Pathogen-Reducing Compost

January 14, 2020 © 2020 Benefits of compost are widely known: 1) enhances water holding capacity, soil structure, organic matter, drainage, and nutrient holding capacity of soil, 2) provides a source of beneficial microbes, 3) decreases both inputs (to your garden) and outputs (from your garden), a plus for sustainability, and, 4) reduces fertilizer and […]

Your Hori-Hori Could be Harboring Clubroot

November 26,  2019 © 2020   I meet weekly with the DirtLife group at Sound Bio Lab. Other members are scientists who are also interested in soil. We are designing a community-based science project so we surveyed the Seattle P-Patch gardeners, via their listserve. Fifty responded. Gardeners are interested in microbial diversity, effective composting and […]

How to Guard Against Leaf Miners

November 16, 2019 Joan here. I have been volunteering at FECO since the beginning of time. Recently, in my writing class, the instructor charged us to write a set of instructions for how to do something. Here goes! Leaf miner larvae were infesting the Swiss chard I was trying to grow in the FECO raised […]