Garlic and onions have many antibacterial and protective properties. Fortunately not only for us, seeing that we eat them, but also for the plants in our garden, both in the open ground and in pots. Thanks to substances with antibiotic properties, naturally found in these liliaceous plants, and to the high content of sulphurous compounds, you can prevent and limit the development of fungal diseases (e.g. downy mildew) and attacks by many parasites and phytophagous insects (mites, aphids, nematodes, carrot flies, etc.) which jeopardize the health of your vegetables. Here’s how to prepare decoctions, infusions and macerated extracts.

Intercropping means creating a combination of different plants that, thanks to particular characteristics, sometimes unknown (because cultivation is always the result of the complex interaction between various factors), gives rise to advantages for one or both of the species.

Apium graveolens is the scientific name for common celery. It belongs to the Apiaceae family and is biennial in the wild, but grown in vegetable gardens as an annual. Celery is a typically Mediterranean plant, known since the days of Homer, when it was used above all for medicinal purposes.

Dear friends of Grow the Planet, let me introduce myself: my name is Gianumberto Accinelli and I’m an entomologist. Yes, that’s right, I’m one of those very rare people that gets up in the morning and doesn’t build roads, doesn’t repair pipes, isn’t involved in world peace-keeping but simply has to think of the best way of accommodating their ladybirds.

Common horsetail, also known as field horsetail (scientific name equisetum arvense), is a very special plant. Equisetum already existed 300 million years ago and is the only genus in the Equisetaceae family that has not become extinct (almost a living fossil!), in fact if you look at it closely, its almost alien shape decidedly reveals its ancient origins.

Solanum melongena, is the scientific name of the aubergine or eggplant. Probably native to the sub-tropical areas of Asia, it was already grown a thousand years ago on the African coasts of the Mediterranean and was introduced to Southern Europe by the Arabs, in around the 15th Century. Nowadays there a numerous varieties, of different shapes and colours, which ripen in various periods; all of them can be grown in your Balcony-garden and, if you choose a sheltered sunny spot for them, they’ll give you an abundant and healthy harvest.