#seasonal-growth

#seasonal-growth

Around a third of UK gardeners use pesticides, and our studies found that house sparrow numbers, for example, were nearly 40% lower in gardens where the pesticide metaldehyde was used. By reducing pesticide use, you can actively encourage birds back into your outdoor spaces, as they rely on invertebrates such as slugs and snails as natural prey.

Spring ends the winter season like light ends the darkness. The coming of spring reminds us of the peaks and valleys of life. If you are in a valley, know that there is light at the end of the tunnel and a peak will come soon. Just as the seasons change, so too will your life.

Starting an edible garden can make it easier for you to eat healthy and avoid rising grocery costs. You have access to fresh, organic fruits and veggies right outside your door.

Seedlings are ambitious and will germinate and start growing once pressed into damp soil, shooting toward the nearest light source. However, if they remain in small containers without natural light, they can become root-bound and leggy, eventually collapsing under their own weight.

"I saw the announcement that one of America's most enduring publications was set to close," Konrad said, "and it felt wrong to stand by while an irreplaceable piece of our national heritage disappeared."

As an adult, my relationship with snow has changed. I find great beauty in an expanse of unbroken snow, the way drifts reflect wind patterns, the stems and seedheads of last year's perennials still standing proud, and the dampened silence that accompanies a snowstorm. I delight in seeing the intrepid and ever cheerful black-capped chickadee out and about during and immediately after snowfall, determined not to let the flakes affect its outlook.

To an unimaginable eye, a seed looks inert. Yet they are packed with genetic information and biological processes poised to unfold. All it takes is the right configuration of signals and stimuli from the environment to let them know it's time to dare to grow.

The term "soil fatigue" or exhaustion refers to the condition that soil profiles take on when they've been heavily monocropped and untended. This soil is devoid of the microbial content that offers plants bioavailable food. It lacks the fungal and bacterial organisms that interact with plant nutrients.

As concepts such as "regenerative" and "biodynamic" continue to enter the mainstream coffee lexicon, scientists continue to literally dig into the soil to give them meaning. A recent peer-reviewed study from India's Western Ghats argues that one of the clearest signals of healthy, sustainable coffee farms lies in the ground itself, with organic coffee soils performing better than soils from conventional farms treated with synthetic inputs.

When you think of farming, what ingredients do you generally associate with a successful harvest? The basics certainly come to mind: fertile soil, plenty of sunlight and lots of water. But there are other variables that can also mean the difference between a crop of healthy fruits and vegetables and a large heap of organic waste. And it turns out that one of those variables is a very small hawk.

People grow asparagus from crowns because it shortens the long wait times for harvesting. From seed, you'll need to wait three years before harvesting asparagus. Some people consider that a waste of time. The tradeoff is that you can keep harvesting every spring for up to 15 years or more. If you plant crowns, you get a one-year jump on things. However, those crowns may have soil-borne diseases you don't know about, so there is a risk involved. Seeds remove that problem.