With so many people interested in keeping a backyard flockof chickens for eggs, and maybe even for meat, I've been visiting local henhouses, partly to be able to assure potential hen farmers that a henhouse doesn't have to be a Palais de Poulet, and to show you some of the clever designs hen farmers have come up with to make their own work as easy as possible. Emma is the youngest hen farmer I know. She is an…
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Henry David Thoreau. I have long been an admirer of Thoreau. I remember a conversation with a friend of mine, then a student at NYU, about what Thoreau would think about returning to a simple…
In December of 2007 (!) I began my career as a garden blogger. I hardly knew what a blog was in those days. I had just discovered Garden Rant, and my friend BJ Roche at Fiftyshift said that as a writer I had to have a blog. And so commonweeder was born. What I knew about garden blogs - a blog was a place to share information and experiences and opinions through the Internet. I did not imagine…
One of the best ideas I had this year was to put a small vegetable garden right in front of the eastern end of our house which faces due south. The soil here drains very well and thaws out very early in the spring. If you want to see the 'lasagna garden' method I used on April 4, click here. The planting bed next to the house included a yellow loosestrife and 'Terra Cotta' achillea next to the…
Thanksgiving begins in the kitchen. Although I have handed out the recipe, I am still responsible for making the stuffing. The turkey barely fit in the roasting pan. I needed Henry's help. Betsy was the host this year. It's good she has so much counter space. Here she is, almost ready. I have to say that as devoted as I am to eating local food, I am happy that we can also eat delicious fruits and vegetables from…
I wanted to share a special Thanksgiving memory today. Thanksgiving is a harvest festival, with gratitude for the fruits of the soil that have sustained us through another year. It is also a time of gratitude for the other blessings of our life, especially the family and friends with whom we celebrate. Sometimes it is the Thanksgivings celebrated far from those we love that have a special place in our memory. As the current news is so filled…
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I got my first 2011 catalog today! Totally Tomatoes offers 34 (count 'em) pages of tomato varieties - and then we begin on the peppers. Sixteen pages of peppers, from sweet to hot, big and small, round and curly, then on to a couple of pages of cukes and other veggies, plus an array of tomato growing and preserving equipment. Cook books, too. Have your gotten your first catalog yet?
I don’t know about you, but I am already starting to work on my holiday gift list. Those who know me, know I think that few gifts are as good as a good book. Books teach and inspire, and often offer great encouragement. Gardening has long been one of the nation’s most popular pastimes, but recently with our difficult economy, and worries about the energy costs of agribusiness, many people are turning to the vegetable garden, for fresh…
As I was baking cranberry bread yesterday, I remembered an interview I did with Wil Kiendzior and his wife Louisa Sapienza about their cranberry beds. Cranberries are another perennial crop that can be added to your edible garden. Wil Kiendzior started gardening when two things converged in his life. His two daughters were born and he started teaching high school courses on ecology and the environment, using Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as a text. His first gardens grew…