I’m no fan of the 24-7, always-available lifestyle that we seem to be evolving toward more and more as a society, but I am a fan of Pacific NW gardening, where there are really no corners of the year in which to hide and declare, “I cannot do anything in the garden.” Here is some Red […]
Monthly Archives: January 2013
Have It All In Readiness
No picture, just a word picture of what it means to be ready to move when conditions are right. In the Pacific Northwest our winter barely holds down the typical job description of that season (unless you count the potential personality-distorting effects of too much rain), and it’s likely to skip into spring at any time […]
Little things make me happy
Just got my hands on the 2013 Territorial Seed Company catalog today. With the Johnny’s catalog in my right hand and Territorial in my left, I feel there is little I cannot accomplish as a gardener, provided that I am also holding the Peaceful Valley catalog in my teeth (more on Peaceful Valley in a […]
Holy corn salad carpet, Batman!
See those cute, spoon-shaped leaves? See those sword-green shoots? See how they are growing together? This is not an accident! This is success!You are looking here at one of my better moments in the quest for the perfect relay between crops, insuring that garden bed will not be bare, even for a moment. While […]
What is this thing?
See that compost bin? Not for long. In a very short while it’s going to be full of the weeds of the winter garden then topped with a couple inches of finished compost and immediately planted. So what appears to be a compost bin now will soon look like a planter. That’s the kind […]
Winter Work
Snow flurries outside, a cup of joe and seed catalogs spread ’round inside Well, on Monday it was actually snowing, but now it’s settled back to the more usual rain. Either way, the weather’s just dandy for sitting indoors around a big table and poring over the seed catalogs – as fine a work as any […]
Palest Ink Better Than Most Retentive Memory
Let me conclude my last post by adding the final element of the record-keeping system….a behavioral one. Even all the finest tags and notebooks won’t mean a thing if you never actually update them. Beside making the initial seeding entry, you’ve got to get out into your garden, notebook in hand, look at those […]
Systems Rule
Crucial elements of the seed starting/plant tracking system Looking over a 20-plus-year career in gardening and farming, I realize that these days, having less free time than I ever have had in my life, the only way I am able to keep up with things in the various gardens I tend is through the magic of […]
Happy New Year 2013
Time marches forward, but the garden cycles around. Oh, for sure there will be some new characters making their way into the lineup this year, but for the most part, it’ll be many of the tried-and-trues stepping up the plate for another at-bat. Seed catalogs have arrived, and so in about a week or two, […]