All Blog Posts (508)

Ok, Mother Jones mislead me

and a lot of other people about the White House Lawn. Here was the original article. And it had me alarmed. The Mother Jones article this derived from though is exceedingly misleading. This is very upsetting to me, and I'm disgusted with them. I used to work on lead issues, but that was 15 years ago and I haven't kept up. 93 parts per million is NOT high. Here's the… Continue

Added by Joy Williams on July 5, 2009 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Basil Eaters

What is eating my basil? What if anything household wise can be used to treat my basil? Continue

Added by Sandra Bauer on July 5, 2009 at 9:42am — 5 Comments

The Crazy Gardener!!

I have been spending all the time I can in my garden. I bought tons of veggies this year and, as usual, lots of flowers. I am also creating a new garden bed in an area that was formerly all weeds. It won't be ready to plant until this fall or next spring, but I am already making plans. I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July holiday and don't forget to keep your hands dirty and your mind clean! Rev. Claudia Continue

Added by Reverend Claudia Barber on July 5, 2009 at 6:50am — 1 Comment

The Dog Days of Summer

Sirius, the Dog Star, in the constellation Canis Major. Starting around the begining of July, some sources say it lasts for 40 days, other say it carries till September. In the gardening world, at least for me, it has brought about a change in weather. The rain which has lasted an almost unprecedented 3 weeks, is behind us for the time being. We do not wish it away though, that would be bad. The alternative to too much rain, is far worse. The squashes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, potatoes,… Continue

Added by Kitty on July 4, 2009 at 7:55pm — No Comments

Grape Jelly

I have younger grape vines, both Thompson seedless (green) and Red Flame (I think that's what they're called). This is the second year that I've had grapes, but so many more this year than last. It seems that each year the grapes produced are a little larger and sweeter. Does anyone have a link to a jam / jelly recipe for these grapes? Thanks in advance, Mark in Arizona (9b) Continue

Added by Mark Phipps on July 3, 2009 at 3:57pm — No Comments

Keeping Them Beautiful

Planters and containers dry out more quickly and need frequent watering. A little mulch or stones on the top of the soil slows down the evaporation of moisture from the soil. Pinch back the growing leggy stems to maintain attractive shape and keep plants bushy. Of course deadheading will allow flowering plants to bloom faster. Continue

Added by marion stewart on July 3, 2009 at 8:25am — No Comments

Wine & Fruit

Hooray! The rhubarb wine started bubbling away late last night and is still fizzing and burping like crazy this morning. I took a pic of the wine and of the fruit that the girls and I picked yesterday - some teeny tiny wild cherries, red huckleberries and some of our own Carolina raspberries. The blueberries are starting to ripen now too - I see alot of canning and fruit leather in my immediate future! :)

… Continue

Added by PiscesGirl on July 2, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

Mandevilla – What a Garden Plant

This is one of the most beautiful vines with huge vivid pink or yellow blooms and bright green leaves. The Mandevilla is perfect for large garden planters and pots. Be sure to use time release fertilizer in the potting soil and you will have blooms all season long. Cut back to over winter and then fertilize again when ready to place outside in the Spring.

… Continue

Added by marion stewart on July 2, 2009 at 8:31am — 2 Comments

Wine Time!

Today My freind Kristin showed me how to turn my bounty of rhubarb into some (hopefully!) yummy wine. I am so excited to learn how to make my own wine! I guess we'll know if I did ok or not by this time next year. ;) Here's what we did - Here's the recipe we used - minus the campden tablets, we also added a "yeast nutrient" to help the fermentation rev up. :) We also froze, then thawed the chopped 'barb before we added the sugar, in order to get the rhubarb to release its juice a little better… Continue

Added by PiscesGirl on July 1, 2009 at 4:30pm — 2 Comments

Garden Containers

Have you tried the self-water planters??? I have used lechuza planters and found them to be very easy to use and allow me to grow my garden without me forgetting to water. I have also used a variety of metal planters and fiberglass planters, but am getting hooke… Continue

Added by LincolnB on June 30, 2009 at 10:32am — No Comments

Beautiful Shade Plant Container

This is one of our favorites, simple yet stunning. Start with Carmen Bronze Carex or Sedge, and then add your Key Lime Pie Coral Bells and Melon Symphony Osteospermum. Use a small 12” container for tabletop planters or go grand with a large 16” for the deck or patio.

