Articles by Cathy England
Cathy England grew up in Indiana, and went to Pennsylvania to go to college at Allegheny College where she holds a Bachelor’s in Psychology.
After the birth of her child, she started thinking more about the food that would be put into his body.
After endless hours of research about organic vs. conventially grown food, a passion for raising organically grown produce became an obsession.
Additionally, Cathy and her family do everything possible to buy local and live sustainably.
Cathy lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, son, 2 cats and a dog.
While her dream is to move out to the country to farm more land, she currently produces everything that she can in her backyard.
She sells at the local farmer’s market, mostly to meet people in the community, and to educate them earth friendly growing techniques.
Guerilla gardening is a term that is becoming more popular and well known, particularly in large urban areas where folks who would like to garden do not have yard space to do so. Guerillas are also people who find it unacceptable to leave perfectly good gardening space wasted. What they all have in common is that they want to make something grow in a place that is unconventional, unapproved, or sometimes, illegal.
Some group are organized, ...
Posted in Savory and Sage Tidbits | No Comments »
Planting, growing and harvesting does not have to end with the summer! There are a number of crops that can be planted in August. Because of short growing seasons, or tolerance for frost and cold temperatures, these crops will thrive and reward you late into the fall, even into the early winter after the first light snowfalls. In order for this to be successful, it is time now to begin planning for the fall garden.
Fall ...
Posted in Seasonal Garden Maintenance | 1 Comment »
Not every gardener has the luxury of expanses of land to till for their gardens. In fact, some great gardeners have produced beautiful gardens on a patio or balcony. They were able to do this as a result of smart use of vertical gardening.
There are many uses and applications of upward space in any size garden. Most plants can be adapted to this method, even if it is not their natural tendency. This method can ...
Posted in Garden Design | 1 Comment »
Now that the plants in your garden are finally producing fruits and vegetables, the sheer numbers can sometimes be overwhelming. An organic gardener generally does not want to see any food go to waste. The easiest answer for this pleasant problem, is preserving the harvest.
There are a number of ways in which large quantities of produce can be put back for the rest of the year. There really is nothing better than having fresh frozen ...
Posted in Fruits, Veggies and Herbs | No Comments »
One very important thing to learn as a gardener is to eat seasonally. This means eating greens and wintered over root vegetables in the early and late spring, peas and beans in the early summer, and finding 317 ways to eat blueberries, tomatoes, and peppers in the mid to late summer. In order to accomplish this goal, it requires that the gardener has a number of creative garden recipes at their disposal.
Five Ways With Blueberries
If ...
Posted in Fruits, Veggies and Herbs | No Comments »
There seems to be a simple truth in gardening, there are flower garden people, edible garden people, and a few who are a little of both. Flower garden people do not want to be bothered with ugly vegetable plants in rose and perennial gardens, and vegetable garden people plant flowers often only as a companion to a vegetable in their garden.
Michelle Obama is doing it, more and more neighbors and communities are doing it, and ...
Posted in Garden Design | No Comments »
While often the fertilizer focus in organic gardening is on compost, manure, cover crops, or the addition of certain minerals, there are also times when liquid organic fertilizers have a place in the yard and garden. Some of these products can be purchased, and some of them can be concocted by the gardener from items on hand.
There are a number of liquid fertilizers on the market that are approved for organic use. However, as in ...
Posted in Soil and Fertilizer | No Comments »
Garden bed rotation is a wonderful way to trick the damaging insects and diseases that may winter over in the ground and wait for the same plant to be placed there again in the spring. By moving plants around, the organic gardener can avoid this common garden problem.
Why Garden Bed Rotation?
There are a few reasons that this is a good idea. Large scale farmers, if they are savvy, use this method as well. When the ...
Posted in Garden Pests and Diseases | No Comments »
This is quite possibly the most exciting time of the year for anyone with an appreciation of the harvest. Mother Nature planned her own crop rotation in such a way as not to burden us too much with her bounty. As a gardener from the northern part of the U.S., I start itching in anticipation for those first beautiful fruits. But, then they come so fast and heavy, there is no way to eat the ...
Posted in Fruits, Veggies and Herbs | No Comments »
You may have heard the phrase companion planting thrown around a bit here and there in your journey in organic gardening. Like burying beer to deter slugs, crop rotation, good garden hygiene, and proper feeding of the soil; companion planting is yet another tool that is available to make the life of the organic gardener a bit easier.
And, just as many of these aforementioned tools fail from time to time, companion planting is not a ...
Posted in Garden Pests and Diseases | No Comments »
