This looks like a bee visiting a corn poppy, but really it's a fly. This comment explains.Perhaps, like me, you've noticed there haven't been as many bees flying around this year. If you're the sort of person who gets nervous around bees, this might even seem like a good thing to you. But perhaps, like [...]
Vegetables
Rethinking Your Vegetable Garden
January 7, 2007 – Posted in: Recommended Links, VegetablesBarbara Damrosch rightly points out that not only is this a good time of year (for us Northerners, at least) to be thinking about what to plant in the vegetable garden next year, but it's also a good time to think about that garden on a more FUNdamental level: If your vegetable garden isn't fun [...]
A Vegetable Wishlist
December 14, 2006 – Posted in: Catalog review, VegetablesIn her latest Washington Post column Barbara Damrosch writes It's raining seed catalogues and the forecast is for the downpour to continue well into January. She then starts in on her vegetable wishlist, what she would like to see the "elves" at the "North Pole Experiment Station" tinker with in her favorite vegetables to make [...]
Pushing the Possible
December 13, 2006 – Posted in: Book reviews, VegetablesWhen growing food, the greatest obstacle a cold climate presents to the gardener is the short growing season. In a classic example of great minds thinking alike, here are two books that address that obstacle with similar approaches. All of the authors live in New England and were influenced by Scott and Helen Nearing and [...]
Johnny Loves Me!
December 1, 2006 – Posted in: Seeds and Seed Starting, Vegetables, WishlistI mean, Johnny's loves me. I happened to be looking at tomatoes online tonight (which is early for me!), and lo, I discovered Valley Girl! Despite anything anyone says to the contrary, I am going to believe this tomato was developed just for me. (I am a girl, and I am living in a Valley.) [...]
Testing Seed Germination. . . what do you learn?
March 22, 2006 – Posted in: Seeds and Seed Starting, VegetablesNot much. As is my habit every spring, I test my seeds to see whether they're still any good, or if I need to buy new ones. This is a very easy thing to do--you stick half a damp paper towel in a little plastic bag, drop in ten seeds (5 if you're starting to [...]
Answers to Betsy & Heather’s questions
February 28, 2006 – Posted in: Plant info, Seeds and Seed Starting, Vegetables, WeatherHi gals, isn't it fun to dream of gardening when it's raining too much to set foot in the garden? And, yes, Betsy, this is not the end of winter. In Boundary County we can have snow & freezes every month of the year so it's not over yet. It's a very rare Farmers' Market [...]
Potatoes
January 11, 2006 – Posted in: Catalog review, VegetablesAs I'm beginning to get started on my seed order this year, I remember that I meant to post on potatoes. Last year, due to the fascinating varieties offered by Fedco, I ordered my potatoes from them instead of Johnny's. Most of you probably know that Fedco is divided into several distinct branches; the seeds [...]
Artichoke Question
October 30, 2005 – Posted in: FAQ, Mailbag, Plant info, VegetablesDenise Kemp writes: My brother-in-law gave me an artichoke plant this spring that was given to him. He told me that I need to lift the plant in the fall but didn't have any details on whether to take the leaves off or leave it in dirt or newspaper or what so I'm not sure [...]
NOT A CORNFIELD (a rant)
October 10, 2005 – Posted in: Miscellaneous, VegetablesIt's NOT A CORNFIELD. Oh, how could you be misled? How could you be so uncouth, so uncivilized, as to not recognize it for what it is: a work of art. Sigh. Only in California* could 28 acres of growing, living Zea mays be not a cornfield! There are two things about this that really [...]
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