Dia de la Muertos – time for harvest

  I began this post the evening of Nov. 1, the Dia de la Muertos. I have never participated much in this tradition. I've always tended to honor these kinds of things internally, rather than placing much focus on tangible objects or physical actions. I do think it is a really cool practice, though, and am all in favor of folks celebrating the lives of those they've lost in this positive way. It's just not how I do. Today, on the Day of the Dead, I pulled up dying plants and cut back... Continue reading

The Thrifty Gardener – A Book Review

I've been reading and studying Alys Fowler's The Thrifty Gardener, and I'm so sad I've come to the end. I've quoted and linked back to her several times in this blog series, so some of you may remember me mentioning I had ordered her book. As my experiences in gardening for the last two years have been less than spectacular, I decided getting myself educated probably wasn't a bad idea. Go figure. I ordered through Amazon and the publication came right away. What a delight. The... Continue reading

Urban Farming, the Productive Way

"If you plant it, it will grow," turns out to not necessarily be the case. I'm approaching my third summer of attempting to supply our little two-person family with wholesome, organic, homegrown vegetables. My original idea was to use only the composts I created from my kitchen scraps and fall leaves. Fail. :( Things grew. They did not flourish. Reality hit me square across the face about a month after I purchased my EarthBox. The kit comes with a cool little rectangular planter, complete... Continue reading