Last night, I just wasn’t feeling inspired. I’ve been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes writing for the book (which is still months out but which is, terrifyingly, now available for pre-order), so my creative juices were running thin.
So, I did what any self respecting modern writer would do – I took to Facebook to ask you guys for your questions. I stuck around for over an hour, answering as many as I could before it was bedtime. This impromptu “Ask Me Anything” was so much fun! I really enjoyed it, and I’d love to do it again.
I’ve collected some of the questions off the Facebook page, to preserve them here where hopefully they will help other people. There’s no rhyme or reason to these – just snippets of a wonderful conversation.
Your Questions
Kat: “OMG – Soil blockers. Have you ever? How often do you water? How do you not kill seedlings? HELP.”
Erica: “I have, and they aren’t for me, though some people love them. I prefer 2″-square pots (50 cell) set in heavy duty propagation trays. I bottom water and let the moisture wick up. And I still sometimes kill seedlings.”
Jacquelyn: “Is hard alcohol gluten free? How do you incorporate native plants into your urban homestead? What cocktail should I make this weekend?”
Erica: “Depends on the base grain, potato vodka certainly is. I worry less about native and more about “well adapted,” and you should totally make the Sage Brush (a few times, if necessary) which I will publish a recipe for on Friday, but which you can find in the cookbook The Herbal Kitchen beforehand if it’s an emergency.”
Ted N Brenda: “I want to learn to grow my own vegetables as I live off the grid. I have no common sense when it comes to gardening and the brownest thumb you’ve ever seen. How can I turn my life around and grow some lettuce? Maybe I should just buy them at the store like everyone else?”
Erica: “Oh, Ted N Brenda, I want to give you a hug. Here’s the thing: plants want to live. All you need to do is set them up for success. They need something to grow in, light to eat, moisture to drink, and air (around their leaves AND roots) to breathe. If you want to grow veggies, learn to think like a plant and then everything will be easier.”
Kitty: “If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers…”
Erica: “He probably didn’t live in Seattle?”
Cyndi: “I’m starting to garden with my first graders. We bought a greenhouse from Solar Gem, and besides that, I have a LOT of space I can use. Our hope is to (someday) be able to donate to a local food bank, or Farms 4 Life. Thoughts for success? Suggestions of where I can go to ask for donations? We need lots of soil, gravel, mulch, tools, gloves, seeds, starts, cedar for raised beds, etc. We’re a public school. Thanks!”
Erica: “What a wonderful goal! Many local nurseries/municipal composting places/ big box stores etc. would be good to approach. I’m sure many local places would be happy to partner with such a positive project for the community, but the big national companies (Home Depot, Lowes) tend to have funds more earmarked for this kind of thing.” (Related: The 5 Best Vegetables To Grow With Kids)
Jennifer: “Which whiskey is currently in your glass?”
Erica: “None! (Shocked?) Drinking a homebrewed Rye-PA brewed by my husband right now.”
Teresa: “Unusual perennial plants for the forest garden? Like, ramps?”
Erica: “Ramps are typically wildcrafted, and have a bad rep because of it. If you can get a domestic ramp thing happening, chefs will LOVE you, and pay. In the meantime, Raintree Nursery’s catalog is the garden porn to browse for food forests. Think Aronia, Medlar, groundcover blueberry…amazing!”
Erik: “If you were starting over at a new house, where/how would you start?”
Erica: “I started at this one by opting to shove my actual house all the way to the North to make as much room as possible for sunny garden space. I’d do the same again. Other things I feel like I got right and would want to repeat: a walkable, like-minded community (no f’ing HOA), reasonable/ tolerable/ ignorable restrictions on gardening / line drying / livestock.
And if I were to do everything again from the beginning, I would bring in experts in edible landscaping (N.W. Bloom EcoLogical Landscapes comes to mind) so I didn’t have to spend 10 years undoing the work of a landscaper who said, and I quote, ‘Grass is low maintenance. Let’s plant lots of grass!’”
