Last year we had quite a few flowers pop up that we had not planted in the three years that we had lived in our house. We called them our volunteer flowers. The flowers that showed up included lupines, a rose, a daisy, a snap dragon, and poppies. Of all of our volunteers the poppiesRead More

Last week as I was perusing the blogosphere looking at gardens, several people commented on the lack of bees in their garden. Their plants were healthy and flowering, but they were not producing fruit. If you are having that problem you can google “how to hand pollinate________” (insert the name of the plant you wantRead More

This morning instead of blogging about my garden I went to Walmart and bought 1 gallon forsythia plants for $3.00 each. Forsythia are one of the few flowering bushes that meet the stringent requirements necessary to be added to my backyard. To thrive in the high desert a plant must be able to survive -20Read More

Last week I prepared yogurt cups to start my next crop of radishes. Rew found the cups and had lots of fun playing with the dirt. I told a friend about the mess he made and said I needed to prepare the cups again and she said, “It is 95 degrees outside, you do realizeRead More

I picked my first Early Girl Tomatoes this morning. They might have preferred a day or two more on the vine, but I wanted to add them to a garden salad this evening. I looked at the tomatoes at the grocery store and decided that mine looked more edible even if I picked them aRead More

My Early Girls should be ready to harvest soon. It would be lovely if they were ready by the 4th of July. Was I complaining about my squash not growing? Would it be inappropriate for me to start complaining now that they are out of control? The posts are three foot high; if they continueRead More

In a previous post I told you I was letting my weeds grow on purpose and promised an explanation. Well, a friend told me that you can pour boiling water on weeds to kill them. I loved the idea and decided to give it a try with the leftover water from making jam. Here isRead More

I have often admired hanging flower baskets, but the cost of pre-made baskets has always stopped me from indulging myself. There are some annuals that I really enjoy, but I can’t plant them in flower beds because the rabbits would devour them in one night. So this year I decided that I was going toRead More

As a determined gardener, I am continually looking for new ways to “cheat” the elements. The first year that I gardened in Mordor I had to replant my cucumbers three times because the wind blew their little leaves off (yes, really three times! Does that last statement reflect badly on our weather or me? PerhapsRead More

When someone asks me what gardening method I follow I can’t give a simple answer. I use a mish mash of gardening techniques: square foot gardening, succession gardening, raised bed gardening, and companion gardening. Taking from each what will best help me in my circumstances. Last night I was thumbing through Weather-Wise Gardening and whileRead More

This is how my seed packets were organized: I realize that this is unacceptable, but had not been able to come up with a better solution. Then I remembered the bamboo box that my flowering teas were packaged in and realized that it would make the perfect seed organizer. I sorted the seeds in rowsRead More

We have an aphid problem on a weeping cherry tree. The bigger problem is the location of the tree: The tree is in the middle of my strawberry patch, so I decided to try lady bugs to take care of the problem. I am feeling a little like I’ve hired a mercenaries, pretty, nontoxic mercenaries,Read More

Last year I was introduced the the concept of perennials in the garden. I was excited by the idea of not having to start my garden each year from scratch. I planted little rhubarb plants, asparagus from roots, and started patience dock from seeds I received from Mother Earth news. The first asparagus to breakRead More

I couldn’t stand it any longer! I harvested a couple of stems of Swiss chard and 3 cherry tomatoes (2 were ready, 1 was close). We also ate several varieties of lettuces, spinach, onions, cilantro, parsley, radishes, and strawberries from the garden.   I thought I would show the process that has enabled me toRead More

 My family teases me about trying to transform Mordor into The Hundred Acre Woods. I live in the land of extremes: Extremely cold winters, very hot summers, little precipitation,and high winds that blow the leaves right off the seedlings. Why do I attempt gardening under such conditions? I love a challenge, I enjoy providing inexpensiveRead More

Warning: This is another one of those “can’t she just throw it away?” posts. And no, I can’t! We have very sandy soil, which is great for growing asparagus, but the other plants I grow in my garden require more water and less drainage. There are companies that manufacture moisture control soil, but it isRead More

Or Sometimes It Pays To Be Lazy… Last fall we were caught off guard by an early snow storm. We had not yet completed our fall yard clean up when the storm hit and even though the snow melted in a couple of days, we never found our way back out to finish. One benefitRead More

Or Why I sympathize With Mr. McGregor We have herds of rabbits roaming our property, mowing down anything edible. They even eat the plants they are not supposed to like! My husband and son made me several garden boxes last year so I could grow vegetables and are in the process of making me severalRead More