making life delicious blog
We planted our tomatoes three weeks ago and so far they are doing very well. The plants all took readily after transplanting and they’ve grown like crazy; in fact half of them are already at the top of their cages. We set 19 tomato plants and 4 tomatillo plants, then had to add more tomatillos [...]
Over the month of May we gradually planted all the edibles around the garden. The blueberries moved to their new location in a high spot in the yard that will allow for better drainage so the bushes don’t succumb to the spring floods, and they’ve taken well to their new home. We have early, mid, [...]
Of the three rhubarbs plants we put in last spring, only one survived the flooding, but it is coming up very nicely and this weekend we’ll plant two or three more. As soon as the leaves sprouted we inverted a large planter over it, a technique that encourages longer stems, and so far we are [...]
After the long cold winter we’ve had, seeing the crocuses and daffodils last week was a welcome sight. The crocuses only lasted a few days, but their bright purple and white blooms made a beautiful splash of color in the flower bed.
If you peruse garden sites and catalogs, you’ll find an abundance of products to help you compost, and frankly the prices can be pretty ridiculous. In our opinion, $200 or more for a compost bin plus another $40 for a pretty crock to store your kitchen scraps until you have time to take them out [...]
Summer to winter sounds like a big jump, and that’s how it felt around here for a couple weeks. We hit a cold snap in mid October that caught the garden and us by surprise. Daytime temperatures dropped into the 40s, and though we didn’t have a frost the tomato and pepper plants stopped production. [...]
Though the thought of growing your own fruits and vegetables seems idyllic, it is rarely a trouble-free endeavor. Weather, insects, animals, bacteria, viruses, and funguses can all wreak havoc with a garden, sometimes causing small amounts of damage and other times causing a total crop loss. This year the cold wet spring weather slowed our [...]
Peppers, both hot and sweet, are a favorite for our summer garden and indoors in the winter, and this year we are growing more types than we ever have before, though we’ve had trouble with production. The cold wet spring that carried through into early June affected some of our plants, and some of the [...]
Long before I had Michael and the boys and a house with a yard, I had a few pots of herbs and tomatoes on the balcony of my small Chicago apartment. It was a small container garden, just enough for me and my roommate, and it was perfect for my needs at the time. To [...]
This weekend our gardening chores included some weeding, routing the beans and peas so they would climb properly, adding more tomato cages, and transplanting the volunteer tomatoes and tomatillos to a spot where they would have more room. Some of our tomato plants are now two meters tall and it’s not even July yet, and [...]
It's spring in the U.S. and the following foods may be in season in your area:
artichokes, fennel, fiddleheads, radishes, broccoli, rhubarb, kale, cresses, spinach, spring lettuces, chard, cabbages, chives, cilantro, collards, tatsoi, mustard greens, spring onions, asparagus, rosemary, wild garlic, ramps, strawberries, blueberries, cherries
Eat fresh seasonal produce to stay healthy and help your food budget.Learn more about seasonal and sustainable cooking at Sustainable Table - In the Kitchen.
