-Gabrial House- With holidays right around the corner and a crisper feel in the air I thought it would be the perfect time to share one of my favorite holiday beverages on the blog this week. I love sitting around a bonfire with family and friends sipping on a warm glass of properly steeped mulled wine. There are thousands of variations of this recipe, so feel free to add your own personal touches where you see fit. Mulled wine is a heated (never boiled) wine, infused with fruit, spices, … [Read more...] about Festive Mulled Wine
Blog
Which Grow Light is Best for Me?
-Cole O'Donnell- Lighting is perhaps the most important consideration when moving a garden indoors. With so many options on the market today, choosing the right lighting setup for your indoor garden space can be daunting. Whether your intention is simply to keep plants in a state of dormancy, or extend the growing season in order to flower or fruit, there are a number of simple measures that can be taken to ensure success. When helping guide our customers, we always start with a few basic … [Read more...] about Which Grow Light is Best for Me?
Save Your Scraps
-Chris Amaya- Thinking twice about which food scraps get thrown away can help reduce your grocery bills and give you the pleasure of growing your own produce at home. There are more than a handful of vegetables and herbs that I rarely re-buy or start from seed because I grow them from leftover bits of my original veggies or herbs. Starting with organic produce is going to be the underlying theme here, because many conventional growers and food distributors will use a sprout inhibitor … [Read more...] about Save Your Scraps
Making Beer Kits at Home with Brewer’s Best
-Gabrial House- With fall in full swing, why not start a batch of home brew? If you are new to the art of brewing and not sure where to start then you should take a look at some of our awesome beer equipment and ingredient kits! We have lots of different ingredient kits for this cooler time of year, ranging from American Ambers, to Red Ale, to English Browns and even Robust Porters. You can make up to 5 gallons of your favorite hearty beer enjoyably at home! The Brewer’s Best equipment … [Read more...] about Making Beer Kits at Home with Brewer’s Best
Cultivating Mushrooms at Home
-Jesse Cerrato- Interest in growing edible mushrooms at home is on the rise. Folks with foodie appetites looking for a different kind of hobby and a way to practice economical consumption are joining the movement. Not everyone is sure where to start, but we are here to help! Just like with other aspects of gardening, it’s important to understand the needs and requirements of the species you want to grow. As an introduction, I will specifically cover how to grow Oyster mushrooms in an … [Read more...] about Cultivating Mushrooms at Home
You Can’t Lose with Grow Cubes!
-Gabrial House- This week on the blog I wanted to talk about loose fill Rockwool, also known as Grow Cubes. This hydroponic plant media has been around for quit some time but is far too often overlooked as a grower’s media of choice. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages of Grow Cubes and how to use them to unlock their maximum potential. Rockwool is a growing media made of basalt, one of the most commonly-occurring minerals on the planet. Grodan, the makers of Rockwool, takes the … [Read more...] about You Can’t Lose with Grow Cubes!
What are Cover Crops? And Why Use Them?
-Patrick Metz- As summer starts to wind down and fall approaches, it is time to start thinking about the post-harvest environment of your garden. Best practice shows us that, dollar for dollar, planting a cover crop is the best thing you can do for your garden. Here are some of the benefits: prevents erosion, improves soil health, adds organic matter, attracts pollinators, promotes and feeds your soil biology, increases tilth, and suppresses weeds. What does this mean for you? Your garden … [Read more...] about What are Cover Crops? And Why Use Them?
Humidity and Houseplants
-Mike Weeks- It’s still summertime in the South, but soon enough we’ll be getting our fireplaces, stoves, and furnaces running. And while that may keep us toasty warm, all of that dry heat can cause our tropical houseplants to suffer. Most common house plants are tropical plants, so they are used to moderate (at least) humidity in their environment. This blog post will provide some easy methods to help you help your plants survive the arid air of winter.. First off, when considering a … [Read more...] about Humidity and Houseplants
Homemade Smoke’n Hot Paprika
-Pam Scott- The days are getting shorter, summer is winding down, and I can’t say I will miss the beastly hot days that have kept me out of the garden. The cooler nights seem to be reviving some of the annual flowers, tomatoes and herbs, and my pepper plants are still cranking out lots of peppers that are turning fire engine red overnight. This is the promised bounty of plants seeded in late February, potted up indoors to mature early, and finally transplanted outside. We try to extend the … [Read more...] about Homemade Smoke’n Hot Paprika
Growing Thai Roselle in Hydro
-Luis Guerra- At the beginning of the Summer I was contemplating our next hydroponic display at the shop. Having grown Thai Roselle in my backyard in South Florida, I did some research into whether or not it would respond well to being grown hydroponically. I searched and searched, but it seemed no one had documented this trial. Well, I went ahead and germinated some seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in some propagation plugs inside a 7” Mondi Dome and tray. A few days later, I … [Read more...] about Growing Thai Roselle in Hydro
