Supercharge Your Soil with Biochar!

As farmers and gardeners we are always searching for ways to make our soils better, richer, and more productive. Biochar is an inexpensive, lightweight, and readily available product that is easy to incorporate into vegetable beds, landscape areas, and orchards. Besides an amazing capacity to sequester up to three times its own weight in carbon (possibly for millennia), biochar helps the soil’s ability to retain water, improves the condition of hardsetting soils, increases microbial activity, stimulates mycorrhizal fungi, and enhances the absorption of nitrogen fertilizers. All of which means you can expect to drastically augment plant growth in your backyard while doing your bit to save the planet!

Pollinators Need Your Help

Photo Courtesy of Maria Steffen

Although a few plants rely on wind or water for pollination, most of the world's crop plants (75%) need pollinators to reproduce. Many people don't realize that a high percentage of the food we eat exists because of pollinators. Pollinators visit flowers in search of food (nectar and pollen) and during this visit often come in contact with a flower's reproductive parts, depositing pollen which is necessary to produce a seed for that plant.

Vertical Gardens

Vertical Wall Garden at Bay Meadows in San Mateo, CA

Whether you’ve run out of gardening space, or have seen one and just think they're plain cool, you may have toyed with the idea of creating some form of vertical gardening. Perform a web search on the term and you’ll find examples of all kinds of vertical gardening from across the country and around the world. That’s because vertical gardens are an ideal opportunity to think outside the planter box.  In other words, anything goes, so long as it goes up.

Growing Melons without Draining the Tank (or Breaking the Bank!)

Watering Melons with Drip Tape at Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens

If you love melons (and who doesn't), you may be surprised to find out that growing them doesn't require as much water as you might think. While the young plants like plenty of water for the first month or so, cutting back to a deep watering once a week will keep the plant thriving and improve the flavor. On the other hand, excessive watering or poorly draining soil will quickly promote root rot, so don’t make the mistake of killing your melons with kindness.

Drip Irrigation on a Slope

Saracina Vineyards

There are many types of slopes, from gently undulating backyards and rolling hills to precipitous mountainsides. By necessity, many growers have to garden or farm on uneven terrain, forced to terrace their land or take advantage of natural benches. Fortunately, drip irrigation can provide an even flow in these situations through the use of pressure compensating drip emitters. Whether you have an orchard, a vineyard, a farm, a rural home, or a house in town, here are some DripWorks solutions to watering on uneven or sloping terrain.

Dreaming about a Pond?

Backyard Tranquility

There are so many reasons to build a pond. Perhaps you want a pleasant place to take a dip and cool down on a hot afternoon. Maybe you’re looking to bank some winter rain for irrigating an orchard or vineyard. Or maybe a pond is the ideal focal point for your landscape or garden. After all, a pond doesn’t have to be huge. Using as little as 50 to 500 gallons of water, you can place a pond in your yard and create your own calm oasis.

10 Items to Consider for your Drip Irrigation System

Every project requires a particular set of tools. Here are a few we feel everyone-from drip irrigation 'newbies' to irrigation masters-might want to have in the garden.