The first harvest How did it happen? The growing season is half way over and I have barely had a moment to reflect on it–to reflect on the jungle that has become my garden. In the beginning there was so much waiting and faith and then...
Read morelunch in the garden (at 9PM)
The end of the school year is as busy as the holidays: kids are finishing up spring sports and starting summer swim team practice, one is getting promoted and will start middle school next year, one will be going to Rwanda for 6 weeks, one may...
Read morepeas and pests
It was too hot to walk the dog for more than 15 minutes this afternoon, so I was glad when I finished picking all these peas by around 11 AM. Stayed inside and watched old episdodes of ’30 Rock’ with the kids while shelling peas and...
Read moreMay Flowers
Our white Wisteria has been transplanted 3 times. First, from a pot in Montclair, NJ then, to our first home in Riverton, NJ and finally, to suburban Washington, DC. It is the first major bloomer in our spring garden, and every time I walk...
Read moreEven husbands need gardens…
As the original customer and primary beneficiary of Backyard Bounty’s services, I can attest to the difference it makes in your life. Having come home from a long trip last night, I was greeted with a truly splendid sight that was both...
Read moreSeeds Take Faith
Seeds take a lot of faith. Really. I built my bed. I amended the dirt. I watered and amended some more. And then I planted seeds in neat little square foot sections, marked by popsicle sticks. “Carrots, scarlet nantes, half-long”...
Read moreSay it with figs
Starting a business, I’ve gotten lots of support, advice, and help from friends. And like any good Italian, I tend to show love through food. March and early April are tough months to find local fruit, and so now is the time that we are...
Read moreDigging Dirt
84 bags of “Peat Free, Earth Friendly, Mom Approved, Sustainable, Biology Inside, Organic, Premium Ingredient” soil arrived on Friday. That sentence makes such an arrival sound far simpler than it was. A couple of days ago, a driver...
Read moreOn Creating Mud Canvasses and Building Spaces for Veggies to Be Born
Some people say that one of the hardest part about making a dream come true is finding the space for it to be born. Is it silly to say that about gardening too? It is certainly true about my dream of growing my own food. I think the hardest thing...
Read moreMiddle-Aged White Woman Practices Gardening, Yoga
So reads the headline that staff at The Onion might construct for this post. I was about to write something silly about how much gardening is like yoga, when a healthy sense of perspective saved me from painful earnestness. I thought about...
Read moreFava Beans
It’s Fava Time… I’ve planted favas every year since I started growing veggies and couldn’t find beautiful fresh ones at the farmer’s market. This year’s supply are going in the ground today (‘Aqua...
Read moreSeeds of Potential
Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be a farmer. I don’t know where it comes from, this yearning to get my food from the land. Certainly it wasn’t my parents. Just a generation away from struggle they did everything they could...
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