The Eternal (Fruit) Optimist We fruit growers get especially excited this time of year. On the one hand, there’s the anticipation of the upcoming season. And on the other hand, we don’t want to rush things along at all. Ideally, late winter segues into the middle of spring with gradually warming days and nights. […]
Is the Jury Still Out on Compost Tea? In gardening, as in life, you can’t help but want to love some things, compost tea being one of them. After all, compost is good, tea is soothing, so what’s not to love about compost tea? Perhaps it depends on how you brew your tea. Traditional […]
Horse Manure: Not Guilty, So On To Pruning A dark cloud no longer hangs over my horse manure, that is, the horse manure that I occasionally truck over here to add to my compost piles. I wrote a few weeks ago about the possibility of herbicide that, when applied to hay, retains its toxic […]
Onions & More, Late But They’ll Be Fine I missed my deadline by four days, sowing onion seeds on February 5th rather than the planned February 1st. That date isn’t fixed in stone but the important thing is to plant onions early. Onions are photoperiod sensitive, that is, they respond to daylength (actually, night […]
Perennial Wheat to Save Our Soil, But What About Compost? We — that is, almost all of humanity — get all our sustenance from the thin skin that covers out planet, the soil. In appreciation of this, the United Nations has declared 2015 “The Year of Soil.” “Soil is more important than oil,” stated […]
Feb. 14, 2015Gardener’s Supply Co.,Burlington, VT“Espalier Fruits”“My Weedless Garden” Feb. 15, 2015Northeast Organic Farming Association of VT, Winter Conference,Burlington, VT“Hardy Kiwifruits” “Compost Tea: Snake Oil or Plant Elixir?”
A Long Journey to Avocado-dom This far north, an avocado plant provides reliable entertainment and, less reliably, the makings of guacamole. The entertainment doesn’t compare with the excitement of a car chase on the silver screen; it’s slower but very engaging. To whit: I’ve been watching roots on two avocado pits elongate and branch. I […]
One Book = Years of Experience I’ve been gardening for over 30 years. Don’t be impressed. The number of years spent with hands in the dirt doesn’t necessarily confer any particular expertise in the field (pun intended). Some gardeners do the same foolish things year in and year out, or never sufficiently investigate other, […]
Agriculture: Good or Bad for Our Planet? I’m enjoying this farmdening interlude, with essentially nothing to do, farmdenwise, for a few weeks. No planting, no pruning, no weeding. Seeds have been ordered and the greenhouse, full of lettuce and kale and chard and other fresh stuff, is cold enough to require no more than […]
Greenhouse, Coldframe, Hotbed = Fresh Lettuce, Mâche, & other Salad Fixings You can’t beat the luxuriousness of entering a greenhouse on a sunny, cold winter day, and hitting that welcome wall of moist, warm air. Once you get through that soft wall, you drink in the redolence and visual vibrancy of green, growing plants. All […]
