Amie draws worms and a little girl watering the grass with the complete and barely-used artists set found at the landfill. Mm, something else seems to have come along from the landfill (click to enlarge) (*) Warning: there’s a lot of “didn’t do” this week – it’s been a bit of a down-week… Plant: Amie …
Category Archives: garden
Next Year’s Summer Garden
Here’s another TO-DO list, of sorts. Keeps me organized and accountable. Ahum… What I didn’t have this spring and summer and want next summer broccoli (was too late on this one) peas (ditto) green and red peppers (ditto) some hot peppers onions (tried but failed: all rotted in the wet) squash (tried but failed: lots …
Independence Days, Week 3
Plant: Still waiting for the “Fall planting” seedlings (lettuce, spinach, chard, etc.) to graduate to planting-out size. “Unplanted” most of the tomato plants (one chilly day and night and they succumbed fully to the blight). Also planted sustainable lawn seed on our erosion-prone slope: curious about the result! Harvest: Finally harvested the first carrots (which …
Home Canning versus Bisphenol A
That’s the second person intimating to me that my home canning might not be safe. Usually the question comes quietly: “Are you sure the jars are okay?” Though it riles me, I’ve come to expect the attitude. It’s like with eggs. When I tell people about wanting chickens for their eggs, half the time the …
Peppers, Basil, Peas, Grasshoppers, Ladybugs
Canned Bell Peppers (from Farmers Market) Amie and I just ate our first three peas from the garden: delicious! She also ate seven green beans (from the garden) and four carrots (disks, that is, not the whole thing) (from the Farmers Market). She loves the beans especially. She also promised that when the time comes …
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Riot for Austerity – Month 10
This month there were no shifts in the household: just the three of us, which makes the reckoning much easier. Amie feeds the compost tea some molasses Gasoline: 27% This stayed the same as last month. The school year hasn’t started yet, so DH is spending more time working from home and Amie isn’t daily …
Independence Days – Week… ahum…
So behind, it’s shameful. Forge ahead, anyway! Plant: Fall garden of spinach, kale, broccoli, purslane, various lettuce, chard, mizuna, mustard greens, all as seedlings, and in the ground peas, more green beans, chard and carrots. Harvest: chard, kale, cucumber, potatoes, various tomatoes, beans both green and dry. Preserve: apple* sauce, peaches* in syrup, tomato-apple* chutney, …
That’s a Bummer about the Berries
We were so keen on currants and gooseberries, all along the chain link fence that borders our backyard. But it seems they are still banned in the state of Massachusetts – because Ribes plants could be hosts to the fungus spores that causes White Pine Blister Rust. The ban used to be on the entire …
More Summer Harvest
Ah, so this is what it was all about! Finally the garden is giving up that abundance that was promised: beans of all kinds, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes and tomatoes, and our first eggplant (apple green). There’s enough to eat and put by. This is one day’s harvest. The tomatoes that weren’t eaten straight away were …
Brewing Us Some Compost Tea
A friend lent me the Toolbox for Sustainable City Living, which has a recipe for compost tea. He also dropped off all the necessary equipment for making it. 1 nylon stocking’s leg full of my best homemade compost (= the inoculant) 5 gallons of (non-chlorinated) rain water 1/4 cup of molasses (food) oxygen thanks to …