Category Archives: The Garden

Harvest Totals July 2013

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Emilie

Here are the harvest totals for July, with approximate market value (using retail pricing from our local grocery store and the farmer’s market, with guesstimate pricing on items I haven’t seen for sale).

Fallen Apples = Free Chicken Food!

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Emilie

I have a couple of incredibly productive Gravenstein apple trees, and while they’re quite juicy and delicious, they’re also notorious for dropping their fruit when it gets the least bit ripe. The boy and I spent some time this morning … Continue reading →

Posted in Chickens, Summer, The Garden | Leave a comment

My Dionysian Garden

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Emilie

In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan describes two types of gardeners: the Apollonian gardener, who likes everything neat and ordered and in straight rows, and the Dionysian gardener, who allows entropy to take over in the garden to a certain … Continue reading →

Posted in Summer, The Garden | Tagged entropy, Michael Pollan, volunteer plants | 2 Comments

Harvest Totals May and June 2013

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Emilie

Here are the harvest totals for May and June (I spilled a beer on my laptop just a few days before the end of May, thus losing the spreadsheet with my harvest data for the month; hero husband recently was … Continue reading →

Posted in Bees, Spring, Summer, The Garden | Tagged harvest value, honey, spring harvest, summer harvest | Leave a comment

Failed experiment: Peas underplanted with pole beans

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Emilie

Well, I bit the bullet this morning and pulled up my pea vines. I really didn’t want to, for a couple of reasons: 1) they’re still producing (and Tall Telephone, which I’d previously thought wasn’t the most productive variety, actually … Continue reading →

Posted in Spring, The Garden | Tagged bush bean, garden experiment, pea, pole bean, underplanting | Leave a comment

I’ve sprung a leek!

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Emilie

I harvested all of my leeks the other day – nearly 20 pounds from a tiny little patch (about 25 square feet). I’d purchased the seedlings from Dixondale Farms in the fall, and planted them on December 19, and the sturdy … Continue reading →

Posted in Spring, The Garden | Tagged allium, leek | 3 Comments

Peas 2013

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Emilie

If they didn’t taste so darn good, I don’t think growing shelling peas would be worth it. I just picked about two and a half pounds of gorgeous pea pods, spent about half an hour shelling them, and ended up … Continue reading →

Posted in Spring, The Garden | Tagged Blauwschokker, garden economics, Golden Sweet, pea, shelling pea, snow pea, Tall Telephone | 1 Comment

Guess who’s having homegrown escargot for dinner?

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Emilie

No, no, not me – the chickens! I’m not that awesome adventurous – yet. Sure, I’ve eaten my share of escargot in restaurants (and have even made them at home on occasion – Trader Joe’s even carries them!). Slathered with butter … Continue reading →

Posted in Chickens, Spring, The Animals, The Garden | Tagged chicken treats, escargot, gourmet chicken food, homegrown escargot, snails | 2 Comments

There’s a fungus among us!

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Emilie

A week or so ago, I finally finished inoculating my very first mushroom logs. (I say finally because this was a rather long process for me – the logs were cut a couple of months ago, and then I had … Continue reading →

Posted in Spring, The Garden | Tagged edible mushroom, fungus, grow mushrooms on logs, mushroom, plug spawn | 1 Comment

BUGS!

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Emilie

Every spring, I get a little excited when I see this: Aphids. And not just one or two aphids here or there (is there even such a thing? I heard once that aphids are born pregnant, though that’s probably just … Continue reading →

Posted in Spring, The Garden | Tagged Aphid, Beneficial insects, Insecticide, organic gardening, Organic horticulture, pyrethrin, Pyrethrum | 4 Comments