It’s both fun and easy to make nesting blocks for mason bees, a highly useful pollinator for orchards and gardens. Although they don’t produce honey, there are several advantages to keeping mason bees. They are gentle, with stings no stronger than a mosquito bite. They are very efficient pollinators; only a few hundred are needed [...]
Archive for the ‘Food Growing Techniques’ Category
MAKING MASON BEE HOMES
Posted in Food Growing Techniques, Philadelphia Food Growing, tagged bee, beekeeping, bees, garden, homemade, mason, nesting blocks, orchard, osmia, paper liner, pollination, pollinator on February 27, 2010 | 2 Comments »
FRESH FIGS FOR COLD CLIMATES
Posted in Philadelphia Food Growing, Food Growing Techniques, tagged city, cold, container, fig, growing, microclimate, mulching, north, philadelphia, urban, wrapping on October 16, 2009 | 4 Comments »
So I can’t very well have a blog called PHIG without writing about growing figs in Philly. . . One of the wonder’s of Philadelphia’s fine fruit-growing climate is that we can grow certain subtropicals like the fig. South Philly is full of decades old fig trees brought over by immigrants from Italy and other [...]
BREAKING OUT IN HIVES: Urban Beekeeping in Philly
Posted in Food Growing Techniques, GRID articles, Philadelphia Food Growing, tagged beekeeping, bees, CCD, philadelphia, pollination, urban on August 10, 2009 | 4 Comments »
This article was co-written by Micah Woodcock and appeared in the August 2009 issue of GRID, Philadelphia’s new urban sustainability magazine. “Bee, bee, bee. . . bee!” 18 month old Isaac recently learned the word and seemed to have forgotten all others. With his jungle gym located next to his father’s hives in a large [...]
BUZZ ON: Attracting Beneficial Insects to Your Garden
Posted in Food Growing Techniques, GRID articles, tagged beneficial insects, companion plants, ecology, garden pests, hedgerow, interplanting, organic gardening, pest control on June 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »
This article appeared in the June/July 2009 issue of GRID, Philadelphia’s new magazine about urban sustainability. When most people think of insects, they think of mosquitoes that bite, bees that sting, and a host of annoying bugs that munch leaves and plants. Truth is, there are vastly more beneficial insects than pests in the garden. [...]
URBAN TRANSPLANTS: How to Start Heirloom Veggies from Seed
Posted in Food Growing Techniques, GRID articles, tagged heirloom, philadelphia, seeds, tomatoes, transplants, vegetable on April 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
This article appeared in the April 2009 issue of GRID, Philadelphia’s new magazine about urban sustainability. So you’ve been enjoying those orange, yellow, purple, green, striped, two-toned, cherry, plum, pear-shaped and downright unusual tomatoes from the farmer’s market. Then you get your hands on a seed catalog and the names call to you: Black from [...]
PAINTING FRUIT TREES
Posted in Food Growing Techniques, Philadelphia Food Growing, tagged biodynamic, fruit, orchard, paint, philadelphia on January 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Put away your easel and palette. . . this is a technique for preserving the health of your fruit trees with a multifunctional biodynamic “paint”. Last Thursday I spent an hour or so assisting a small crew at Camphill Soltane in applying this paint to trees in their apple orchard. Mason Vollmer, Camphill Soltane’s Agricultural [...]
GROWING KIWIBERRIES
Posted in Food Growing Techniques, Philadelphia Food Growing on January 23, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Kiwiberries are the fruit of the hardy kiwi vine (Actinidia aruguta) and super hardy kiwi vine (Actinidia kolomikta), smaller cousins of the familiar fuzzy kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa). Kiwiberries are generally the size of large grapes and can be popped in the mouth whole. I can only describe them as a tropical explosion- both sweeter and [...]