Gwen: “This is the best blog ever!! I love the back and forth comments.”
Erica: “My readers are the most badass mofo’s ever and I love them. When I stop wanting to chat gardening with my readers, I hope I stop blogging.”
Gina: “Not a question, but I like your posts about how to prepare what you grow. I’m an avid gardener but unskilled cook. I didn’t realize there was more to cabbage than soup or cole slaw until your post last week.”
Erica: “Thanks! If you ever have some weird veggie you don’t know what to do with, holler. I mean, not to sound like an elitist, but I forget people don’t know how to prepare kohlrabi. I really like the nudges to provide content people will find useful.”
Gail: “How to garden when the weather is unpredictable? And, it would be nice to hear someone from the gardening community address the changes in the weather and climate change.”
Erica: Here you go.
Kate: “How do you remember what plants need to be fed/pruned/attended to and when. Watering. Rain barrels. Do you have them? How did you make them? Best edible perennials for shade or part shade, or just shady perennials for bees and beneficial insects?”
Erica: “100% truth? I remember to do garden chores because I have a blog that shames me into it. Otherwise, I’d be hopeless. Rain barrels in the Pac NW are basically useless. It’s an entire post of info that boils down to: the cheapest place to store water is in the soil. In the East it’s a different story.
Best edible perennial for partial shade is evergreen huckleberry (hat tip to Tenth Acre Farm for helping me figure that one out.) For bees, anything called “salvia” is a good bet.”
Denise: “How did your hugelkultur experiment work out? Would you do it again?”
Erica: “Totally. Those beds are some of my most productive. I’d 100% recommend them.”
Hillary: “How about: What keeps you going? How do you keep from feeling overwhelmed with all the details of your animals and food growing and preserving?”
Erica: “I have the most amazing life ever and try to remember it. I get to talk to like minded people about my GARDEN and call it a kinda-sorta job. I mean, if that doesn’t get you going, you’re kind of a dick, know what I mean?
But specifically, I really enjoy projects. I try to tackle things one project at a time, and then I just smack myself around to handle daily maintenance, which I don’t like to do, but which makes my life way better. Also, and I’m not kidding, I assigned my daughter to the birds. She does that.”
Meg: “Best summer cover crop?”
Erica: “Tomatoes? 😉 I’d go with annual crimson clover.”
Sarah: “I try to rotate plants in my several raised beds, but last year I did a less than thorough job of harvesting my potatoes, and as a result, I have tons of volunteer potatoes coming up. I was planning on growing something different in that bed this year, but I am wondering if I should just leave the potatoes. Worried about disease. Also, I already ordered seed potatoes for planting elsewhere this year.”
Erica: “I’d leave the potatoes. You’ll have the earliest harvest ever. Disease? I mean, yeah, maybe it’s a risk – but maybe we all make this more complicated than it needs to be. You know what happens when potatoes get diseased? Lowered yield. When you start to see that, change plots.”
Sophie: “How are your fruit trees doing in your orchard culture?”
Erica: “Pretty ok, but it remains an experiment. I’m not convinced the diversity of ripening makes up for the decreased yields from the hard pruning and close planting. But of the 5 original “quartets” I’ve planted, only 1 tree has been cut down, and not because it wasn’t thriving – it was just in the way when the layout of my garden shifted. Another one tree is slated to be cut down for failure to thrive if it doesn’t pick up this year. It’s a plum that seems unable to compete with it’s fellow plums. All apples and pears have played well.”
Kyle: “I would love a blog post on all the stupid little details of building a cloche.”
Erica: “I sent info on that out last week as a newsletter-only bonus. Check it out here.” (Related: Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter.)
Windsor: “I’d love to learn more about potatoes so that I can grow a bumper crop of them this year.”
Erica: “I like French Fingerling and Yukon Gold. Also Makah Ozette if you like a good story. All the fancy methods of growing potatoes I’ve tried have been crap. I recommend – in the ground, in decent soil. An old compost heap is an excellent choice. Start with virus free spuds if you can. Oh, and many modern varieties don’t benefit from hilling, so check to make sure you are growing an indeterminate potato before you put in the work.”
