Monthly Archives: June 2011
Surprise!
Since I still have lots of canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, I only planted 5 tomato plants this year, just to have some for eating. What I didn’t count on was the hundreds of tomato plants volunteering along the two rows where the tomatoes were planted last year. Since I planted a variety of heirloom plants, … Continue reading
Mulching Experiments
Leaves, Straw, or Grass Clippings A number of years ago, I discovered the benefits of mulching around my tomato plants with straw. This works really well. The straw prevents the soil from eroding during the rain. It also helps the soil retain moisture. What I mainly noticed was that the straw eliminated dirt splatter onto the … Continue reading
On the Baking of Bread
Ever since learning about no-knead artisan bread making, I have been baking bread – all sorts of bread. I’ve made 100% whole wheat, dense and chewy. I’ve made high-gluten white, with large holes and a nice crust. I’ve added things to my bread: flax and chia seeds, cracked wheat. I’ve made cinnamon raisin bread, kalamata … Continue reading
Trees, Great and Small, Bushes and Brambles
There grew up all round about the park such a vast number of trees, great and small, bushes and brambles, twining one within another, that neither man nor beast could pass through… Sleeping Beauty from The Blue Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang I think of the Sleeping Beauty story every time I have to … Continue reading
The Ever Expanding Vegetable Garden
In spring of 2009, we planted in our garden beds, prepared the no-till way described in a previous post. We laid out an 17 ft by 37 ft garden plot in the fall of 2007, kept it mulched with a thick layer of leaves, and it was ready to plant. I purchased seed, pored over … Continue reading
A No Till Vegetable Garden
When we acquired the empty lot next door, I, naturally, wanted to transform much of it to a vegetable garden. But, what to do with all that grass? Previously, I created small vegetable plots by double digging. But that seemed daunting for the project at hand. Realizing that a layer of leaves kills grass underneath … Continue reading