Tagged With: garden
What is that in your garden?
By far the most awesome looking plant in the garden is the cardoon. Standing tall and full, and dwarfing all the other plants, it makes a pretty impressive sight. It is the plant that catches the most attention and gets the most questions. So what is cardoon? Apparently, cardoon is not grown much in this … Continue reading
Miscellaneous Musings
This was supposed to be Miscellaneous Monday Musings, but, it is now Tuesday, so we just have Miscellaneous Musings. Trumpet vine is beautiful … But it is insidious – sneaking about underground and cropping up everywhere. I’m not sure the edamame beans are going to survive the persistent grazing. I’m pretty sure that the peas … Continue reading
Raspberries!
When I was little, I would get a treat every summer. Once, every summer, my mum would buy me a half-pint of fresh raspberries and I would eat the entire half-pint in one sitting. Back then, raspberries were only available in season, and then, as now, they were very expensive. So I would get just … 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
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
The Pantry
This is our wonderful pantry – Fall 2010. Pickles from 2009 are on the top three shelves on the left. Middle top has cherries from 2010 and blueberry jam from 2009. Going down a shelf are more 2009 pickles, 2008 chutney, 2009 kale, 2009 Victoria sauce, and 2010 hot peppers and 2010 tomatillo salsa. Going … Continue reading
My Secret Garden
My favorite book when I was a child was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This is my secret garden. Through a wisteria covered gate, you can see the wild garden beyond. The poppies … The peonies … The rhododendron … The irises … My own secret garden