As a return from an unplanned hiatus, I’d meant for this post to be all about the things I love most in the fall season. However, winter arrived suddenly yesterday. From all the projections, while the snow is already melting, looks like the cold is here to stay. So instead of waxing poetic about autumn, I’ll share with you some of the lovely scenes from this weekend. The only crops remaining in the vegetable garden are some beets and radishes,…
first seeds to go in this year
February 1, 2022It seems hard to believe but it’s time to start seeds indoors – at least some of them. For my Zone 6a garden, the first seeds to go in this year are onions and leeks. The onions I grew last year did really well and I am going to go ahead and start them just a bit earlier this time. I’m hoping to get an earlier harvest. Last year I grew the following varieties: Ailsa Craig and Walla Walla and…
book review: homegrown pantry
January 10, 2022Greetings! I am coming to you today with another book review. I recently purchased Homegrown Pantry by Barbara Pleasant. This book was published in 2017 and the subtitle tells us exactly what to expect: A Gardener’s Guide to Selecting the Best Varieties & Planting the Perfect Amounts for What You Want to Eat Year-Round. Does it live up to that big promise? Let’s take a look. The table of contents is very descriptive, easily allowing us to jump to what…
plant spotlight: lively italian sweet yellow pepper
October 3, 2021Greetings! As fall is kicking into gear, we are heavy in the midst of garden cleanup over here at the woodland garden, like every other gardener in the northern hemisphere probably is at this time of year. While many of the veggies have died back or stopped producing, the peppers are still going like gangbusters. This has definitely not always been the case; in fact, I am very happy to say that this year was very different, our best pepper…
planting a few fall perennials
September 28, 2021Wrapping up a mostly successful vegetable gardening season (that I woefully failed to post about all summer long), I’ve just this week added a few fall perennials. I guess technically, they are just “perennials”. I happen to be planting them in the fall and I think they will add some nice color during the autumn season. Specifically, these plants are going in a bed that runs along the side of our house. You can see the early phase of this small…
book review: epic tomatoes
May 24, 2021Hey there, all my tomato-growing friends! I have a book review for you on what is likely the definitive book on growing tomatoes, for all of us home gardeners at least. As I’m getting my tomato plants in the ground (finally! after a long, drawn-out period of cold spring nights), I am reading the book “Epic Tomatoes” by Craig LeHoullier. I’d heard of this book a long time ago as I’ve listened to interviews with Craig. He has been a featured…
plant spotlight – matt’s wild cherry tomatoes
February 19, 2021Greetings fellow gardeners! While many of us have gardens that are covered under a thick blanket of snow at the moment, it’s seed starting time for some vegetables. If you grow tomatoes from seed, maybe you will find this post interesting. I grow several varieties of tomatoes each year and I must say that the award for Best Production last year went to….Matt’s Wild Cherry Tomatoes! If you read my last post, I touched on this briefly. Today, I’d like…
despite it all, 2020 gave us our best garden
December 19, 2020Hello! How’ve you been? Safe and well, I hope. It’s been a long minute since my last post and in case you are still around and wondering… The man and I have had an interesting year. In the midst of COVID-19, we were displaced from our house for five weeks (our choice and for a very happy reason, maybe it’s worth a post later), rearranged work schedules, helped family (both human and canine) with medical issues, celebrated our 15th anniversary,…
the seed storage system that is rocking my world
January 14, 2020For many years my garden seed storage system was extremely simple and homemade. I stored my seeds in zippered storage bags (think: kitchen ziploc bags). I considered this to be good enough. It got the job done. Then over time, the minor little annoyances began to get to me: Even though the bags were getting pretty fat with seed packets, they didn’t stand upright. This meant that if they fell over, there was the risk of seeds falling out of…
roasted brussels sprouts
January 10, 2020Whether homegrown or store-bought, I am a sucker for fresh brussels sprouts. Love ’em so much, they have made it into that special category of foods I call “food of the gods.” In this post is a recipe for the way I most frequently prepare them. Just four ingredients. Preparation is super quick, the rest is simply oven time. Great to make on these colder days, when having the oven going might make your home just a bit more comfy.…
