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Nature

A Garden Journal

gardenjournal.jpg

As I’m getting ready to harvest my garlic, I do what I’ve always done every year. I go grab my garden journal to get ready to record the harvest date, and the yield and quality of the bulbs.

I’ve been keeping a journal of my garden almost since I began. It’s a habit I picked up from the old woman who taught me.

She drummed into my head, “Karen, if you want to see if what you’re doing works, you’ve … Read More

Best Glass Cleaner. Period. And How to Stop Cardinals From Dive Bombing Your Windows

I’m going to be a fountain of useful information today and provide you with two invaluable tips.

I’m on a mad cleaning tear. Happens every few years. Clutter accumulates until I can’t stand it anymore, and then I go on an extreme purge. What doesn’t get thrown out or given away gets a good cleaning and/or properly put away. Which also means every window in the house gets washed inside and out. (I know many people have the time to … Read More

Too Optimistic…?

early gardening

Gardening season officially starts here on Mother’s Day. That’s typically when all chance of frost has passed. But, maybe courtesy of global warming, there is no frost in the 10-day forecast. In fact, I probably could have planted a week ago and still been alright. May be the first year that I actually get in two full crop rotations… Gotta take the good with the bad.… Read More

Best Organic Seed Catalog

The temp is a whopping 20 degrees outside, but I’m thinkin’ Spring.  Yes, it’s that time of year already — time to order seeds for this year’s garden!

Regular readers know that I’m big on annual garden experiments. An experiment that I didn’t chronicle last season was trying seeds from a variety of catalogs.

Since I save most of my seeds, I only grow from organic open-pollinated seeds. That immediately limits my selection.

I chose seeds from:

Fedco: They … Read More

Got a Garden? Get It Enrolled

Million-Pollinator-GardenIf you’re into gardening, you know about the pollination crisis. If you have a garden that attracts pollinators, please consider registering your garden at http://millionpollinatorgardens.org/.

The effort is to create a contiguous web of pollinator habitat across the country to save our native pollinators.

Nutrition ( lots of pollen and nectar sources) is very important to help pollinators withstand the diseases, mites and pesticides they are exposed to in the environment.

Having habitat for native pollinators is important too. … Read More

How to Select Garlic Cloves for Planting

garlic clovesIt’s that time of year again.  Around the 1st or 2nd week of October, I plant my garlic. But how do you know which bulbs you should save for your seed cloves? And then how do you know which cloves from those bulbs to plant? It’s easy, once you know what to look for.

Let’s get started!

What you’re looking for are your largest, firmest, roundest bulbs. Sure, save a few to give away as gifts, if you have some … Read More

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