The Summer of My Discontent

by | Jun 13, 2011 | Talk Dirt to Me

Like it or not, and I don’t, gardening can be a bit competitive. I mostly compete with people in books: Eliot Coleman, Ruth Stout, Barbara Damrosch and Wendell Berry. No matter what I do at least one of them disapproves. Certainly the fact that I’m not...

Daucus carota

by | Jun 29, 2011 | Talk Dirt to Me

Daucus carota Carrots are too often ignored as a source of great joy. When boy one was even smaller than he is now we fed him all sorts of blended and stewed veggies. He loved “carrots” and “chicken with butternut squash.” He even went for...

The trouble with men

by | Jun 21, 2011 | Talk Dirt to Me

Hectic ain’t the half of it. This weekend I planted, mulched, packed, fenced, weeded, tended, and attended a dinner party. I am now, I’m afraid, officially an adult. I seldom use “party” as a verb, and most often it has an adjectival modifier....

Seed Dormancy

by | Jul 1, 2011 | Talk Dirt to Me

I performed an unintentional experiment this past winter. One of my neighbors purchased a bunch of worm castings for her garden. She used what she wanted then gave me a 1/2 gallon ziploc bag full of the rest (neither this blogger nor the parent company of this blogger...

Children turn to the dark side.

by | Jun 23, 2011 | Talk Dirt to Me

Children turn to the dark side. Late last summer my older son decided to sell some of our produce in front of the house. A farm stand, if you will. I picked him some beans, tomatoes and lettuce. He set up shop with relatively reasonable prices. Several minutes later...