Lettuce, Poop, and Peppers

First Frost November 18 - Tomorrow morning's temps will be in the low 30's. As cold and as windy as it has been today, I'm convinced we'll get our first frost. At least we got some bonus garden days that allowed our cover crop, Kodiak Brown Mustard, to sprout their true leaves. A delayed frost...

Don’t leave Gardens Naked

Soil regeneration is a term I’ve stumbled across these past few weeks while watching garden videos. Robert Rodale described this approach in the late 1980s. So, why am I so late in learning about how to care for the dirt beneath my feet? I’m not a farmer, but a tree hugger worried about the effects...

Putting the Dish in Radish

Radishes are touted as easy to grow, something you could put anywhere with anything and have them in abundance. A couple of radish varieties came in an assortment of vegetable seeds I’d bought. Nothing I'd buy at the grocery store, so why not give them a go? I direct sowed Champion in the tomato raised...

Fall Garden – Easy Peasy, Right?

The thought of a fall garden with beautiful rows of cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, cauliflower broccoli, and beets danced in Dick’s and Jane’s head. Sowing seeds directly into the warm soil beats the spring ritual of growing plants inside. Best of all, light pest pressure, right? Wrong! The kohlrabi was the first victim of an unknown...

August 26, 2020 – Weeds – The Gardener’s Bane

Gardener’s dream of vegetables, fruits, and flowers growing as prolific as weeds. The dream begins with the arrival of the first seed catalog of the year. Flipping through its pages of bountiful produce and beautiful blossoms fuels our imagination. Images of healthy vines heavy with squash, melons, and cucumbers taunt our taste buds. The garden...

August 25, 2020 – Survive the Heat – Get To It

It’s another hot and humid day on the homestead. While you chill inside your air-conditioned home, unfinished chores crowd your head – pull weeds on the hugel mounds, mow the lawn, sift the compost, transplant the dying pepper plant. The desire to work in the garden grows. The itch to prep for fall crops lures...

August 24, 2020 Kitchen Scraps

Eating fresh from the garden fills at least three large ex-pretzel tubs a week with kitchen scraps. The plastic containers work great – made of clear plastic so you can see how full it’s getting. If it looks like a weird science experiment – take it out of the house before it explodes. The lid...

August 23, 2020 – Green beans and Sunflowers

Garden There’s a time when every gardener wants to rip out the current bed of weather-beaten, bug-eaten plants and put in bright-green, pest-free crops. Jane felt that way about the bush beans planted in April and again in June. The first attempt failed because of a late frost. The second attempt, the beans sprouted quickly...

August 22, 2020 – Start of the Fall Garden

Two days before hurricane Isaias came to Virginia pole beans and okra seeds were pushed into a starting mix of peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite. They sprouted 24 hours later. It was crazy. Encouraged by their rapid growth, I planted broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, kohlrabi, and a few more fall plants. The seed trays were left...

August 21, 2020 – Dirt is a Girl’s Best Friend

Shopping at the grocery store Wednesday, Dick and I found a 'Hot Deal' on blueberries. The question 'Do I have time to put-them-up?' flitted across my mind. Not really, but I'd find a way because this was a 'Hot Deal' I didn't want to pass on. The last of our homemade blueberry jam devoured, I'd...