Organic Gardening Tips for an Abundant Harvest
Welcome to the August Newsletter. As usual there are lots of quick tips to get you thinking about the food you eat and grow.
This month, I’m sharing another quick ‘How To’ video in my Sow Simple series of free tutorials to help you grow and use food wisely in just minutes. Dig in and help others by sharing these tips!
Benefits of Growing Sunflowers
In this quick video lesson, I share some of the ways I use sunflowers to get more food from my garden, pest manage, encourage biodiversity and maintain healthy soil. You can even grow these useful blooms in pots. I hope you enjoy the tips.
The Micro Gardener wins a Sustainable Business Award
2017 has been an exciting and action packed year so far. In my latest blog post, I give you a quick peek behind the curtain, to share a little of my world and what I’ve been up to.
I take you on a quick photo tour of some of the projects I’ve been busy with and the award I just won. 🙂
5 Reasons to Grow Sunflowers
In my latest article, I share 5 benefits of growing sunflowers. Discover how to grow sunflowers and reap the rewards:
- free edible seeds;
- cut flowers;
- attract birds to help reduce pest insects;
- encourage bees to improve your harvest; and
- even help detox contaminated soil.
I can assure you that sunflowers are more than just pretty faces!
I also share helpful tips on choosing sunflower varieties, pollination, growing, harvesting, processing and storing seeds. CLICK HERE to read now.
My Cancer Story and a Free Course
In 2004, I’ll never forget hearing those 3 dreaded words “You’ve got cancer.” Thankfully, due to my determination to change what I eat and how I live, I’ve been cancer free for 13 years. I’m not only a cancer survivor, but now thriving with good health!
However, I’m sure you or someone you care about, has been affected by cancer too. It’s a dark and scary time if you don’t know what path to take to reclaim your wellness.
Two years ago, I lost my beautiful mum to this horrible disease. She had stage 4 cancer when she found out and had surgery and chemo. The last few months of her life were the worst time in mine. Watching her suffer was excruciatingly painful. I felt helpless at that time because I had really limited options for helping her.
Chris’s Story
My friend Chris understands this all too well. Chris was diagnosed with advanced metastatic cancer in 2003 when he was just 26 years old. He decided not to have chemo and was completely able to remove cancer from his life. His story is truly inspiring.
Today, nearly 14 years later, he’s alive and well, cancer free. His mission is to share his message of hope and healing with the world. Because of my own journey, I wanted to share this with you and hope it makes a difference to you or someone you know.
Free Video Course
Chris created SQUARE ONE. It’s a 10-part video series that explains exactly what he, and many others have done, to heal cancer with nutrition and natural non-toxic therapies. The course contains step-by-step instructions, backed by evidence-based science to help you heal and/or prevent cancer.
SQUARE ONE is normally a paid course, but Chris wants to share his message of hope and healing with 1 million people in September. So, from September 12th, you’ll be able to watch all 10 videos online for FREE.
That’s right, no cost. No strings attached. I think that’s a pretty generous gift.
Take 3 short minutes and watch this potentially life changing video right here.
If you or a loved one has received a cancer diagnosis, or if you’re serious about preventing it — the information in Chris’s course could literally save your life or the life of someone you care about. I believe this information is priceless, especially if you’re a patient or care giver. I’ve walked in both shoes and that’s why I wanted to share this with you.
CLICK HERE to get free access to his online course. Discover Chris’s powerful journey back to health and learn about how you can start your own healing journey.
“The greatest wealth is health.” – Virgil
5 Container Garden Design Tips
- 1. Assess your space. How much sun/shade do you have each day? What is the width + depth of your container? Plant suitable varieties according to the space and microclimate you have.
Select plants according to the space, container size and sunlight
- 2. Position tall and climbing plants at the back of larger containers and raised beds on a trellis or stakes. They can help shade other plants like leafy greens that perform better in hot weather in semi-shade.
- 3. Plant medium height edibles in the middle of your container and consider root depths. Spinach, chard, spring onions, leafy greens and Asian vegetables are examples of suitable plants.
- 4. Sow low height, fast growing and trailing edibles at the front of your planter. For example, lettuces, radish, pick-and-pluck spinach varieties and strawberries. Herbs like thyme and oregano are good choices for spilling over the edge and take up less room.
- 5. Include flowers to attract bees for improved pollination and increase your harvest. Not only do flowers look attractive, but if you sow organic seeds, they are also edible. Beautiful blooms are a magnet for pollinators of fruiting crops so it’s a win-win to always plant a few flowers. A few bee-loved flowers include Cosmos, Calendula, Nasturtium, Sunflower, Sweet Alice (Alyssum), Queen Anne’s Lace, Viola, Sweetpea, Marigold, Cornflower and Lavender.
List of 10 Bee Attracting Flowers
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Thanks for reading! Until next time, I encourage you to embrace dirty fingernails, muddy boots and the joys of growing your own.
I look forward to sharing more ways to grow good health soon.
Happy gardening,
Anne Gibson, The Micro Gardener
P.S. I really value your opinion. I’d love to hear your feedback anytime. Leave a comment below or CONTACT ME!
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Hello, Anne,
I was just watching your video about sunflowers and their use to detoxify soils. What I was wondering, though, is whether that makes the plant material and the seeds, toxic from that? If using them to detoxify soil, should those plants be destroyed or disposed of so that the toxins aren’t returned to the soil again? Would the seeds also be toxic for both humans and wildlife? Do you need more than one planting to clean up toxic soil? The reason for my queries, is that I have an area that was sprayed with Roundup and I want to clean the soil before I do any further work in that area, so I am wanting as much information as I can get to know how best to deal with it.
Thank you for your great emails!
Jennifer
From the research I’ve read Jennifer, sunflowers have the ability to take up a variety of heavy metals and chemical contaminants. As they are fast growing, the bulk of this translocation of contaminants occurs in the first 4-8 weeks of growth. These toxic substances are taken up by the plant in varying degrees in the leaves, roots, stems and seeds. There are many research reports with varying results as to the remaining levels of contaminants in the seeds and oil. One research report indicated that these plants take up more heavy metals if you apply worm castings (vermicast) and compost to the soil. So this indicates a way to speed up the remediation of your soil. As the toxic chemicals are retained in varying amounts within the plant biomass and roots, if you want to err on the side of caution, I would suggest pulling the whole plants out after they mature. Cover crops can also help to build healthy microbe populations to help remove and detox your soil. You may want to dig deeper and do further specific research. This is one report that gives more detail on this topic: http://waset.org/publications/10005333/potential-of-sunflower-helianthus-annuus-l.-for-phytoremediation-of-soils-contaminated-with-heavy-metals. Hope this helps. Anne
Thank you for your short video on sunflower.
We have now decided to grow wild flower shrubs – not too sure if this is the right name, but flowering native trees/shrubs – could you point me in the right direction of whom should contact.
Hi Anne
I would suggest contacting your local native nurseries or landcare groups. They will be able to provide you with bee and bird friendly species suitable for your area. Your local council likely has information on where to contact them or just do a search online. Councils often give away free native plants to residents so this could also be a source of plants for you!
Hope this helps, Anne