PROTECTING THE GARDEN AND STILL BE ORGANIC

Pests can ruin your vegetable crop, but they can be controlled if caught early enough. Here is an excerpt from From Seed to Table on dealing with them while still remaining as organic as possible. The definitions on organic gardening differ. At its most basic level, it means gardening with native plants, using natural fertilizers

THE ART OF COMPOSTING

Here’s something you can start at home without much effort. You might have all the ingredients right at your fingertips. We start with either a plastic or metal garbage can for the outdoors bin. But for the kitchen I’ve used many different containers with a air-tight lid, until recently. When visiting a friend, I spotted

GARDEN NEWS – IT’S ONLY BEGINNING!

  Last year, our Smoky Mountain garden saw very little rain. The whole region suffered from a drought. But this spring and now into June, the rains have been frequent and steady. We left on our trip to Michigan hoping the rain would continue so our friend didn’t have to come over every other day

FLORIDA GARDENING

    We’ve been in Florida since November. The time has flown as we’ve been taking back a house that had been a rental property for six years. We tore out the kitchen and replaced it with new cupboards, counters, and appliances. We painted most rooms and had renovations done in the bathrooms. And then

GARDENING IN OCTOBER

The garden started in March by building raised beds on the side of a hill are still producing! Tomatoes, winter squash, and lima beans grace our table. Although the butternut and Queensland Blue are there more for decoration right now.   Next on the agenda:  The Florida garden. We’re in the process of heading to our

#Garden Abundance

It’s a good thing we took a break this week because, by Friday, the refrigerator and countertops overflowed with zucchini, tomatoes, cabbage, onions, peppers, and carrots! Time to get to work. Normally, I try to spread it out over a few days, but I decided since I’m between writing projects that I’d take one day

CUKES & ZUCS – GARDEN MADNESS HAS BEGUN

  Suddenly, I’ve been thrown into overdrive in the kitchen attempting to preserve the produce starting to accumulate. The past two days found me dealing with the cucumber and zucchini madness happening right outside my door.   Yesterday, I decided I had enough cucumbers to do seven quarts of kosher dill pickles. Wrong. I had

WANING DAYS OF SPRING

There’s something powerful in eating locally grown vegetables, either from our own garden or the farmer’s market. It makes me want to eat much healthier in all ways when the main pieces of a meal showcase homegrown bounty. Something about the mountain air and my husband’s green thumb has bombarded our garden beds this spring,

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR

We moved to the mountains of southwest North Carolina to heal and live in a peaceful and clean environment. Since December, we’ve lived here full time. But our neighbors, with whom we share a driveway, spent the winter in Florida. They came back last week, and with their arrival, a bit of our peace vanished.

THE FIRST SALAD OF THE SEASON – #GARDENLOVE

We rolling in lettuce right now. Radishes are beautiful and tasty, too. My husband planted a variety of radishes, and the taste differences are subtle, but none of them are bitter as sometimes happens with older radishes. I’m amazed at how fast the garden is growing. I’ll soon be pulling down the canning equipment from