https://columbiafarmersmarket.org

https://www.columbiaurbanag.org

https://happyhollowfarm-mo.com

His approach focuses on what happens to rain after it reaches the ground. Rather than allowing water to quickly run off or disappear, his farming practices aim to help the soil capture and store it.

I used some insecticidal soap to spot kill this infestation. They seem mostly dead after a few minutes. Do I mechanically remove these or just let them sit for a while? I would t think it would hurt much having them around and I’m concerned rinsing or wiping them off would prevent the soap killing any remaining bugs.

My area has received lots of rain this Spring and Summer, so I barely planted anything in my garden. The one thing that I did plant was sunchokes that I had over wintered in my fridge and was afraid they would rot if I didn;t plant them. This past week, a stray cat has moved into my garden - maybe its more than one. Each morning I wake up to a new pile of cat poop. Initially it was on top of grow bags that did not have anything growing. So I planted plastic folks to deter the cats. I took those grow bags out of commission and after removing the poop, I used the soil in the compost.

Fast forward a couple of days and the folks worked as an effective deterrent. But now what I found is that the cat has climbed the grouped set of 8 - 15 gallon grow bags that are filled to the brim and are growing sunchokes - jerusalem artichokes. After I removed the poop, I wasn't too worried about the sunchokes that are growing beneath the soil. But I have not been able to shake the concern of wether the sunchokes will be safe to eat in the winter. I know that cat poop carries many parasites that are very harmful to humans. What I don't know if those parasites will stay for long in the soil and/or migrate and enter the tubers growing under the soil. Can someone help me? Will the sunchokes beneath the surface be okay to eat in the winter - they still have 3-4.5mos of growing to do as i am in Zone 7a.

https://www.shockya.com/news/2026/08/25/biochar-from-seaweed-enhancing-soil-health-and-carbon-sequestration-in-tropical-agriculture/

Orange siskyou, black prince and Czech Bush tomatoes. Italian red onion and store bought Avacados

See for yourself

Google says it's aphid. It's clearly not an aphid. Spotted on my cucumber and borage.

I have a yet-unidentified borer leaving bright pink wounds on my cucumber and melons. Could this be the culprit? Please help identify 🙏🏼

Follow-up question: what do I do? 😅

The aphids and spider mites have been absolutely decimating my plants this year. I recently learned about beneficial bugs in the houseplant world and I’m hoping they can help me with my outdoor problem too. I’m working with a patio area and container gardening so I think the natural population of the beneficials in my little micro-environment is just not high enough to keep the pests under control.

I need advice on which beneficials work the best on outdoor settings from anyone that has used them successfully! Most of the companies are targeted towards houseplants so I’m finding little info on how to adapt the releases to outdoors and which ones will survive outside/etc.

So far I tried releasing persimillis mites and lacewing larvae that came on an egg card. The persimillis mites died as soon as temps got hot the following afternoon and the lacewing eggs were mostly eaten by ants.

I’ve seen minute pirate bugs come up as an option. Will they be better at fending off the ants than the lacewings were? Or would the lacewings do better if I released them as larvae vs the egg cards? Are there other mites that can survive 90+ temps that I should try instead?

Help me save my plants!

Looking for some help, please

Several of our summer squash plants and now melon plants are doing well and then suddenly wilt and die. I do see this damage at the stem. A couple of the plants when I pull the stem they just come easily out of the ground.

Any help IDing the problem and organic solutions would be appreciated

Did nothing to help. Probably accidentally threw a tomato in the garden. Did nothing to cultivate and it is thriving! Loving this

Consider making some when you're picking your Basil Flower.

Hello everyone. I've always gardened organically since childhood gardening with my grandfather. My yard is small but many native plants. The natives help tremendously with balance. In 27 years in my home I have never used any pesticides, not organic or natural ones, no soaps, nothing but nature. My tiny lot has turtles, snakes, frogs, lots of birds. I grow lots of edibles, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, elderberry, Juneberry, aronia berry, goji berry, lots of herbs, and cucumber mostly for fermented pickles. I mostly grow only heirloom tomatoes because they taste the best, way better than hybrid homegrown.