This week’s Five Things Friday randomness: planning for succession planting, my favorite essential oil, a rainy week in the garden and more.
Planning
5 Things Friday 1/12/18
This week for Five Things Friday: why you need to think about what you eat before you commit to a garden plan, my secret to easy flavorful meals is pretty much just Thai curry paste, sunchokes are taking over my world, Marcus Aurelius proves stoicism and meditation are natural partners and more.
2018 Word List Brainstorming Session
So, 2017 was kinda a weird year, huh? I realized just at the end of December that I’ve been carrying some anger in me. Like, unexpected, wow I-really-didn’t-know-I-was-that-on-edge anger. Some of you made 2017 the year of embracing your anger. Without judgement, as soon as I could name this feeling of being vaguely on edge…
January Gardening Chores For The Pacific Northwest
January means one thing when you are a gardener: a mailbox stuffed to bursting with seed catalogs. With a stack of seed catalogs and well-thumbed gardening books by our side, and ground that’s still too cold and wet to work, the name of the January game is mostly planning, not planting.
Get Your Garden Organized This Year: 2015 Garden Planner Available Now
Maximizing my harvest of homegrown veg is this awesome ever-changing puzzle. For over a decade, I’ve been assembling and reassembling the pieces, trying to find the key to being the best gardener I can while getting the most from every square foot of my garden. There are two things I’m sure of. The first is…
Reader Question: What Foods Should I Preserve?
My wife and I are newer to the preserving game and are super pumped on it. Last year we preserved a lot of food but it wasn’t really conducive to living off of. We canned mostly jams, jellies, some pickled veggies (cauli, beans, asparagus, etc) and then did a lot of peaches! What I hope…
How To Make Succession Planting and Year-Round Gardening Really Work
The problem with year-round garden planning is that you are being asked to work in 4D, when most of us are accustomed to only planning things in 2D.
Refactoring In The Garden
2011 was The Year of Additions. We added to our garden: new perennial bed, new mini-orchard, new chickens, two new coops for aforementioned chickens, and a couple new raised beds. We added this blog, and with it a sizable commitment and a wonderful community of like-minded folks. And late in 2010 of course, we had added this…
How To Plan Your Harvest Based On What You Eat (Plus The Winner of The Urban Farm Handbook!)
One you you awesome readers has won The Urban Farm Handbook. But before you shoot right to the bottom of this post to find out if it’s you, read on to discover a great way to plan your harvest from the plate backwards. This is a technique straight out of The Urban Farm Handbook, so…
25 New Year's Resolutions For The 2012 Garden
This morning a crust of frost danced over the uncovered raised beds and painted the grass with mercurial shine. The garden sits placid and independent under the chill of winter and it seems a bit easier to carve out those chucks of time to reflect upon the year almost past, and the year that is rushing towards…
Taking The Homestead In For Lunch
I used to pick up lunch at work. You know, a cheapo sandwich from Safeway, a burger from the cool indie burger place across the street, takeout teriyaki from the stand that seemed to have new owners every week. Back in the day, four years or so ago, I used to budget $6 a day…
What Leftovers Look Like
I know people who refuse to eat leftovers. At least, they think they refuse to eat leftovers….little do they know how creative professional kitchens get to minimize food waste. Ever ordered the soup du jour or the daily lunch special? If so – you’ve had leftovers. Personally, as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t know what…