This story starts a few years ago when I picked up a few pretty bean seeds at a seed swap. They were colorful oval beans with maroon and white splotches and were labeled as pole "pea beans." Three years ago I planted the seeds and discovered a bean with a very vigorous habit, happily bounding the poles and [...]
Category: Gardening
Squash Growing Conditions
This year the squash got the best sunny spot in my garden, at least some of them did. I like squash and they take space, so I tend to put hills wherever they might do well. Besides the sunny patch, I have a few hills in a shady spot and one hill in a raised bed. You [...]
More Squash Practice – Differentiating Squash Species
Despite my patterned planting method to help identify the seedlings coming from seeds I plant, I still have trouble with confusing squash volunteers showing up in the hills. This year I clearly noticed the interlopers only after blossoms were starting to set fruit. However, I could have picked up the problems earlier if I had [...]
Sustainable bean poles
How do gardeners make meaningful the concept of "sustainability"? Purchased soil mixes and organic blended fertilizers and a raised bed kit can make a wonderful instant garden, but manufactured growing space misses the big circle. The land provides for us; we give back nourishment to the land. For this circle to be sustainable, we have [...]
Coping with Cool in the Garden
For the second year in a row we are dealing with a cool wet spring. Last year I tried to plant my squash "by the calendar" and suffered very poor germination and a slow start for the plants. I ended up replanting twice before finally getting everything to germinate. This year the ground was too wet [...]
Powering Down in an Age of Irrational Politics
The politics of pain that is the fashion these days offers an unprecedented opportunity to advance a power-down agenda that will become a necessity in the years ahead. The defining characteristics of the Great Recession, and the Great Depression of the 1930's, are very high unemployment rates while interest rates remain very low. High unemployment [...]
Battling Blackberries
This is the time of year I go after the invasive plants that live among the big trees on our lot. The worst offenders I have to deal with are English ivy, Himalayan blackberries, and English holly. None is fun, but the blackberries put up the best defense, and despite wearing gloves, by the end [...]
Squash Seed Saving
Now is the time to be eating all those winter squash harvested in the fall. For squash seed savers, this is the opportunity for quality control and seed selection. Easy control over the selection process is one reason squash seed saving is so much fun. Squash eaters know that there can be large differences in quality from [...]
Long Season Crops
I am finding long-season crops more and more satisfying to grow. Shade in my garden doesn't matter as much once the trees have dropped their leaves. And the pace of activity imposed by the slow vegetables is more forgiving if I miss a week or two when planting or harvesting. I define long season varieties to be [...]
The Gift of Good Giving
Gifts lubricate the informal economy and build relationships in our local community. Sometimes it's a pick-up truck, maybe it's eggs or fresh milk, perhaps helping a friend hammer down a new roof, but for me now it's often my honey. As soon as you start giving food, things, and labor to your friends and neighbors you are [...]
Squash Practice 