To prune or not to prune (this time of year): that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler to neaten up the garden or to suffer tangles of stems. With apologies to Bill Shakespeare, it depends on lots of things whether or not now is a good time to go out to the garden wielding pruning shears. I go over the why’s and the why not’s of pruning in fall in my latest blog post.
Biochar is a relic of ancient agriculture now used with a modern perspective. Applied to soils it confers myriad benefits. But does biochar make the best use of the plant feedstuffs?
My worst garden ever is now looking pretty good. For a number of reasons. Which I enumerate in my latest blog post. I can’t do anything about the weather but now I can pay attention to some things to make the best of even a poor growing season.
Did you know that it’s popcorn season. Not eating it, but harvesting it. Home-grown, it’s so easy and so delicious, better that those giant puffs of commercial popcorn. It’s also chestnut season, which, especially, with a couple of weeks curing, is also delicious. Both very homey this time of year. Growing, harvesting, and more all described in my latest blog post, here.
A recent visit to Maine was like a time machine, sort of. There was the Common Ground Fair, the first of many visits to was about 20 years ago. And similarly for a visit with Eliot Coleman, except these visits began 50 years ago! Still learning and getting better at growing plants organically and sustainably. The trip and conversations described, you know where, in my latest blog post, accessible from my website (my name dot com).
Grow figs where winters are frigid? No problem. Although this plant is native to the hot, dry climates of the Mideast, it can be grown successfully in a cold winter climate. (I’ve done it for decades.) Learn what unique characteristics of this the plant makes this possible and how to make use of these characteristics to get the plant to survive winter and bear ripe fruit, all this iin my latest blog post.
I gotta admit it, this year’s garden was my worst ever! I think I know the reason — no, the many reasons –why. We gardeners, farmdeners, and farmers can always blame the weather. What, specifically about the weather, and what other reasons can I suss. Read what I thought, some of it may apply in your garden or farmden, in my latest blog post.
I’d never tasted okra until the age of 23 (eating alone in a cafeteria on Thanksgiving), but I evidently liked it because I’ve grown it now for years. But can this truly Southern vegetable actually be grown in a cooler Northern garden like my farmden? Yes! For how I contribute to my success with this mucilagenous treat, read my latest blog post.
There are so many good reasons to address weeds right now — yes, in late summer — and so many ways to keep them in check — yes, now in late summer. Read about the why and the how in my latest blog post.
The final “job” in growing fruit is picking it. Most are at their best when fully ripened on the plant, and the fruit communicates to us lowly humans when they are at that stage. For the latest in plant-human communiqué, read my newest blog post, and enjoy!
