FarmCzar

I've been an organic gardener for over 25 years, and a balcony farmer for the last 10 years. In early 2007, I restarted the student garden at the Stanford Community Farm, where I taught the Local Sustainable Agriculture Field Practicum in 2007 and 2008. Since then, I've been putting everything I know into a web site on organic gardening, Grow-It-Organically.com. In the garden, I'm particularly interested in using plant selection and spatial arrangement to boost beneficial garden insect populations to control pests without using chemicals. It's like learning to play the landscape as an instrument. I'm also fascinated with the challenges of balcony farming, or growing a portion of your food in a container vegetable garden. I've been tweaking soil mixes and amendments and have come up with some combinations that make plants thrive. In addition to gardening, my other interests include photography, Tai Chi, hiking, and canoeing.