What’s Growin’ On

Read more about the article Raised Beds – Part 2 – Design

Raised Beds – Part 2 – Design

You may have caught the last edition of Raised Beds Part 1, where we talked about materials for building raised beds.  Now we move on to Part 2 -  Design. 

There are an infinite assortment of ideas in the world for raised beds.  I happen to be, much to my husband's chagrin, severely influenced by formal English gardens with closely trimmed boxwood hedges and topiaries and espaliered fig trees on the wall.  We have a ranch house, so that kind of formality doesn't fly in our back yard.  However, I really really wanted something that made my heart ...

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Doing the Hula Hoe

About this time of year, an amazing thing happens at ground level.  It only took two days of rain, each about a week apart, to be the catalyst for this phenomenon.  I'm talking about weeds.  Hundreds of thousands of little tiny seeds of God-knows-what have found their way into my back yard to create a blanket of fuzzy green babies.  The pathways are covered with them, the "lawn" - which is actually a dead patch of dirt right now - is cropping up with them, and my old raised beds are beginning to look like I planted something on ...

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Read more about the article Raised Beds – Part 1- Materials

Raised Beds – Part 1- Materials

The backyard renovation is about to begin.  This is very exciting considering how long it is taking to cull our ideas together.  The one thing we've been able to decide on is what to do with the raised beds in the vegetable garden. They're falling apart and need to be rebuilt.  We took to opportunity to mentally imagine a clean slate and fantasize about what we'd like to have if money were no object.  Of course, money is an object, and we also want to be as environmentally resourseful and responsible as possible.  With that in mind, I began researching recycled materials, including plastic lumber and composite lumber, as well ...

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Caution: Fall Garden in Progress

After a previous year of not planting too much due to a home remodel, I was heart set on getting seeds in the ground for this, my favorite planting season.  It's a process, but one I'm enjoying immensely.  In warmer climates or in cold frames in colder ones, you can enjoy some of the best vegetables of the year starting now, and watching them grow from seed to harvest is one of the most rewarding experiences I know.  Here's what I have planted so far in my fall garden:

Raised bed #1
Sugar Snap Peas (they share a space with a ...

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Read more about the article The Gardens of France – Part 2 – Valensole

The Gardens of France – Part 2 – Valensole

Okay, this isn't so much a garden as it is a farm, but the idea is the same - broad spectrum appreciation for what the earth can give us through growing plants.

I leafed through the guidebook to find the page highlighting a tour of lavender fields. We only had half a day, after having spent the morning in Tarascon at the farmer's market, where we bought some cheese, bread and tomatoes for lunch later on. We headed onward to Aix-en-Provence. We stopped in Aix for lunch; a peasant's lunch on a stone bench. ...

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Modified Compost Tea

The first day of fall came with an unexpected surprise in Southern California.  A torrential rainstorm hit and dropped almost an inch of rain in less than 20 minutes in some places.  I had an impulse that I couldn't resist.  

I drove to my favorite nursery and as I walked from my car to the door, I felt the first drops of rain land on my nose.  Time is of the essence, I thought.  Quickly I ordered up four bags of Bumper Crop (an organic soil amendment that includes bag guano, chicken manure, worm castings and a bunch of other great things).  One bag for each raised bed in my community garden plot.  ...

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Read more about the article The Gardens of France – Part 1- Tarascon

The Gardens of France – Part 1- Tarascon

I had never been to Provence.  Dreams of sweeping hills of vineyards and lavender fields had always lead me there in my mind, but never in reality.  This summer, after a tour of Ireland, my husband and I decided to extend our stay and see Provence and all its wonders.  The first stop on our tour of the gardens of France is Tarascon. 

At a friend's recommendation, we utilized France's Gites de France system of bed and breakfasts to find a place to stay, and boy did we score: a 17th century monastary overlooking this little city's cathedral, now inhabited ...

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The Gardens of Ireland – Part 4 – Kylemore Abbey

I've saved the best for last.  I am hoping that you will share my enthusiasm for what pictures can only begin to describe as the most amazing garden in Ireland.  I speak - with hand ceremoniously held over heart - of Kylemore Abbey. Kylemore is a castle tucked into a wooded hillside on the edge of a lake.  That alone has a pretty high drool factor.  What you can't see from the entrance of the estate, however, are the sweeping gardens that are a shuttle drive away down a windy road nestled in the forest. 

...

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With Harvest comes Fruit flies

It's hard to think that anything bad can come from having too many tomatoes around.  They sit so beautifully on my kitchen counter in an Italian ceramic bowl, their colors ranging from bright striped green to bright yellow to golden orange to brilliant red.  Yet one thing tarnishes their image.  Fruit flies.  They seem to come from nowhere, and appear to have nowhere else to go and no other target than my tomatoes.  Naturally, I'd much rather be out in the garden than standing around in my kitchen with a fly swatter, so with a little research and ...

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The Gardens of Ireland – Part 3 – Strokestown

Near the end of our tour of Ireland, we made a stop at Strokestown House and Gardens.  This was quite possibly the most influential part of the tour, historically speaking.  Strokestown House is where you will find the Famine Museum.  Now, most everyone knows that there was a potato famine that swept Ireland in the 1840's, but what I didn't know was the horrific treatment of farmers that came with it.  Here's a short summary:

Irish farmers had their land taken away from them by British rulers. British landlords who were put in place would then rent the...

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