Nicole: “Totally not related to your garden or culinary marvels, but does your son (finally) sleep through the night? Mine is 18 months, and I’ve been reading through your old posts about his sleeplessness, and mine is much the same. It’s such a relief to know I’m not the only one, and I’d love to find out how your sleepless saga is going!
Erica: “Yes! Reliably, from 8 to 11 in his bed, then more-or-less peacefully in ours until 5 or 6. Which I know sounds like shit unless you are currently not sleeping at all. That’s why I celebrate the progress we’ve made! He’s 4 now, and I’m no longer crazy. It does get better, I promise.”
Victoria: “Is there a way to revitalize an asparagus bed? It’s around 10 years old. For the last two seasons, the harvest has been pathetic but the summer fronds are quite dense.”
Erica: “Look for the female fronds. They’ll make berries after frond-time. Dig them up and dispose of them. This will increase spear yield and give more room to the boys to spread out. Also, sprinkle pee on your asparagus. It’s a heavy, salt-tolerant perennial. There are few crops more happy being peed on than asparagus.”
Meadow: “How do I naturally “control” weeds and slugs! I have tried and tried and tried.
I am pulling up grass around my garden and placing mulching or something … Copper. Nope. Beer, nope. Egg shells. Nope. And good grief don’t ever add worm food water or dirt it attracts slugs Armageddon.”
Erica: “Ducks! Ducks think slugs taste like ice cream. If you can’t get ducks, Sluggo is your best option. Buy it by the huge tub at Costco this time of year. That’s what I did pre-ducks. Apply every 2 weeks or so.”
Kate: “Do ducks decimate your seedlings?”
Erica: “They are far easier on the garden than chickens. A 2-foot fence is sufficient to convince them to waddle elsewhere. They’ve never hopped into my raised beds, and they don’t scratch.”
Heather: “I have too much shade. I’m going to try to hide a few plants behind the rose bushes in the front yard. Can you give some ideas about how to garden in the shade or garden in a style that will fool my HOA.”
Erica: “How anal is your HOA? Like, will they freak if you plant ANYTHING without approval?”
Heather: “I don’t think so, they drive by pretty often, but they don’t have binoculars and how much can they really identify from the street? Plus, I’m slightly elevated, so that gives me the advantage. is it funny that I feel like I’m talking to a garden celebrity?!”
Erica: “Hah! That’s hilarious. I am NOTHING without my readers, so I am just happy people have questions for me to ponder.
OK, here’s your game plan: attractive perennials. I’m going to highly recommend blueberries and currants. They are small-scale and lovely and many people have NO IDEA they are edible if they don’t see the fruit in plastic. Honestly, if your HOA enforcers are pretty lax, you could claim blueberries were deciduous azaleas and they’d never know. Other considerations: herbal groundcovers and hedges. Think rosemary hedges, thyme, sweet woodruff, or groundcover raspberry. These will be great and very sneaky. Avoid plants that look really messy in the off-season (most annuals. No corn or tomatoes or other highly recognizable “farm plants” – go with perennial berries and no one will be the wiser. Good luck!”
Margaret: “How to preserve potatoes. Root cellar is out. Dehydrate? Freeze? Can?”
Erica: It’s a bit controversial, but I LOVED my pressure canned potatoes this past year. Used every quart and will do more next fall – so convenient to have them already peeled and cooked.
Carolina: “How do I rid my plants of infestation. Amaryllis leaves are dying due to some kind of insect sucking the leaves and leaving them yellow and some black dots.”
Erica: “Step one: identify the infestation. Inside I assume, likely mealybugs or mites. If so, rubbing alcohol or vodka on a q-tip applied strategically (on the bugs) or a dilute soap spray should kill off the infestation.”
