Gardening
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The War on Bugs
When you are a gardener, something is always trying to destroy all your hard work. It’s frustrating. Seems like most of my conversations with other growers involve commiserating about the shit that’s eating our garden and brain storming about how… Continue reading
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The Robin Whisperer
It started a few years ago when the robins built a nest in our pear tree. Dum dums. It’s not that we don’t like robins, it’s just that the birds built their nest too low. Too low for what? Snakes.… Continue reading
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Orach is the New Black
When I look into my purple gazing ball, what does the future of vegetables look like? Orach. Move over kale, there is a new veggie trend and its purple. These ancient little leaves are packed with nutrients and are much… Continue reading
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Growing Really Slow Food
Asparagus is a practice in delayed gratification. Unlike lettuce — 25 days, wham! You’ve got a salad — growing asparagus takes YEARS. Years?!? I was hoping I hadn’t heard that right. Did the Boss really say we have to wait… Continue reading
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Panic Gardening
Apparently I’m not alone in feeling a special urgency about gardening this year. Toilet paper isn’t the only thing people are hoarding; seeds are also flying off the shelves. All of a sudden, everyone is a gardener. Fortunately, like the… Continue reading
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Planning for Abundance
We migrated back to the Eden of Garden three weeks later than usual this year. This typically would not be a big deal to me — May in the UP sucks. May in the UP is like going back in… Continue reading
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Put your butt in the seat and eat
“This food is the gift of the whole universe – the earth, the sky, and much hard work. May we live in a way that makes us worthy to receive it.” – Thich Nhat Hanh We have a big problem around here:… Continue reading
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Willy-nilly
Willy-nilliness will absolutely not be tolerated in the Eden of Garden. And this is a source of many a tense moment between the Boss and me. He is a carpenter and a builder with the mind of an engineer and… Continue reading
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Returning
Nothing says welcome home like the crunch of thousands of dead fly carcasses. Continue reading
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Gardening by the Moon
“Something stupendous takes place on the earth as a result of the full moon’s forces.” Rudolph Steiner One trick we use to make gardening more complicated is to plant by the moon. Specifically, we use the planetary positions to decide… Continue reading
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Bucking Fugs!
I know I gave the Boss a ton of shit for bringing in more dirt. But it turns out he is really smart because bugs are kicking our veggie garden’s ass. Yes, I realize sharing with bugs is part of… Continue reading
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The Tomato Parade
The tomato parade has begun and soon tomatoes in various stages of red will be covering every surface of our kitchen.Tomatoes are the heart of summer, the fruit of hot and humid days that get even hotter when you spend… Continue reading
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The Garlic Harvest
140 pounds of garlic harvested! Now the squash, which is towering above four-feet tall, has room to breathe. This is the deal with harvesting homegrown garlic: The most important thing you need to know about harvesting fresh garlic is: Eat… Continue reading
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Varmints
“I’m going to have to go Mr McGregor on the rabbits that took out my beets,” a gardener friend recently told me. (In the UP, it is probably more like Elmer Fudd, but I digress.) When I asked him if… Continue reading
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Austere Times in the Eden of Garden
Six months ago we packed up the truck with loads of home-grown veggies and canned goods and headed West. A week ago we traveled back across the highline loaded with cases of empty mason jars and crates filled with goodies… Continue reading
Eden of Garden 