A Greener Biener

I haven’t seen an aphid, a slug or a snail, the notorious arch-enemies of spinach, but someone’s been eating my spinach… That’s ok, because the lettuce is so soft and sweet I’m fine to let the mysterious muncher have the majority of the spinach. The pumpkins are promising – A self planted carrot – Cucumbers [...]

The Greener Biener Takes A Break I’ll miss you dear readers, It’s for you that I write But the call of the wild (that is, my backyard) Is too strong to fight Schools out for summer I’ve cut back on house cleaning Yet my time packs right up With picnic-making and sun-screening And there are [...]

Me?  Not so leggy. Even before I had one appendage masquerading in this 71,520 pound storm-trooper suit I was not what you might considered leggy. Unleggy and unsuspecting, I simply picked out a pretty, ambitious sprout from the $1 bin at last summer’s farmers market.  I put it in a pot, and it went wild– [...]

Baby Spinach, south garden, May 21, 2010 – Baby lettuce, south garden, May 21, 2010 – Baby mighty oak tree, Acadia’s garden, May 21, 2010 (acorn planted by Kira in April) Baby tomato,  soaking up some front porch sun Baby eggplant, sunny self on porch – Baby squash – Baby rainbow chard, volunteer (self-seeded) in [...]

Sneaking off the couch and hobbling into the back yard I was rewarded with our very first spring salad – And then over to the north garden to see how the rhubarb was behaving– He may have been waving it in the air like he just didn’t care, but I paid him no mind and [...]

I’ve got girls, so it’s not too surprising that I’d be confounded by the abject masculinity surrounding me these days.  Still, I figured that having five nephews kind of qualified me to manage males. The message I’m getting from the universe: think otherwise. Take, for example, my rhubarb.  Up until recently it was such a [...]

Golly gee, I wonder what on earth could be making me feel so droopy?  Could it possibly be this– You might not recognize that shiny metal thing, but that’s what I was going to use to help these guys along– Oh my sweet sweet snap peas.  Hang in there.  You too, my poor brave blossoms.  [...]

It’s hard to tiptoe on the tulips when they are slick with snow– Snow, shmoe, I won’t let it get me down.  The weather changes so fast around here that you might not even notice something very fishy going on in the rhubarb patch.  What, exactly, is this? I’ve had this rhubarb for seven summers [...]

April 12, and our previously perky sprouts have called it quits. All but that one little guy, who I think is an eggplant. Our over-zealous watering took out not only our nice handwritten signs, but much of our crop as well. At least the tomatoes are still hanging in there – Outside things are moving [...]

March is a pyscho. Never mind the whole lion and lamb thing.  It comes in like a fluffy bunny and then just like that turns into a frigid witch and then right back into a kitten. It’s driving me a little batty. March 6, and our good old Northern corner spot is still snowbound. We [...]