Menu
Cart 0

News

Improve Your Garden Soil with Cover Crops

Posted by David Grau on

Improve Your Garden Soil with Cover Crops

Sowing seeds of cool weather cover crops in the fall is an excellent way to build your soil. During the winter a fall-sown cover crop will help hold the soil during winter rains (providing protection from erosion), help keep nutrients from leaching away, and add organic matter to the soil. The roots of a cover crop help keep an active exchange with soil microorganisms.

Read More →


How to Grow Garlic

Posted by David Grau on

How to Grow Garlic

We have grand plans for a fabulous garlic garden at Valley Oak HQ. We can plant garlic well into the late fall (or early winter) here. David and Carla will be browsing catalogues for different garlic varieties, and they’ll plant a garlic garden, likely sometime in November.

Read More →


Protect Your Garden from Harlequin Bugs

Posted by David Grau on

Protect Your Garden from Harlequin Bugs

We recently met a gardener who had stopped growing tomatoes in his home garden because of the damage that bugs had done to his fruit in past years. A little questioning revealed that the insects his tomatoes were attracting were the ubiquitous harlequin bug.

Read More →


Growing Melons on a Trellis

Posted by David Grau on

Growing Melons on a Trellis

Melon plants can take up quite a bit of room in the garden, sprawling their way over pathways and into neighboring beds. We find that growing melons is such a treat. When that first ripe melon is ready for picking, at just the right time, we cannot resist but eat the sweet offering. Even in our small garden, our melon does not have to take over the whole garden because we are growing it a trellis.

Read More →


Broadfork and Wheel Hoe Maintenance

Posted by David Grau on

Broadfork and Wheel Hoe Maintenance

Over the years, I have seen some Valley Oak broadforks and wheel hoes unnecessarily fall into a state of disrepair. Here's what you can do to keep your Valley Oak wheel hoe or broadfork operating like the champ it is, for many years to come:

Read More →