Try to get past the incredibly catchy names, okay? These are two vertical gardening ideas that I created for my new vertical vegetable book (Title-To-Be-Determined, released in January 2013). Husband-Extraordinaire and I found the spice rack for the Spice Rack Kitchen Garden at a garage sale for $3, which had us jumping up and down [...]
This looks like a simple fall flower pot. But, this pansy-planted container has a deeply buried secret. Here’s a fast and rewarding way to plant a container with cool-weather annuals that naturally make way for spring daffodils. We made these with the kids in our ornamental horticulture 4H project and I think the kids are [...]
Goodbye, Cecile Brunner Rose… In the middle of June, as we packed our entire home and yards for the big move to Hawk Hill, it dawned on us that most of the gardens would have to stay. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the vegetable gardens that I worked on every year that got to me. It was [...]
Photo by joka2000 Photo by clif1066 I’ll admit, Northern California doesn’t see much in the way of snow (at least not in the lower elevations). But we are seeing Snowflakes (Leucojum aestivum) pop up all over the place right now. These are some of my favorite flowers in my yard. For some reason, I’m always [...]
For everyone who thinks I’m bashing suburbia: I reserve the right to do so as I’m a suburbanite extraordinaire and damn proud of it. (I admit the lawn thing pinched). It’s all in my sinister plan to turn suburbia into little micro-farms. (I didn’t write the piece below; it was sent to me by my [...]
There’s nothing like learning gardening skills at the knee of the uber-fabulous Mrs. Greenthumbs. There will never be another one like her – I’m okay with that. “Most people tend to assume that the bees have no knowledge of the plant’s use of them and are only after the nectar. In other words, they are [...]
