Edibles

Using Grow Lights for Healthier Seedlings Doesn’t Need to Break the Bank

By |2022-04-12T16:39:02+00:00February 18th, 2022|

Inevitably, the time will arrive when many gardeners will consider starting their own seeds indoors.  Perhaps it is the threat of being faced, once again, with only two tomato varieties at the big box retailers, and the shock at paying premium prices for the much greater selection available at a nursery.  Perhaps it is the [...]

Preserving the Harvest or Preserving Sanity?

By |2020-07-12T22:01:11+00:00July 24th, 2020|

For three days I haven't been fun to live with. Preserving the harvest, fulfilling my writing deadlines, managing my family’s outrageous expectations of motherhood, and doing all of this without losing my ever-living mind. Even the dogs are keeping their distance. Oh, and there’s something else…What was it?….Ah yes.  The garden.  I actually have to [...]

It’s Time to Get Serious About Your Vegetable Garden

By |2020-04-29T21:05:30+00:00April 9th, 2020|

Last week, I glanced at a bronze statue of a pig with wings that sits on my stone steps, and thought, "Well, that pretty much sums it up right now."  Crazy things are happening. Crazy times make us re-examine our dependencies.  Even if we don't change anything, it's good to know where we stand and [...]

Vegetable Gardening on a Smaller Scale

By |2023-02-02T13:25:48+00:00March 25th, 2020|

Over the last decade, plant breeders and seed companies have risen to the challenge of tight spaces and busy schedules and given the small-space gardener many excellent choices for fresh produce right outside the sliding glass door. Visions of balcony gardeners cutting up eighteen cherry tomatoes in order to make a respectable BLT, or supplementing [...]

Weed Smart: Tools and Tips

By |2019-09-20T21:10:40+00:00September 13th, 2019|

Printed directions and warnings for products that require only a modicum of common sense exhaust me. Yesterday I purchased a vanity mirror with accompanying booklet in four languages on how to a) plug it in and b) turn it on.  On page four were various line drawings in red and black depicting line people being [...]

New House. New Garden. New Choices

By |2019-09-12T17:09:25+00:00September 6th, 2019|

Friends have recently moved into their This-Is-The-One.  ‘Exciting’ doesn’t seem strong enough to capture the emotions that such a move elicits.  There is excitement, certainly, and joy; but also sadness in the changing of neighborhoods, of community, and in losing the familiar daily routines that quietly build the foundations we rely upon. Two weeks ago, [...]

Flexibility in the Midst of Uncertainty: A Chat with Scott Aker

By |2019-01-22T21:27:14+00:00January 25th, 2019|

In the last days of 2018, there was one email I looked forward to each morning in amongst the coupons and the Groupons and the chaff and the wheat that now passes for correspondence in the 21st century. It was from Agrible, Inc.® - an agricultural and commercial service headquartered in Illinois that provides farmers [...]

Decorating The Thanksgiving Table with Natural Materials

By |2018-11-23T15:38:48+00:00November 21st, 2018|

It’s Thanksgiving morning.  What have you forgotten? You’ve thrown the turkey in the oven, the stuffing is made and on its way to being glorious, and your sister is bringing the rolls and jello. In a few minutes the game and/or parade will start blaring from the living room and you can start to relax. [...]

Right Plant, Right Place – The Wisdom of Beth Chatto

By |2018-11-16T20:01:10+00:00November 16th, 2018|

“We lost too many plants in our impatience to possess them, because we had not achieved the proper growing conditions.” - Beth Chatto, The Beth Chatto Handbook _______________________________ If ever a sentence deserves a garden writers' gold medal for excellence and simplicity, it is this one, written decades ago by gardener and garden designer, the [...]

The Return of the Queen

By |2018-10-06T12:29:35+00:00October 6th, 2018|

There are no adventures quite as adventurous as reclaiming the garden after a long absence abroad – and during the height of the growing season no less. From bewilderment to bloodshed to tears, it has been an interesting week.  Moreover, there are still miles to go before I sleep, and the winter is not drawing [...]

Title

Go to Top