Most gardeners will attest to the pleasure of perusing seed catalogs in January…especially on a cold, blustery day like today. There are many great seed catalogs, like Johnny’s Selected Seeds, which has lovely four-color photos, great descriptions, and innovative tools. However, I’ve ordered from Fedco Seeds these past few years, enjoying the black-and-white newsprint catalog [...]
Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category
Harbinger of change
Posted in Garden on January 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Winter comes to New England, slowly
Posted in Chickens, Garden on January 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Despite the Halloween snowstorm, this winter has been pretty mild. Not so this morning; our thermometer read 6 degrees at 8 a.m., and by 2 p.m. it had climbed only to 13. Even Koa, who lies on the kitchen steps regardless of temperature, decided it was too cold for her. Rebecca, seeing the sunshine, repeatedly [...]
Alien life
Posted in Garden on December 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The writers and special effects people who worked on Star Trek must have been keen observers of the natural world. And the natural world produces some amazing alien-like flora and fauna. Often I will see a plant, or creature, that looks like something Captain Kirk, Spock or Bones might have picked up on a new [...]
Racing winter
Posted in Garden on December 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The parsnips came out just in time. A frost makes them sweeter, but if they stay in too long, the ground freezes solid and you can’t dig them out. Parsnips (ours at least) are large and long, so you have dig deep to extract them. This year they went through a couple of frosts, and [...]
Winter in October
Posted in Chickens, Garden on October 31, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Our friends, Jeanette and Marissa, came up from New York for the weekend, expecting fall weather. Instead we plunged right into winter. Saturday started off cool and cloudy, but by the time we came home from the farmers’ market, a slushy rain had begun to fall. Pretty soon fat flakes of snow were coming down fast, [...]
A busy weekend
Posted in Bees, Garden on October 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Saturday we ran in the 5K on beautiful Foster roads, past sheep curious about the sudden surge of people. The runners ranged in fitness level and age (a girl, perhaps seven or eight easily outpaced me). All were out to have a good time. There was some comfort in seeing the emergency responders from the [...]
Preparing for fall
Posted in Garden, tagged Garden on October 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
All of a sudden the days seem short and the nights cold. The garden list, ignored for a few weeks, has continued to lengthen and is now pressing. In these next, early October days, we need to clean the dead plants from the vegetable beds. To one bed I will add nutrients, and then transplant [...]
Allergies and the great outdoors
Posted in Garden, tagged Allergies, Gardening, Outdoors on September 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s an interesting twist. I have suffered from allergies for more than half my life…I always forget, but I think it is called angioedema; parts of me swell up. It is uncomfortable, sometimes painful, itchy and when it happens to my face, disfiguring and disheartening. Since I left an office job in June I have spent [...]
Out with the old…
Posted in Garden, tagged Garden, Gardening on September 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I like moving on. Fresh starts. In the garden there are always new beginnings. Spring brings the eagerly anticipated asparagus, along with rhubarb, and if we are lucky, over-wintered spinach. Then peas, swiss chard, lettuce, strawberries, kohlrabi, in steady succession. These are followed through the warmer weeks by cucumbers, blueberries, carrots, squash, cabbage, parsnips, potatoes, [...]
Irene and the past three days
Posted in Bees, Chickens, Food, Garden, tagged Bees, Catalpa, Chickens, Food, Garden, Hurricane Irene, Sunflowers, Trees on August 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Hurricane Irene took out our power, phone and internet service, and so I haven’t been able to post anything—just when I was getting started! I have been writing posts out, however, and so here they are, starting with Sunday: 8/28/11 So often solutions don’t occur to you until it is too late. Saturday was spent [...]