Continue

Added by marion stewart on June 29, 2009 at 8:58am — No Comments

Strawberry Freezer Jam with Lavender and Honey

Today these strawberries became this jam:

It is my new favorite r… Continue

Added by Carol on June 26, 2009 at 6:15pm — No Comments

Top 2 Ways You Help Monsanto Every Day (Without Knowing It)

Big agribusiness & biotech corporations like Monsanto are gaining more and more power over our food supply, thanks in part to Congress creating policies that give them competitive advantage while harming small farmers & competitors, but also because we consume their products every day without even knowing it. Want to do something about it? Watch this quick video and accept the "Replace Roundup" challenge:

So..… Continue

Added by shelly on June 26, 2009 at 4:30pm — No Comments

I have a jungle!!!

Well I haven't posted for a while but i have a lot to tell you. For a first time garden I think it's going pretty good. Western MT has had ALOT of rain this spring, more wet days than not - which is ok, less forest fires! But the garden looks like a jungle, the mosquitos are so thick that I am having a hard time getting the weeds pulled. On the plus side everything is growing better than I expected. For the last week or two, when I could fight of the bugs, I have had radishes, spinach and lettuc… Continue

Added by Kathy on June 26, 2009 at 3:19pm — 1 Comment

Food, Inc.

This summer a new movie is coming out, in the tradition of Michael Pollan, and Alice Waters.... The movie is called Food, Inc. and it's about the condition of our food. We are facing a tremendous amount of obesity, heart problems and diabetes in this country, to say nothing of cancer and heart problems, and I really do believe that the reason for this is what we are eating! And it starts in the schools. Now all of us have taken a great step in the right direction by planting our own gard… Continue

Added by Joy Williams on June 26, 2009 at 1:57pm — 5 Comments

What's Fo' Suppa'? Change Yo' Name?

Have you ever experienced a thought so funny that it tickled your funny bone the whole day? In my experience, those things that make me giggle the most are completely lost to others around me. There was a new Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Sapa, near our home in Phoenix, AZ that my husband and I wanted to try out. I had driven by it on numerous occasions without paying much attention. This time, as we pulled into the parking lot and as I saw the name in large letters across the front of the buildin… Continue

Added by Natalie Lawson on June 25, 2009 at 9:00pm — 1 Comment

Big Garden Ideas Little Garden Space....

This year I decided to venture out and start a garden. It's been in the back of my mind for awhile but 2009 was the time to just take a leap and go for it. Growing up in the Midwest, every year my brothers and I would work in the yard (usually not our choice) with my parents, planting blubs (flowers), weeding, cutting grass, and raking leaves. We would go over my great-grandmothers house and pick beans, greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, okra (yuck) and other veggies I don't remember to fix fo… Continue

Added by Jessica Anderson on June 25, 2009 at 7:44pm — 2 Comments

Please Remember To Share Your Blessings!

Hi Everybody! Many of us, especially in the United States, are well into the growing season now, perhaps already wading through knee deep rows of squash, peppers, and eggplant. If we aren't already harvesting our own produce, we certainly soon will be. As you anticipate that first bite of a freshly picked tomato, and make room in your pantry or freezer for quarts of home canned veggies, I hope you will also make plans to share your blessings with the needy in your community. In an earlier blo… Continue

Added by Michelle W. Flannery on June 25, 2009 at 7:04pm — 3 Comments

Grilled Veggies Three Ways! Tell Me Your Recipe For Grilling.

Who doesn't love grilled vegetables during summer time? Yum! Grilling vegetables is most easy to do. Any vegetable can be grilled. The trick is figuring out grill time. My favourite is a simple recipe of using Italian salad dressing and marinating or basting vegetables before placing on g… Continue

Added by EmmaDear on June 24, 2009 at 10:30pm — No Comments

Water feature

For years I wanted a water feature in the shaded sitting area of my yard - the "living room" as it were in the summer. Not only did I fail to see one that really interested me, but I couldn't afford it even if I had. But farms have a way of collecting "things," and over the years a… Continue

Added by Carol on June 24, 2009 at 8:01pm — No Comments

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Latest Activity

Joy Williams commented on Reverend Claudia Barber's blog post 'The Crazy Gardener!!'1 hour ago

Welcome Rev. Claudia!

Joy Williams replied to Maria Schultz's discussion 'Does anybody know what this is???'1 hour ago

Pennyroyal bears absolutely no resemblance to bindweed. Pennyroyal Bindweed Not sure what cousin you are thinking of.

