you’ll have your very own healing garden to keep doctor visits to a minimum, and you can sleep soundly knowing that you’re capable of taking your health into your own hands.

Herbs are usually quite hearty as plants, and you can grow them in smaller spaces. These herbs can be grown outdoors or in containers on your patio. You can even grow them in your own kitchen if you prefer to keep your ‘natural medicine cabinet’ indoors.

Here are 9 amazing healing herbs any novice gardener can grow.

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