Category: gardening

  • First Fruits

    First Fruits

    And the first harvest from the garden is gathered, in the gust front of the coming storm.  I do love a thunderstorm sweeping in, the rush of wind ahead of it tearing leaves from trees and tossing them like confetti. I’d gone out to walk the property and make sure all the doors were closed…

  • Pickle Beer

    Pickle Beer

    When the Sour Pickle Beer tastes light and refreshing, you might have overdone it in the garden. I don’t drink these often – they don’t taste like beer, for the curious. They taste like pickle juice with some fizz, and I only have one when I’m dripping sweat and need to replace electrolytes. I wasn’t…

  • Winter Garden

    Winter Garden

    I’m hopefully going to take advantage of a mild weather week here in North Central Texas to do some outdoor work. My garden here at the Crooked House is as wonky as the interior of the house, and I’m hoping to establish some things now, so they have a chance to survive the Summer.  Like…

  • The Black Thumb

    The Black Thumb

    The secret to having a green thumb is persistence. Yes, you’ll kill plants, but if you keep studying, and trying, eventually you’ll have something live. Oddly enough, what kills most houseplants? Overwatering.  This is not to say I have a green thumb. I have not. In fact, this summer trying to garden in Texas was…

  • A Hobby Guide to Growing Tomatoes: Guest Post

    A Hobby Guide to Growing Tomatoes: Guest Post

    My friend Matt sent me this a while ago. And I promptly didn’t put it up on the blog. My apologies, but then again, we are just hitting planting season here in the Heart of America, so it is timely for that and northerly climes. A Hobby Gardeners Guide to Growing Tomatoes By Matt Crowe…

  • The Mad Horticulturist

    The Mad Horticulturist

    Hi, my name is Cedar, and I have a plant problem. All right, it’s not a problem. It’s more like… well, you know, for as long as I wanted to be a scientist, I wanted to be a botanist. As I look back now, I realize that what I wanted to do wasn’t the dull…

  • New Year, New Goals

    New Year, New Goals

    I started trying something new today. Well, it’s not really a new year’s resolution. It’s more of a new year, new goal. Similar to the last goal, only… Only this time I’m implementing a few tools to try and make the goal more reachable. The problem with a resolution – or, for that matter, a…

  • Monoculture, Agriculture, Permaculture

    Monoculture, Agriculture, Permaculture

    Continuing on the theme of talking about food, farms, and cultivation methods, I wanted to settle down on my soap box and talk about one of my favorite things. I grew up with parents who were very interested in gardening, producing our own foods, preserving it.. in other words, quite old-fashioned and what would now…

  • Curmudgeon’s Corner: Rural Vs Urban

    Curmudgeon’s Corner: Rural Vs Urban

    Written by Sanford Begley Rural vs Urban: Who Looks Ahead? I started making breakfast this morning, I had a craving for gravy and biscuits. I started the oven preheating and opened the refrigerator to get out ingredients. No milk! For much of my life I have lived in rural areas and that would have meant…

  • Gone Buggy

    Gone Buggy

    I went bughunting today! All of these photos were taken in my front garden in early evening. I really do need to get out and do this more often. Enjoy!

  • Tiny Garden, Big Yields

    Tiny Garden, Big Yields

    For the last couple of years – and probably for the next 2-4 years – I’ve had a tiny garden. This is a change from big gardens most of my life. When I was in highschool and worked for a landscaping business I had a flower garden that would make people stop to exclaim over…

  • Potential

    Potential

    Spring has always been, for me, the beginning of a new year. Winter is a time of enduring, waiting for the return of warmth, flowers, and the sun. When the rains come and the green unfurls, then I feel the quickening of my heart in time with the bird’s song. I’ve had a garden always,…