It’s here. The garden classes are in gardens, the cooking classes are in kitchens, the nature study is in forests, the raspberries taste like raspberries, and the snozzberries taste like snozzberries! I worked for weeks on the lesson plans for these hands-on classes, workshops, and tours and am so excited to finally roll them out. Click here for my entire…
When I founded the SC Upstate Permaculture Society I had no idea we’d be this popular, but we’re up to 644 members with multiple people joining each week. If you live in upstate South Carolina (or nearby) we welcome you to join us. Last October we broke ground on a huge new garden that is already stacking functions by being…
The best thing about winter salads is how easy it is to obtain a harvest. Cold months mean chores don’t have to be done in the heat, plus the pests and diseases are mostly dormant. You can’t beat the satisfaction of walking into the kitchen on a gray day carrying an armload of vibrant produce! Winter gardening at Appalachian Feet…
What’s Pecha Kucha, anyway? You could describe it as TED Talks for people with short attention spans or a good way to get presenters to keep it short. Every Pecha Kucha is 20 slides long, 20 seconds each slide. Pecha Kucha Greenville adds to the 20×20 theme by also scheduling their events at 20:20 (8:20pm). They have around 6 presenters…
For over ten years I have grown my own garden transplants by carrying the seed trays out into the sun on warm days and bringing them in every evening. In the last 3 years, I was juggling over 20 trays in and out of the house. This method uses natural light to produce strong, non-leggy transplants — but if you’re…
Guess what? You may be in a different planting zone now and not know it. With little fanfare and scarcely a blip in the news, the USDA recently updated their hardiness zone map. You can visit their website to check if the changes affect you. The last time the USDA updated was in 1990. What does it mean? Well, climate…
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…
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…
So… half of us are buried in snow but I know you have wonderful food and ornamental plant posts you wrote last season! Why not submit one to this month’s issue of How to Find Great Plants to help fuel our garden fever? The deadline for this issue is midnight eastern time tomorrow (January 28, 2011). It’s easy to participate,…
Let’s talk about snow. You’d think the American city famous for distributing the poinsettia wouldn’t have to wait 47 years for a white Christmas! But we did, and since I grew up here it was my very first one. My Vermont-native boyfriend finds it laughable that southerners get so excited about white stuff on the 25th (especially since it was…
It’s not just tasty and easy — it’s pretty! For those of you who like to dress up your flower beds with some well-placed ornamental edibles (or who want show-stopping potagers) this is an oft-overlooked plant you can’t be without. For those of you who like to eat — it’s celery! Of course you should grow it. I don’t know…
This blog often focuses on eating local. However, if you aren’t comfortable gardening on your own or your yard is shady (or nonexistent) you can still grow your own food successfully. You just need to get involved with a community garden! The characteristics of community gardens are varied. Some of them allow you to rent a plot of land that…
Many gardeners hit the tail end of summer at a drag. For some, it is irrigation, weeds, and disease that have taken a toll on their enthusiasm. Others feel they will pave the garden over with concrete before they have to find a use for one more tomato, zucchini, or cucumber! This year my August Slump was due to increasing…
This is a vegetable I am still experimenting with to get a formula that really works, but I thought I’d share my observations so far. Out of growing them collectively (but not consecutively) for about 5 years, I’ve harvested artichokes in two different seasons. One year they were nicely sized and tasty, the other year they were a little small…
If you live in USDA zone 5 or warmer, you can grow figs. If you are in a colder area, the trick is to put your fig in a microclimate (next to the sunny wall of a building, beside a sheltered, blacktop driveway, etc.). You can also try pruning and wrapping your fig in the winter but if you selected…