Zenaida: “Watering! Any new strategies for delivering water to the garden? I am reading Steve Solomon, and realizing that I overwatered last year, which apparently is as bad as under watering. I am hand watering right now, but that won’t do when the transplants go out.”
Erica: “Are you in the Pac NW? If so, don’t water now. No need. Ground water is sufficient through late May/June except for transplants. All mature plantings should be totally fine until high summer. Our soil is still saturated – you can see this if you dig down a few inches before watering. That water wicks up through capillary action. BUT – do water your transplants in very, very well when you move them to the garden.
Rachael: “How do I get moving in the garden when it feels overwhelming?”
Erica: “What feels overwhelming, specifically? Weeding, planning, planting?”
Rachael: “Planning and planting, mostly. We built 4 big raised beds last year, so the weeds aren’t really a big deal. but figuring out rotating with planning, and is it too late to put X in and will y and z be compatible, etc.”
Erica: “Oh ignore plant rotation and companion stuff. Seriously. You aren’t 9 million acres in Iowa. Your yard is not an evil monoculture. Or, do this: one bed in brassicas, one in roots, one in tomatoes and peppers, one in leaf crops. Rotate every year. Done. Where are you, geographically? If the Pacific NW, you are perfect for planting now. Don’t make this too hard. You can TOTALLY do it.”
Loved reading through all the FB posts (and answers) last night. It was like sitting down with a bunch of friends, catching up and figuring out how we can all survive our goals this year! Next time I’ll have to hop on earlier so I can throw a few more questions your way (darn kids needing help with their homework!). 🙂
Barb
Thanks Barb! Oh, and mostly we used the potatoes for mashes and soup-type things.
Just a clarification on the gf alcohol- All distilled alcohol is gf regardless of what it is made from. I have Celiac Disease was told that I didn’t need to worry about it. However, fermented alcohols are totally different and anything fermented from wheat, barley, or rye is going to be a problem. Also anything fermented in a facility that ferments those alcohols is at risk for cross-contamination.
Thanks for the info, Heather. “Gluten Free” beer is a fast growing market segment…I’m not entirely sure how they do it but as a homebrewer I’ve always been curious and tempted to try my hand at it.
I don’t homebrew so I don’t know all the details but just about any grain can be fermented. Hops are naturally gf so as long as they haven’t been stored with gluten containing grains they are fine to use. You can’t get the same precise flavors as a true IPA, Hefe, or Porter but gf beers are getting much better. Sorghum works well for darker gf beers and lends a not quite sweet malty moving into Porter flavor profile. The beer that comes closest to being able to substitute for Guinness when I cook has a sorghum base. It’s not even close to the same as the Guinness but provides the necessary deep and rich flavor. If you ever come up with really good approximations of traditional craft beers you’ll be rich.
Canned potatoes?? I have a pressure canner and never used it yet. Unfortunately I never have enough potatoes to make it a problem. I leave them somewhat protected on the deck till hard frost, then move them indoors and we run out by the end of the year.
If your spud storage works for you, it works for me! 🙂
A late question- talk about successfully growing brassilca in the PNW. Root maggots and cabbage worms, help! I ordered your favorite varieties from High Mowing, through your link of course. What do you do?
I need a success to put in my new 2015 garden journal!!
Thanks so much!
Root maggot is tough. I have yanked an entire, nearly harvestable bed of broccoli to keep root maggot from spreading. Reemay will keep out both root maggot fly and the cabbage moth. BT is very effective as an organic spray against cabbage moths, too. A lot of the prevention with maggots is crop rotation (which I’m fairly terrible at) and covering the stem and soil with something so the fly can’t lay her eggs where she wants to.
Once I had root maggot under my kale plants. I made a really stinky tea/soup broth with onions, garlic, oregano, hot pepper..and anything else plant based that had a strong smell. I let the soup cool, strained it and poured it directly at the roots of my plants. It did the trick and saved my plants.
Long-time reader, first time caller. I loved this Q&A session on Facebook! My own tightly held, precious little question: Do you give tours of your garden? Free or paid. I’m an amateur after-hours gardener, but I love to see what more competent people do with their space.
