The Salad Bowl after a harvest.
Huglekultur video part 1
This a little tour of our “Salad Bowl”
Huglwhat did you say?
Last fall I found out about this crazy thing called huglekultur. A raised bed garden that you rarely if at all have to water!?!? Of course I had to try it, but I was in the process of looking for farm land so I decided to call my friend Jacob and “convince” him that we needed to build this monstrosity of a raised bed garden at his house. Jacob being a huge gardening fanatic took a whole 3 seconds to say yes and we got started right away… like 4 months later.
What we decided on was a “key hole huglekultur with a cold trap and herb spiral center”. Anyways, here are some pics form the build. It took about 2 months to complete working on it some afternoons during the week and a few full days during the weekend.
Having a ball ;-)
Corn and bean seeds balls!
Baking: Castings or Cookies?
Eliza Anne from Facebook asks: Should you sterilize (by baking) worm compost before blending it into a seed starting mix? Also, how much should you use for seed starting?
Thanks for the Question Eliza!
If you feel like baking, stick with cookies( I like chocolate chip ) , but Please don’t bake your castings. Sterilizing castings kills everything that you want in your soil that helps your plants thrive. The ONLY time I would ever bake any soil is if I am trying to grow a particular moss. As far as seeds starting goes, you can add as much castings to your mix as you want! Castings won’t burn so feel free to go crazy with them! 
If You or anyone else has a question about organic gardening feel free to ask through the contact page on our website, or our facebook page!
Horse manure…should I or shouldn’t I use it in my garden?
This question comes from a facebook fan. Thanks for the Question Sylvia! The Answer to your question is…….. it depends 
Horse manure can be a good amendment to your organic garden as long as you take a few things into consideration.
The first, is it seasoned? Horse (and cow, chicken, rabbit, etc.) manure will burn your plants if its fresh, so make sure it has finished “cooking” (at least 6 months old) before you add it to your garden.
B.) You will want to find out what they are feeding the horses. Unfortunately, many of the feed we give livestock today is plain and simple poison. More and more crops are genetically modified (GMO alfalfa has shown to cause kidney and liver failure, yet was still approved.) and other crops are sprayed with pesticides that stay on the plants that the horse eats. Some of it makes the journey out the other end of the horse, and if your put it in your garden, ends up on your dinner plate.
3rd.) Anti-biotics! Anti-biotics will pass out of the animal as well, and just as before if you add it to your garden…..
Of course, it’s up to you what you add to your garden. I for one stick to worm castings. Worms break their food down at a molecular level leaving clean organic deliciousness for your plants, that won’t burn them (our you in the long run). You can also ( I do ) use broad leaf plants as a living mulch to fertilize your garden.
If You or anyone else has a question about organic gardening feel free to ask through the contact page on our website, or our facebook page!
And SOW it goes…
Seeds are in!!! This year I went in with my friends Jacob Forrest and Ben Quimby on our seed purchases. We went through a few catalogs and ordered everything we wanted. Here is some of what we are planting this year!
Welcome!
Welcome to the Appalachian Organics Blog. In this blog we plan to discuss everything organic, everything permaculture, and our journey in this exciting area of life. If you have any questions you would like answered, feel free to ask on our facebook page, our Google+ page, or use our contact form and we will answer all your questions as fast as we can!