In the Northeast, we use Mother’s Day as the official opening for our gardening season. For those of us who want to get a jump on growing, starting seedlings a month or two in advance is a way of life.
Before I can plant these outdoors, I’ll start hardening them off by putting them outside in a sheltered sunny spot for a few hours a day. That will help lessen the transplant shock.
Then I’ll direct seed the rest of … Read More
Spring is springing around here, worrisomely, a bit too early… If you know of anyone who doesn’t believe in global warming, just send them along to my place. With temps in the 70’s and 80’s for the past two weeks in the middle of March, Mother Nature is clearly a little confused. None of this should be happening for at least another month!
Peonies breaking dormancy Crabapple tree budding
All my trees are starting to bud too early. Grass greening … Read More
You guys know I love my garlic. I love growing it. I love giving it as gifts. I love cooking with it.
But I don’t love peeling it. Like onions, peeling garlic presents its own challenges. No, it won’t make you cry, but it will eat the skin off your fingertips if you try to peel more than a few cloves by hand.
I can’t tell you how many gadgets I’ve bought over the years that claim to peel and … Read More
Next to growing garlic, potatoes come in as a 2nd favorite on my list of most fun and rewarding things to grow. And they taste so much better than store-bought.
The other great thing about potatoes is that you can harvest them over a few months. So when I’m looking for stuff to throw together for dinner, I can go out, dig up a few, grab whatever else is ripe, and have a delicious vegetarian meal in no time at … Read More
Memories… Little treasures and traps that we collect over a lifetime. Longtime readers know that I’ve worked hard to help Cait focus on the treasures, as I try to do for myself. That’s because, as a storyteller, I’m keenly aware of the power of the stories we tell ourselves about where we’ve been, who we are, and where we’re going. Hence my desire to carry the treasures forward.
One of my favorite early memories is of going to my … Read More
While I truly love growing things, I also really enjoy harvesting straight from nature. I’ve been a wild edible collector for almost as many years as I’ve been a gardener. This year, even Cait seems to have taken to foraging. All that was required was to have her taste the sweet nectar of these two drinks for herself to get her scurrying out the door for more.
This first drink is a tea that is delicious hot or cold. We … Read More
Ah, the vagaries of gardening in the Northeast… Â An exceptionally rainy Spring has brought more than a few false starts with rotting seeds, and slow starts with battered seedlings. Such setbacks are par for the course when you throw in with Mother Nature. It’s all part of the adventure.
Even with an uncooperative Spring, there are a few plants that are flourishing, including my potatoes, which are growing like crazy. Having just finished a second hilling, I thought I’d … Read More
It’s no secret that I’ve been working toward producing most of my family’s food for the past several years. And while I don’t even come close to qualifying as a real homesteader, I do seem to represent a rapidly growing segment of the gardening population: people who have become extremely conscientious about where and how they get their food. Think locavore on organic fertilizer. You know, those of us who’ve rediscovered the wisdom of the “Victory Garden” of yore and … Read More