Hello first time caller, you’re on the air. 😉 As a policy I don’t do tours. First off, I never have time, and secondly, I have my families privacy and security to think of. I know YOU are totally cool and normal, but many people on the interwoobles aren’t, so it’s just a blanket policy I have.
Naw, I get that. Famous garden celebrity like you has to be careful! And of course your time is valuable too. Thanks for answering. 🙂
Search back in Erica’s blog history where she give a pretty good tour in photos and map layout.
Ps, I just pre ordered 2 books! How exciting!!
Woah thank you so much!
Just saw this post – perfect timing! My question: Are there any plants which chickens steer clear of – like the marigolds that ward off white flies? My poor little asparagus patch has half-ass fencing around it. My punk free-ranging chickens think I’ve cordoned off the area for their private enjoyment. 🙁 I’m going to have to replant the whole thing. Argh!!!
They seem to not like the prickly grasses and sedges, but you know if they want in they’ll just fly over. This is why my chickens stay in their run, now. They just caused too much major veggie destruction.
Thanks so much for including my question! Nice to know that we are sisters in seedling slaughter…though I imagine you are more a petty criminal, while I am more in Stalin-esque territory. My poor San Marzanos. Let’s not even talk about the eggplants. Next year, I’ll go with your recommended varietals.
Also, if you could be so kind as to do the same thing for cooking, I would totally take advantage of that. Your onion slicing method has been a game changer for me – 3 steps (which I learned at the Culinary Institute of America, ladidah!) to 2 steps – incredible.
Like a culinary Q&A? That’s a great idea! Sounds super fun. Isn’t it nice that seeds are so accommodatingly willing to sprout, even if we’ve killed 800 of their brothers and sisters already?
Yep, culinary Q&A would be awesome! I guess their willingness to sprout is one of those few areas where seeds lack of sentience really comes in handy. Though I’d dramatically prefer it if they said, “cough…cough…water please!” or “hey lady, I’m drowning here!” and save the trouble.
I would also be pro-culinary q&a. Vegetables, especially. Interesting things to do with “regular” veggies and/or how to cook “interesting” (i.e. rare? unique? not normal?) ones
Where is this onion slicing method you speak of?!? Link please!
Here you go! Haven’t read it yet myself, but I will tonight!
http://nwedible.com/how-to-dice-onion-fast/
Barb
There’s special newsletter-only stuff??? That I’ve been MISSING?!!?? Ack, sign me up!! I am not a huge newsletter fan, less is definitely more in my inbox, but I don’t want to miss a single iota of your garden wisdom… 🙂 I’m on Facebook about never, but loved reading the recap… The sleeping kiddo one really hit home with me, my daughter is 3, and her first two years of (not) sleeping were crap. She goes to bed with us, at 10, on a mattress on the floor next to our bed (finally had to do that last fall because I just wasn’t sleeping at all with an active toddler sleeper glued to me all night). She sleeps until around 8am, and naps about every other day. Bedtimes were taking 2-3 hours when we were trying to get her down earlier, and it was frustrating and exhausting for all involved. Now we all go to bed at the same time, everyone falls asleep quickly, and we just get up before her in the morning. Not ideal, but so MUCH better than it was…
My questions would be “how’s that duck pond working out??? Filtration system?? Maintenance?”, as well as “what lifespan are you getting out of your raised beds, and would you use the same lumber again?”. I’m coming at this as a pretty decent cook (of course I know how to cook kohlrabi) but a baby beginner gardener (no clue in the world how to grow kohlrabi)…
This is fun! Any time you feel blocked or tired or whatever, a Q&A session like this would be awesome. I didn’t even know pressure canned potatoes were a thing! Fascinating!
Loved this! I am intrigued by the pressure canned potatoes. I think I’ll give that one a try. Is it just peel, add water and can? Salt. Any details would be appreciated.
