My Grocery Store Onions
Last spring, I bought some red pearl onions to use in a stew. I didn’t use all of them, and they started to sprout. Naturally, I put them in the …
Gardening
How To Get Rid Of Cabbage Worms
[Planet Natural] Fall is the time to plant brassicas. This is the mustard family of plants. It includes cabbage, turnips, kale, mustard, radish, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli (among others). …
Ananas D'Amerique A Chair Verte Melon
One of the nicest surprises in my garden this year was the Ananas D’Amerique A Chair Verte Melon. I don’t know why it has such a crazy name. I planted …
My 2014 Fall Garden
Can you believe August is half over? I’m busy harvesting. This is today’s haul: kale, tomatoes, four different types of green beans, three different types of peppers, corn, lemons, oranges, …
Magical Compost Tea
You may be asking yourself why I am posting a bucket of muddy water on my blog. Ah, but that’s not mud, that’s compost tea. I’ve written about the magic …
Grow Your Own Hops
Three years ago, a friend gave us two Cascade hops plants. Since we make our own beer, I put them in the ground to see what they would do. Two …
How I Grow Lettuce
For years, I had trouble growing lettuce. My California climate meant the lettuce tended to bolt–i.e. form flowers–before I had a chance to harvest it. Either that, or I just …
Growing A Wild Flower Lawn
As much as I like the idea of a clover lawn, there’s one idea that I like even better: replacing my lawn with a wild flower meadow. According to HGTV, …
Growing A Clover Lawn
[Small Things] Up until 1940, clover lawns were common in the United States. In fact, the first gardening book in the US, published by Andrew Jackson Downing in 1841, said …
Controlling Aphids
[Courtesy Luc Viatour] Ugh. Aphids come in many colors. I’ve seen them in green, gray, black, white, and red. Sometimes they have wings and sometimes they don’t. Despite their changing …
Five More Beneficial Insects
I’ve talked about beneficial insects as a means of pest control in the vegetable garden before. Without a doubt, getting natural predators to destroy pests for you is the easiest, …