By Cindy Naas

The stone walkway in my herb garden is edged with oregano.

When the sun heats the stone or when those walking on the path brush against the oregano, the spicy scent fills the air.

It is an easy to grow herb and I use a lot of it.

How to Grow: Like many Mediterranean herbs, oregano needs a lot of direct sun. It also needs well-drained soil and doesn’t need a lot of fertilizing. My herbs grow in a soil which has been amended with sand and fine gritty gravel, and even during this rainy summer they are doing fairly well.

Harvesting Oregano: Use your scissors to snip off a stem or two of oregano. Strip the leaves from the stems inside, and add to a variety of recipes. You can also Read the rest of this entry »

By Reggie Solomon

At Urban Garden Casual, the desire to live green extends beyond our backyard, windowsill and container gardens.

Greener and more sustainable living is something we strive for everyday.

However, deciding to move towards greener and more sustainable living so we minimize our carbon footprint and environmental impact isn’t something big we decide all at once – it’s the sum of many small decisions we make every day.

This is why we are pleased highlight 1Green Product which offers news and reviews on some of  the best green products you can buy – today.   Whether it’s choosing a dishwashing detergent or choosing a hotel to lay your head,  integrating eco-friendly products and service options into our everyday decision-making gives us the opportunity to move towards creating a cleaner environment today to bequeath to future generations.

Of special interest to our casual urban gardening crew, 1Green Product is running a sweepstakes that’s free to enter and ends on August 28 where winners have a chance to win a stylish totebag from Act2GreenSmart made from recycled water and soda bottles that might otherwise Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Naas

Gardening is repetitive but never boring.

As the years pass and you become ever more familiar with your garden, there will always be milestones you begin to anticipate, some even in the dead of winter.

Here are a few of my favorite milestones in my garden:

New Seedlings: When the first lettuce, carrot or beet seedlings push through the earth for the first time each season, I am overjoyed! I know that it will happen, it’s why I plant the seeds. However, getting that confirmation that yes, my garden still does work properly is a cause for celebration, and a sign that a lot of work and joy lies ahead.

Pesto: Tonight I am going to serve this season’s first batch of pesto. This is something I look forward to all year long, and so Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Naas

We’re more than halfway through the summer, sad as that is to say.

That means, though, that it’s time to start thinking about fall crops to be started soon.

The first round of lettuces are probably turning bitter, the spinach is a happy memory- but for the clever gardener, those veggies and more will get a replay by starting soon.

• Lettuce: After the lettuce starts tasting bitter or hot or turns tough, it’s time to let it go. Dig out the plant and compost. Now, you can direct seed a heat tolerant variety. Or, you can start lettuce seeds in a shady corner of your garden. Pot them into small peat pots, newspaper cones or just seedling trays, and you’ll have the new lettuce plants ready to be popped into the ground in mid-August.

• Spinach: This is one of the earliest crops in Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Vivian Campbell is wondering “about the safety of vegetables grown on a terrace in a polluted city like Cairo, which is where I live. Any help available? Thanks.”

Hello from the other side of the world!

As the world becomes more industrialized and the air, soil and water more polluted, it is indeed a concern to gardeners everywhere.

One plan that I would suggest is, if possible, bring the plants inside. You can surround them with plants that work to purify the air. Some plants that are especially efficient at removing air pollution include (as tested by NASA) :

• Bamboo palm, Chamaedorea seifritzii
• Chinese evergreen, Aglaonema modestum
• English ivy
• Fiscus, Benjamina
• Gerbera daisy, Transvaal daisy
• Dracaena ‘Janet Craig’
• Dracaena ‘Marginata’ Read the rest of this entry »