Look at this photo and tell me what you see:   Yes, clearly a raised bed, and, yes, those are leeks.  But there is also something else there that is crucially important to the backyard gardener: space.  Do you see it now that I’ve marked it for you?   Many years ago I read a book […]

In a culture that glorifies individual achievement and coming out on top, second can often be interpreted as “first loser”.  But I’m here to say that at least regarding mustard greens, second is just as good as, if not better than, first.  I’m not making any claim to having invented a new technique.  I’ve been reading about […]

One of the fascinating things about parables, stories, and fairy tales is that one can find parts of oneself in all the characters.  Today I am taking the side of Jack’s mother (of Jack and the Beanstalk), who became irate at Jack’s apparent ineptitude with commerce.  Jack traded a valuable milking cow, which was the […]

These days I am loving coconut fiber, otherwise known as coir.  I’ve been potting up tomatoes for sale and making my own potting mix of 1/3 worm compost, 1/3 pumice, and 1/3 coir.  The coir comes in solid, yet lightweight blocks, but you wouldn’t want to build a house with these because as soon as […]

We’re hitting our first real heat in Portland, heat like summer, highs in the 80s for days straight with no rain in sight, and I am scrambling to give everything a drink. On the rooftop we have an automated watering system, drip hoses and timers and all, and thank goodness we do, but at the same time […]