The Lasagna Garden

"I didn't know you could grow lasagna," my mother-in-law quipped as I showed her my latest experiment. She seemed as intrigued as I was when I first heard about this soil preparation technique. It's a composting method that eliminates the need to hoe or till. I'm going to give this a whirl! As I'm short on time and hoeing is not one of my favorites I really want to believe it's going to work. Here's the drill; designate a little patch of earth and begin covering it with compostable items.... Continue reading

Harvesting Seed for the Next Season

Broccoli is a cool weather crop. I've not had much success growing them, but I left one plant in the garden amid my rampant parsley, even though it was past time for broccoli growing. To my delight, it began to produce what I thought would be a big, yummy stalk. I checked it every couple of days, proud of my gardening prowess, waiting for it to look something like what I'm familiar with when I walk through the produce section of my local grocery store. As I'd not seen exactly how the plants... Continue reading

A Native American Gardening Technique

I have three sisters. But I am not talking about the three headstrong women who share my parents with me; I'm talking about the girls in my garden. I happened upon this planting technique fiddling around on Google one day. It's an ancient, Iroquois planting method for corn, beans, and squash. The three sisters sustain each other and I am utterly "a-maized" (I love a good pun if there is such a thing) at the results. In our neck of the woods, this process can be started in early- to... Continue reading

Powdery Mildew, Your Butt Is Mine!

Last year my squashes and cucumbers were growing like weeds in the garden out back. I was proud, happily envisioning months of delicious stewed squash, cucumber sandwiches, and refreshing cucumber water. Then I noticed a dusting of white powder on many of the leaves. I had a sense something was amiss but hoped it was merely dust that settled onto the leaves after a dry-weather lawn mowing session. I mean it easily wiped off. I told myself all would be right as rain when, well, it... Continue reading