For me, guilty pleasure isn’t buying a bag of Doritos or reading People magazine (especially since I have no idea who most celebrities are these days). Instead, I feel sheepish when I grow plants without being able to explain what they’re good for. “Useless” plants is how I got in to gardening in the first place. Around the age of…
If you’ve never eaten a salad turnip, and you probably haven’t, it’s unlikely you think they sound very exciting. Back when the Organic Growers School was Saturday only, they did an experimental Sunday session in Burnsville, NC. Among skills like how to build hoop houses and grow through the winter, I mostly remember taste-testing the ‘Hakurei’ turnips that Patryk Battle…
On Friday, February 25th we left our Appalachian foothills home at 9:30am and drove to a nursery that grows tangerines, satsuma mandarins, naval oranges, kumquats, grapefruits, and other citrus in an outdoor orchard. No, not Florida! Even after touring the nursery for over an hour, stopping for lunch, driving slowly through heavy thunderstorms, and navigating rush-hour traffic, we still made…
Today I did a lecture for the Greater Greenville Master Gardener’s Symposium titled “Unusual Vegetables and Fruits.” Since Greenville is zone 7b, the talk centered around plants that grow here. But some of these plants may grow where you live if you’re in a different zone. More people ended up at my talk than the symposium organizers were expecting which…
Many organic gardeners who have grown squash in the southeast US will think this must be a practical joke. It’s not! There are chemical-free ways to grow as much squash as your “conventional” neighbors. Then you can finally participate in Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day. No really, that’s an honest-to-goodness national holiday on August 8th every year….
Our city’s Urban Farm Tour is over for this year and by all accounts was a great success — GOFO sold out of tickets early in the day and had to scramble to print even more of them! I hope everyone who toured came away feeling inspired, I was so impressed by all the enthusiastic visitors we met at our…
In all likelihood there are wonderful, inexpensive plant sales happening near you this spring. Good places to check are your Native Plant Society, Master Gardeners Association, local botanical garden, farmers market, nurseries, and local farms. If you live in the Greenville, SC area, here are some of the great places you can get plants this season (apologies that the Upstate…
So… did anyone see my giant spring todo list? I’m not going to be writing as often for a bit, but when I do it will include lots of garden transformation photos (and probably some mushrooms since morel season is coming up). Many thanks to those of you who were on top of your entries for How to Find Great…
Here is issue #3 of How to Find Great Plants (apologies for the one-day delay, my weekend was spent moving boxes and furniture). I finally managed to choose 8 of the 36 entries to feature this month… so difficult! Be sure to read them all or you’ll miss some delightful plants! FOOD: Little Green Bees: Pumpkin on a Stick Don’t…
So I just posted about trading for seeds over at GardenWeb. Here’s the link if you’d like to trade! If you aren’t familiar with GardenWeb there is a tutorial on exchanging seeds and one on using the forums. I’ll also be happy to answer questions about it. Since I don’t have a lot of seeds to exchange this year, I’ve…
I have a request! I’d be so delighted if you’d help me locate any seed strain of the OSU P20 blue tomato. (Scroll to the bottom for photos & more details). Next, the deadline to submit a post about a food or ornamental plant that you’d recommend for How to Find Great Plants is this Friday, January 28th. I’ve noticed…
I briefly considered writing a “How to Get Started with Chickens” post, but I don’t like writing about something until I’ve actually done it. Once my chickens arrive this May I’ll talk about my personal experiences with it — until then I thought I’d write about some chicken products I’ve encountered while begging for advice from people who have personal…
Fer is hosting a garden goals blog carnival at My Little Garden in Japan and oh my gosh, do I ever have a lot to do this year! I’ve included info about the Organic Growers School in March since it always heralds my spring planning. For the last three seasons I’ve jumped from garden to garden, so I haven’t been…
Aka “How to Write a Blog Post Title that You Can’t Say 10 Times Fast”. Am I ever lonely for some real homegrown produce… the glossy-photo winter catalogs just aren’t helping! Veggies aren’t all that relevant to the rest of this post. However, garden photos help me avert a rampant snow-induced garden fever with symptoms like an emptied bank account…
Organic gardening often produces healthier, more easily grown vegetables and fruits than the same crops grown with “conventional” methods. There are, however, a few crops that have a pouty reputation for organic growers. The cucurbit family claims most of these weak-kneed plants. I count on summer squash and cucumbers to be riddled with squash vine borer, cucumber worms, and fungal…
The best plants I’ve ever grown were recommended to me by other gardeners, and this blog carnival seeks to collect posts about exemplary food and ornamental plants. *Edit: I’m still experimenting with the best format for this carnival. Expect improvements in future issues. CLICK ON THE PHOTOS to visit the blog article on each plant! Photo Caption: FOOD, Onion ‘Rouge…
Lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) deserves a more prominent place in our herb gardens, kitchens, and even the ornamental landscape. I think it is one of the prettiest plants in the garden! Lemon grass looks just as nice in the flower border as it does in the kitchen garden. You can put a grouping of it in your rose beds or…
It’s officially “Armchair Gardening Season.” In its honor, I’ve updated my Food Catalog Directory for the 2010 – 2011 growing season. I hope you can find what you need! If you really want to get the most out of your perfect spring daydreaming, I also recommend these articles from the old Kitchen Gardener magazines. Don’t you just love late fall…
We may have overdone it this year with the hot peppers. We don’t feel the least bit repentant, though. Spicing up a meal is quick when using small peppers, and they look great in vinegar-based hot sauces or simply as fiery pickles. I try to find peppers that produce a large spectrum of beautifully colored fruits on a single plant….
My daughter didn’t like tomatoes and it was killing me in the kitchen. When I read this Slate article* and learned that food dislikes were psychological,** and therefore fixable, I decided to eliminate the family food aversions one by one. I managed to turn my intense hatred of anything that had even touched mint, cucumbers, or cinnamon into absolute cravings….