Category: Organic Methods
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Planting Plan Giveaway!
I always struggle with planting plans. I’m not a map person and I like to figure things out in real time, but when applying for grants, or communicating ideas to people you’re trying to evangelise about the benefits of native plants, it’s always best to show your work. It seems…
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How I told my 12 year old daughter that Trump was her President this morning
This is how I told my twelve year old daughter that Trump is now her president: A lot of people voted for Donald Trump. A lot of them were told that he would make the country more secure and make gas cheaper and keep people from coming into the country.…
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Gardens as a Space of Healing
This isn’t my story, but my sister told me this a long time ago so I feel like I have the right to appropriate it. When she was in art school, she went to a park with one of her sculpture classes. When they reached an open area, the teacher…
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Garden Therapy
Here is a thing I think we need. And by “we” I probably mean me. And maybe a handful of people who care about the dirt around them and the things that grow in it. That thing is: Garden Therapy Affirmation Counselors. GTAC? You know that feeling of affirmation when…
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Building a Pollinator Corridor: Time Sink or Carbon Sink?
Often, when I am gardening in my front yard, I get a few comments from passersby and mail carriers about how much manual labor I have to do to keep my garden from exploding into a lethal liability. I get comments like, “You know, you could just mow it all…
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Fall is Seed Collecting Season
My garden is a leggy mess. The bee balm has powdery mildew. The irises, long spent, are prostrate on the ground like a haircut gone wrong. The hostas have died back to reveal every terrible thing I threw in that patch thinking they would dissolve or decay unnoticed (like that…
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Herbs in a Strawberry Pot
I went to Chanticleer and had to restrain myself from copying everything they did there. They had a strawberry pot filled with herbs and it made so much sense. Terra cotta pots dry out so quickly, I don’t understand why they are so ubiquitous. And I don’t understand strawberry pots.…
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What to do with Tiny Glass Bottles
I lurv little antique bottles like this, but they often end up getting knocked around or catching dust. My dad found the one on the right when he was metal detecting a historic site in Maryland so it must be old. The other one has a threaded top so it’s…
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Rock Garden on a Hill
What’s wrong with this picture? In under two weeks it was covered with weeds. Did I really think the grass would stay put? Or the dormant weed seeds I turned up wouldn’t sprout just because I would yell at them? All those nice little perennials were choked by creeping charlie…
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Cover Crop
What’s wrong with this picture? It’s an anemic cover crop! I planted winter rye as a cover crop (a bit late in the season – mid-November) even though I plan to build (or rather HE will build) raised beds in Spring (even though he’s busy rebuilding our falling-down house.) So…
Heart of the Garden 