Hi Erica,
Fantastic questions and answers! I really enjoyed reading through them:) I’m going to throw in my question too, since I missed my chance last night. I am about two hours north of you here in the PNW. I put in my first ever cover crop over the winter, Territorial Seeds fall cover crop blend. I dug it all into my raised beds at the beginning of March, but the little devils won’t stop growing! They keep popping back up and when I go to pull them, I end up pulling up a mass of cover crop roots and seedlings from underground. With the gorgeous weather we’ve been having, I’m dying to get those beds planted, but I’m worried about the heat from any remaining decomposing (supposedly) cover crop. Do you have any ideas? thanks!
Laura
I’m not Erica, just a gardener. I wouldn’t worry about heat from decomposing cover crop – if anything, that’s going to be helpful to sprouting seeds!
If the cover crop is springing up from well formed roots, it might overwhelm your seedlings, but that’s the only problem I can see from a persistent cover crop.
Thanks, Julia!
Laura
Thank you so much for transferring the conversation here for those of us who aren’t on Facebook. The Q and A is a great idea. More, please.
As a side note, I’ve found some benefit in companion planting, even in a small yard. One year I had broccoli in 2 spots in the garden: same variety, planted at the same time and only about 20 feet apart. The broccoli patch that happened to be surrounded by basil and some annual flowers had almost no bugs. The other patch suffered horribly from cabbage worms. It wasn’t intentional at the time but it sure convinced me to always plant some herbs and flowers near bug-prone veggies.
Oh thanks for doing this – it’s so fun and helpful to read everyone’s comments and questions. My question is about my peas…any idea why I can’t get them to sprout this year? I am also in the Seattle area and last year I started them in gutters like you recommended. It was great and they were one of my easiest and most productive crops of the year. This year, I thought I’d plant out directly in my raised beds since they weather has been so great, so I amended with some finished vermicompost and planted. And found little holes all over in the soil the following week, but no pea shoots. I thought it was birds, so I covered with reemay and planted again. Two weeks later still no pea shoots and more little holes about 1″ deep in the places I planted seeds. Any idea what’s going on? Should I just give up and plant in my gutters again, just to get things going? Everything feels so hectic right now with two young kids that it’s mega-frustrating to not have seed growth when I’ve had to really work to get that gardening time into my schedule, so I want to do it right the third time around! 😉
Maybe slugs are the culprit? I planted peas successively from January 29th to February 30th. In the places where I have lots of mulch (and therefore slugs) I have a whopping ONE pea plant… which I just noticed this morning also got munched on. I planted at least 30 seeds there, Jan-Feb. Elsewhere, I have 1/3ish seeds thriving, even in the area where I only planted in January. I wonder if the slugs are worse this year because it never really got that cold? I have baby slugs abounding in certain areas of my garden. I really need to get my ducks rotating through there!
Voles. Is there anything I can do to make them believe that my pea vines are not delicious? It’s a community garden, so nothing toxic or traumatic (like snap traps) is acceptable. Worst case, I know they don’t like tomato foliage, but I would really like to be able to grow peas, beets, and carrots too!
I loved this idea. I commented on FB but probably too late to be seen, so I’m repeating it here… Could you do another down-and-dirty tour of your chicken set-up, but including the whole system (especially the run! I am fixating on the fun which I saw in the Growing a Greener World segment but can’t find more about on your site). Do they ever escape the run? Have you clipped their wings so they don’t? (I’ve been chasing one of my fugitive chickens all round the neighborhood lately). Do the chickens basically stay put or are you switching them from their super duper coop(er) into a tractor in the garden? You also said that after reading Jessi Bloom’s book you’d do some things differently… what?
That’s a pretty funny question…and a bit of a saga! They definitely have tried to escape the run…we had one who was getting out every day well after the others had given up…kind of like the one character in Chicken Run who was still trying to organize a break-out, right?
Their wings ARE clipped, but they still can get a few feet of lift…and if there’s anything like a bin of feed they’ll make a two-stage jump.
