Edible Forest Gardens: Bought it After All

Just last week I wrote that I was thinking of purchasing Edible Forest Gardens by Jacke and Toensmeier, but that it was too expensive. Luck and generosity came my way so I could buy it anyway. Amie really got to see how happy books can make her, when the mailman brought the big box (2 …

Coperthwaite, A Handmade Life, Review Part 1

Here’s another article I wrote for Suite101.com, the copyright of which passed to me so I can share it with you here. It’s of William S. Coperthwaite’s book A Handmade Life, In Search for Simplicity. It was one of the first books I read after making my turn-around regarding a Simpler Life in a Better …

What’s Cooking

Compost bin 1 at 92 degrees F In the Germination Area sowed second batch of Onions, Leeks, Catnip sowed first batch of Garlic Chives 2 Rosemary sprouts emerged 1 Parsley sprout 15 Sweet Marjoram 15 Thyme 3 tiny Mint sprouts 1 Lemon Balm sprout (but it’s probably a stray Marjoram) 1 Pepper seedling (looks stuck …

Too Much (Fun)!

Mama’s potting bench in the basement The situation at our “homestead” is very complex, and getting more so as I gather more information and experience. I feel like I’m that not-so-proverbial teacher who is only one step ahead of her students, and I’m teaching French!  Today, for instance, I was transplanting the lettuce seedlings (the …

Believing in Myself On this Glorious Day

The Pachy Patch in Summer 2008 yesterday was a perfect summer, spring, winter’s day: cloudless sky, 60F, the mildest of breezes, and some good hard labor. I went out, turned the two defrosted compost bins and then tackled the Pachysandra patch, a.k.a. the vegetable garden. Ah Pachysandra… It took over five hours of hacking and …

Place: A Review of Home Ground, edited by Barry Lopes

Here’s one of the reviews I wrote for Suite101.com. The copyright recently passed to me, so I can share it with you here. It’s of Home Ground, a book that deals with the concept that is most on my mind these days: place. The more I think about place, the more it amazes me that …

Three for the Neighborhood, or How I Scored Unlimited Amounts of Horse Manure

One Our renovation project has so far generated a fair amount of scrap materials. Luckily it’s mostly wood and only some drywall, which is virtually not reusable.  Of the wood  DH and I have saved most: we take out the nails, tease off the drywall and have built up a nice stack of project wood …

Seed/Ling Update, and Thyme, Parsley and more Onions,

The Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce is doing well. I fed it some Tomato Food (Terracycle Wormpoop) the other day, as it was immediately on hand. There were no instructions on the bottle, so I eyeballed it. Oops! Their leaves soon curled under, a sure sign of overfeeding. Luckily it wasn’t too bad. The wormpoop is a …

How Much Is the Garden Worth?

Kitchen Gardeners International has an interesting article on the worth of a home garden. The author, Roger Doiron, weighed the food coming out of his 1600 square feet garden in Maine (zone 5b/6) and calculated how much this food would have cost had he bought it in a conventional grocery store, a farmer’s market, or …