If you like strawberries and have tried growing them, then you’ll recognize this scenario. You find a strawberry plant loaded with fruit in the garden center. While your mouth waters and visions of strawberry shortcake dance in your head, you buy the plant and take it home. Snacking on the berries before you plant only [...]
Fruit
What Every Cold Climate Gardener Should Know About Growing Kumquats
February 25, 2014 – Posted in: Fruit, How-to, Plant infoA guest post about Meiwa kumquat trees for a blog about gardening in cold climates? Oh, yes. If you have a sunny spot in your yard in summer and a south- or south-west-facing window in your house, you'll love this little tree. I live in suburban Maryland, and am the happy owner of the two [...]
Honeyberries, the Edible Blue Honeysuckle: A Fruit for Cold Climates
January 26, 2010 – Posted in: FruitMy first introduction to Clayton was his comment on my post about cold climate seeds. On his recommendation I checked out the links in his sidebar. That's how I found out he grows edible blue honeysuckle, a fruit that is extremely hardy. I thought my readers would like to know more about it, so I [...]
Three gardening books for children
November 18, 2008 – Posted in: Book reviews, Fruit, Pests, Plagues, and Varmints, Seeds and Seed Starting, VegetablesMany gardening books for children take what I think of as the art project approach: here's what you need, this is what you do, isn't that cute?, now show it to Grandma. Very few books out there take children--or a child's interest in gardening--seriously. I prefer to regard children as apprentice gardeners, gradually acquiring more [...]
Our best apple recipes
September 25, 2008 – Posted in: Fruit, RecipesWe have three apples trees. They came with the place. That is how I know the secret to good apple pie and crisp is to start with delicious baking apples. When I started using these apples in the same recipes I'd always used, the compliments increased dramatically: "This is the best apple pie (crisp) I've [...]
What to do with Concord grapes
September 10, 2008 – Posted in: Fruit, RecipesWhen we moved to this land, there were some grape vines already growing here. They were slipskin grapes, and if they weren't Concord grapes, they certainly were similar to Concords. That's not too surprising, since the hardiest grape species are slipskin. But you know what? Those kinds of grapes are too tart for me. They [...]
Rundy publishes his first book
January 28, 2007 – Posted in: About this site, Fruit, Recommended LinksFaithful readers of this blog will remember Rundy's struggles with the brush mower, his love of fruit trees, and his fist-shaking frustration with animal pests. Those of you who are relatively new to this blog can read all his entries here. I am happy to tell you that Rundy's first work of fiction, The Stuttering [...]
Is it? Could it be . . . Poison Ivy?
September 6, 2006 – Posted in: Fruit, Native/Invasive, Pests, Plagues, and Varmints, Plant infoIt was April. I had just come back from a cabin-fever-induced tramp over our field and through our woods. I had noticed this red-leafed vine growing all over:If our field is 5 acres, then this was easily growing on two acres of it. It lined the main walking path and carpeted the ground near my [...]
To Complain, Or Not
June 16, 2006 – Posted in: Fruit, Garden chores, Miscellaneous, WeatherEarly summer is the time when I pass from the state of “getting behind†into the state of “being behind.†It is a time when there are a lot of beautiful things I might take joy in, but instead find myself wallowing in guilt or despair over unaccomplished goals. Nobody knows how to ruin a [...]
Mow The Field, Mind The Blueberries
June 13, 2006 – Posted in: Fruit, Garden chores, Tools and EquipmentSometimes, it's better not to think about certain things. Sometimes it's better to pretend you didn't see, to not think about it. Sometimes one might wonder how there can be such moral quandaries about mowing a field. We have a back field of about five acres that runs up the hill to the edge of [...]
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