Joy Williams replied to Maria Schultz's discussion 'Does anybody know what this is???'1 hour ago

Maria, I have this in my corral in one part of it, and the lunatic alpaca that is where the bindweed is (I have to keep him separate) won't eat it. I'm pretty sure that yours looks like the same leaves I have on my plant. It's definitely a western...

TAR HEEL replied to Maria Schultz's discussion 'Does anybody know what this is???'1 hour ago

Maria,kudzu is bindweed on steroids.google it. I dont have a cam. Stay positive.

TAR HEEL replied to Maria Schultz's discussion 'Does anybody know what this is???'1 hour ago

Maria, dont get discouraged. With a .85 ac ''battlefield'', you CAN defeat this ''foe''. Just dont give up.

Joy Williams added a blog post1 hour ago

Ok, Mother Jones mislead me

David commented on Joy Williams's blog post 'Very Sad News! The White House soil is TOXIC!'2 hours ago

I have a feeling my dad used composted sludge from the City of Portland in the 70s. That might explain a lot... =D

Michelle W. Flannery replied to Catalin's discussion ''Hasta La Pasta' Spaghetti Squash'2 hours ago

Winter squash varieties take, on average, 90 days to mature. Harvest winter squash when the "ground spot" changes from white to a cream or gold color. Check before harvesting to see that all winter squashes and pumpkins to be stored have hard rind...

Joy Williams commented on Joy Williams's blog post 'Very Sad News! The White House soil is TOXIC!'2 hours ago

Well there's a positive way to turn this around Michelle, they can clean it up.... :)

Darrol Shillingburg commented on Joy Williams's blog post 'Very Sad News! The White House soil is TOXIC!'2 hours ago

Joy, I would expect a more discerning read from you - did they publish a soil analysis for you to read (no), did they use expremist language(yes), does the writer have an agenda (yes). Is there more to "biosolids" than "sludge" (yes), could go on...

Joy Williams commented on Sandra Bauer's blog post 'Basil Eaters'2 hours ago

oh and lettuce too!

Joy Williams commented on Sandra Bauer's blog post 'Basil Eaters'2 hours ago

Chris! You don't need chemicals! I tell you the coffee grounds work WONDERFULLY. Slugs are repelled by the caffeine in the grounds, it's toxic to them. And it's a slow release nitrogen. :) It's working great for me, it saved my basil and bean plants.

chris w commented on Sandra Bauer's blog post 'Basil Eaters'3 hours ago

I agree with Joy, slugs can demolish basil over night (learned the hard way). I generally don't find the need to use chemicals in my yard, but I would make the exception for slugs! Their eggs can lie dormant in the soil for years, and can emerge i...

Tony replied to Tony's discussion 'Raspberry Woes' in the group Berry Growers3 hours ago

Angie and Glenn: Thanks for the replies. I bought my bare root canes each year from Nourse Farms. When the first crop failed I knew that I shouldn't plant the replacement crop in the same place, but I took the gamble. I did mulch the row each year...

chris w replied to Adrian Fox's discussion 'Should we worry about 'poisonous' fruit and vegetable plants?'3 hours ago

I'd always worry about whether or not things are edible, birds can eat things we can't so I wouldn't assume anything. I personally don't know about things being unedible but I do only eat what I know has been certified as safe. This is a good ques...

chris w replied to Ashley Gomez's discussion 'vegetables'3 hours ago

Don't eat any vegetable for at least a week. (The container should have instructions about this) It's probably too late to do anything, you could try to water the veggies to try and dilute the solution but I don't think that will work well. Good l...

Joy Williams replied to Maria Schultz's discussion 'Does anybody know what this is???'3 hours ago

It's Bindweed, sorry to say:

chris w replied to jennifer lynn minnix's discussion 'my zuchinni'3 hours ago

I'd recommend asking people who grow in your area when to water. I water at night - but I live in a high altitude desert region - usually mildew is not an issue. Your area is probably more humid and mildew issues might be more of a problem. I thin...

chris w replied to Maria Schultz's discussion 'Does anybody know what this is???'3 hours ago

I personally throw all invasive plants into the trash. For a plant to be invasive in this area it has to be especially tough - I carefully pulled every bit I found for about three years. This probably isn't bindweed because you haven't mentioned t...

Martha Hill replied to Catalin's discussion ''Hasta La Pasta' Spaghetti Squash'3 hours ago

This is my first year to try to keep it over !! But I harvest mine when they go a little creamy colored !! Then I put them in the shade to cure a little !! I am going to try to keep a few for winter but I really think that it would be better to pl...