It was 36F when I got up yesterday morning, close though not actually freezing, but last night, we had a definite frost. And I have ten tomato plants that I started from see already stuck in the garden. I never seem to time it right – some years, I’m way early, some years wayContinue reading “Pushing the Season – Protecting The Tomatoes”
Category Archives: Sustainable Living
Pak Choi in the Pan
This time last year, we had been eating pak choi and kale out of the garden for several weeks. I had started it in little cells in the greenhouse and planted it in the garden in early-mid March. This is one of the beauties of blogging; I’ve got records and pictures so I know I’mContinue reading “Pak Choi in the Pan”
Blanching the Leeks
Well, looks like we finally have spring – or maybe early summer – so I’m hauling the cool weather greens that I started in the greenhouse in and out every day to both harden them and keep them from frying as the heat inside ramps up. (So far, the tomato seedlings are loving the heat). ManagedContinue reading “Blanching the Leeks”
Pests in a Packed House
It’s still cold as I write this (at least ten degrees below ‘normal’). I went out with the 75-pound puppy and played catch (actually it’s more like keep-away since once he gets the ball, he spends most of the time teasing me with it), and watched the sun try to melt the frost off everythingContinue reading “Pests in a Packed House”
This Is Planting Season? Really?
Woke up this morning – the fourth day of official calendar spring, mind – to snow. I’ve got baby leeks in the garden already, peeking out from beneath a light blanket of compost followed by straw and then blanketed (I sure hope) by row cover. And now snow. I’ve got pak choi in the greenhouseContinue reading “This Is Planting Season? Really?”
Turnips for The Year of The Root Crop
I don’t really know who makes these declarations — I hope they don’t clog up an already clogged Congress to get something like The Official Year of The Root Crop powered through — but it is, officially, somehow, The Year of The Root Crop. It’s a good thing, since little by little, we as aContinue reading “Turnips for The Year of The Root Crop”
Any Size Anywhere Edible Gardening Book Review
I would have enjoyed Any Size Anywhere Edible Gardening by William Moss (Cool Springs Press, $21.99) when I was in college, worked a couple of jobs and lived in a second floor apartment overtop a parking lot in the university’s no man’s land between city and suburbs. The author, who is an instructor at theContinue reading “Any Size Anywhere Edible Gardening Book Review”
Planting Hardneck Garlic on an Indian Summer Day
The past three days were gorgeous, like a return to spring, so my mind naturally returned to the garden — which I confess I had left pretty much to its own devices the past several weeks. I had planned to plant hardneck garlic this year as usual, but had left it kinda late. Came the hurricane, andContinue reading “Planting Hardneck Garlic on an Indian Summer Day”
Winter Squash and Roasted Vegetable Soup
My summer squash did diddly this year — I planted seeds three times and three times the critters ate the plants before they could get to any size at all. Fortunately, I managed to grow some winter squash, started from the saved seed of an Iranian and a long neck pumpkin of two IContinue reading “Winter Squash and Roasted Vegetable Soup”
Building Soils Naturally
I’m not an agronomist, and I have a feeling you’d really need to be one to properly assess this book. But I’m totally on board with the notion that you need to feed the soil and all its critters before it can feed the plants that grow in it. That’s the premise of the just-publishedContinue reading “Building Soils Naturally”
Nancy Taylor Robson 