I have killed so many plants. Since moving to Oregon from Cincinnati five years ago, I have slain more than my share of innocents by not giving them what they needed to survive. Many more I have ripped out and thrown on the compost heap for failing to perform as I’d hoped. You’d think I would have done better. I… Read more →
When I was planning my first vegetable garden, I had a romantic vision of how it would go. I would sit on the back porch with a bowl full of peas, fresh from the garden. With great pride, I’d look out at neat rows of lettuce, carrots, beets, parsnips, herbs, and potatoes, shelling the tender peas into a clean bowl…. Read more →
Like any activity with a long history, gardening has its share of traditions. Some of these are sound practices, while others should have been thrown on the compost heap long ago. Seed-starting is one gardening project that seems especially steeped in lore. And with good reason—the whole process of turning a dead-looking speck of dust into a vibrant, living plant… Read more →
If you’ve noticed that there don’t seem to be as many monarch butterflies around in the summer as there used to be, it’s not your imagination. Largely due to habitat loss, the monarch population has dwindled. I’ve learned that Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops are likely the biggest culprit, causing me to question my earlier, overly rosy opinion on GM crops. These genetically engineered… Read more →
Nobody who’s smelled ginkgo fruits for the first time has ever said, “Yeah, I think I’m gonna have to eat some of that.” If you haven’t experienced them first hand, well, they have the aroma of something that maybe was once food but has since passed through one or two digestive organs before finding its way to the nostrils. Dog vomit, in… Read more →
How do you fertilize your vegetables? Do you pull a bag off the shelf? Feed them a steady diet of homemade compost? Here’s how to give them what they really need… In his latest book, The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food (New Society Publishers, 2013), Steve Solomon’s message is simple—How can you know what nutrients to add to your soil if you don’t know… Read more →
If the gardening bug has bitten, sooner or later you’re going to want to start some plants from seed. Vegetable starts, bedding plants, perennials, and even some trees and shrubs (for the patient) can be grown from seed. When you’re ready to graduate from the sunny windowsill to a real propagation station, here’s a seed-starting rack you can make at home for… Read more →
“I don’t know what that gunk is in the jar, but can’t we get it off the kitchen table?”–This from my husband a few days ago. “No! That’s my soil test!” The soil at our new house seemed sticky to me, and fearing that I would be dealing with clay for the next several years, I did a simple do-it-yourself test to determine… Read more →
In the words of Bruce Springsteen, and later, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band: “Mama always told me not to look in the eyes of the sun. But Mama, that’s where the fun is…” This is the second installment on how shooting into the sun can bring some dramatic results to your garden photography. The previous post covered foliage effects; this one… Read more →
March and April bring fresh new foliage back into our lives. I love to capture this special time of year in photos, so that I can better recall at any time of year the brilliance and translucency of those young spring leaves. But sometimes, when going through the day’s photos, I have found that they don’t capture the spirit of what I saw… Read more →
