Gasp! See that gap? A lettuce was taken from under the shade cloth! Ah, there it is: And here: This last picture, my dear readers, shows a true miracle. For Amie will not eat vegetables. No peas, or corn, no cucumber, no cherry tomatoes, no broccoli. Mashed potato, yes, and rice, but that is it. …
Category Archives: garden
Potting Up and Seeds (Indoors, Outdoors, Ordered)
I made it to Volume Two of Edible Forest Gardens and am enjoying reading about Pattern Languages. I really like the way Jacke and Toensmeier blend philosophy/psychology and practical garden design: patterns that live… I already made some observations on our property that I wouldn’t have hadn’t I read their advice. I feel ready now …
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Marathon Monday Garden Work
Marathon Monday weekend was that for us: a marathon! We had three days of free time, good weather shining down on us, a mound of soil and “compost” (really deteriorated mulch) delivered, and friends with wheelbarrows and stamina come help. We rototilled and amended and terraced the most problematic part of our front yard: the …
Goings on in the Cold Frame and Elsewhere in the Garden
Goings on OUTSIDE Another nice day, yesterday. Not as warm as on Friday, but working hard raised our body temperatures plenty. DH finished all ten veg bed frames (in the picture he’s begging Amie to hand over a screw). I heard her ask: “Baba, what are we making?” He: “Beds for the vegetables.” She, incredulous: …
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Garden Planning Software Review
The garden planning continues. A couple of days ago I wrote about GrowVeg, and I posted the garden plans I made with it. A reader in a comment mentioned a different gardening planner software (Plangarden) and I tried that out – as I was making drafts anyway. This is what I came up with, so …
Day at the Farms
Friday was a glorious day and a holiday too, so Amie and I went out to visit two farms. First, Codman Community Farm and then Drumlin Farm, both in Lincoln, MA. I went to Codman to check out their compost and also to see if they have duck eggs. They had neither. But we had …
Thyme Bites the Dust, and Strange Tomato Seeds?
I think becoming a mom made me a better farmer. Before Amie came along, all my houseplants died on me. I simply always forgot to water them… or feed them. The herbs I grew on my steps when we were living in our condo survived because they were outside, getting rained on. But now I …
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Designing the Garden with GrowVeg
I wasn’t getting to the actual design of the garden: it was too intimidating, all those elements, heights and widths and soil types! Then I found GrowVeg, and I signed up for a trial membership. I like it a lot, it makes designing the garden quite easy. I have a couple of suggestions for them: …
Things Afoot
My apologies for the spotty posting. We’ve had to cope with sickness – Amie and Mama last weekend and now Amie again. A dear friend of mine has also galvanized a project I had set aside as not fitting our current schedule: the communally oriented side of “Transition” (yes, the more I think about it, …
Get out!
We’ve got a funny situation going on here, in the lettuce patch! A week ago we just plunked our cold frame onto its proposed site, without preparing the soil. The hot temperatures inside made the tulips spring up double as high as their colleagues outside the box. And among these I set out the lettuces …