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

Thanks to a heat wave we have had an early abundance of vegetables and herbs. Our average last frost is June 16th, so it is unusual for me to have this much this early! This is what we have enjoyed this week: Lettuce Spinach Radishes Onions Asparagus Swiss Chard Leaves Parsley Cilantro Going out toRead 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

Last month I took a walk around the backyard after a severe thunderstorm to survey the damage. A Russian sage plant lost a fairly large branch. I decided to try to save it. Even though I took several horticulture classes in high school (it was the only way to avoid dissecting a frog) I didRead More

Today’s post was going to be about inexpensive, organic solutions to common garden problems. I was going to relate how I combined crushed garlic with the water in the milk jugs from my $2.00 greenhouse to make a rabbit repellent to protect my bulbs. Instead I have to share that a predicted thunderstorm arrived insteadRead More

Last summer my husband made several raised beds for my garden. Instead of making the posts flush with the box, he extended them 1 -2 feet higher than the box, so I could attach chicken wire thus denying Peter, Benjamin, and friends their usual midnight snack.   I enjoyed gardening last year and was soRead More

There is one online resource that has been especially helpful to me throughout the last year and that is Mother Earth News. I found it while searching online for information about perennial vegetables. I have since learned quite a bit about gardening, raising chickens, reusing “trash” and baking from reading their articles. I even learnedRead More