Anyway, the original fence around our run was fine enough for the mature birds, but as the crop of pullets we had last year started to mature they were pretty good fliers for a while and we tried all sorts of things to raise the fence. Eventually we just stapled some of that big wire mesh (I think it is intended as concrete reinforcing mesh but it has about ten thousand uses) as an extension to the fence. Works good…about 3 1/2 more feet of height keeps even the most enthusiastic birds grounded and it is still pretty attractive. If you saw the GaGW episode, that’s how it was set up then.
I do have a question! My boys gave me an apricot tree for Mother’s Day several years ago. It finally set fruit last year. However, all of the fruits (10 or so) ripened to the size of shooter marbles. The rest of the tiny fruit dropped off the tree. I think that my main issue was lack of water. We are in (arid) South Central Texas and I have never irrigated the tree. It’s just finishing it’s bloom cycle and I’ve started watering. How much water should I be putting on the tree? It’s not a dwarf or semi-dwarf. I really, really want some fruit this year. I’ll even measure the water out in gallon buckets by hand to get some fruit. Also, do you think the lack of sizable fruit could be due to other factors? Thanks for any answers.
Great post, thanks! If I was on Facebook, this is what I would have asked:
Fruit tree anxiety, help! I’d love to start exploring this area of gardening, but I’m overwhelmed by the options. I’m in Seattle proper, so need a small-space fruit tree, and I’ve been reading a lot about all the ways to make that happen — too much maybe! Dwarf tree? Full-sized tree pruned hard? The “quartets” that you’re doing? Espalier? Which kind of fruit to start with? My yard is very much in progress of being transformed from grandma’s yard to … something more modern, that produces a lot of food. 🙂 Can I keep a fruit tree in a container for a couple of years before putting it in a permanent location?
If you’re needing ideas for posts, and address this, I’d be so grateful!
Do you have any suggestions for growing rosemary? I’m in Colorado, so my understanding is that it can’t survive the winter here. So I’ve got three pots of rosemary that I started last year, and brought inside for the winter. Right now they look so sad I’m not sure they’ll survive long enough to go back outside. There’s no sign of insect problems or powdery mildew or anything that I can tell. They just look really sad and straggly, and the leaves keep turning brown and falling off. I’m sort of at a loss. Any ideas?
Thanks so much for all the great info on your site!
I read about the sleepless nights as I was just a step ahead of you in dealing with them. It made me so happy to know I wasn’t suffering alone!
My son turned six this week and reliably sleeps in his bed all night long and if he has insomnia will usually sit in his bed and read books. Occasionally he sneaks to the kitchen or playroom and does something reprehensible. But I sleep! You will too someday. I’m so grateful for your honesty in writing about it. I was so unutterably miserable and of course everyone blames the mom when a kid doesn’t sleep.
Thanks for this posting. Thanks for taking your time to answer all these questions. We can pre-order your book!? Can’t wait to read it and try all the recipes.
Yes, I have a few questions. I seem to always have trouble with vining plants – cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, etc. They do sooooo good and then about the time they are going to bear fruit, the vine starts to die. HELP!
Also I seem to have trouble “storing” potatoes and onions. I just have a regular basement (no root cellar, etc.) What ideal conditions do I need to do in my regular basement to make it happen? House is 25 years old.
I have a cherry tree (one) that when I bought it years ago, they assured me it didn’t need another one for cross-pollination. I have never gotten one cherry off it. Why?
Forgot to say I live in Iowa
Hello from Down Under! Does anyone know if the garden planner can be used in the Southern Hemisphere without changing all the months etc to match my seasons?
🙂
I like the style of this post! I vote for more impromptu Q and A posts sprinkled in with your regular posts.
Regarding the teacher starting a school veg garden: I work at a Whole Foods in Virginia, and our store donates a lot of money and materials to the school gardens in our local district. If you have a Whole Foods, I would certainly get in touch with their community services/ PR person to see if they could sponsor your garden as well.
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