The sun was setting and the light on the first flowers of Spring was magical. Happy May Day -Sheila
Homemade Organic Fertilizer
Photo: From upper left, clockwise – Bone Meal, Kelp Meal, Soybean Meal, Alfalfa Meal, Rock Phosphate, Dried Blood, Fertilizer Mix The Killing Fields. Vegans and Jehovah Witnesses should not read this post! As an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I can hardly deal with the dried blood and bonemeal myself, always wearing gloves when I handle this recipe….
Seed Starting
Start your engines; it’s seed starting time. This is always the most optimistic time of year for me. No weeds, except for that darn foxtail grass I never pulled and which keeps waving in the wind taunting me all winter long, the deer are hunkered down, the groundhogs and rabbits are hibernating, and,with the expectation…
Late Summer Flowers
These are some of the flowers I grew for my daughter’s wedding last month. Dahlias, zinnias, and cosmos. They really come into their full glory in August and September, hanging on until the first frost. Dahlia tubers need to be dug up 2 weeks after the first killing frost and stored through the winter. No…
Cayenne Pepper Ristra
Found some killer cayenne peppers at Nagy’s Peaches. Upon embarking on the preserving process for drying hot peppers, I looked up how to make a ristra and quickly decided to just string my cayenne peppers with a needle and twine. The guy in the video was extremely adept at tying knots but I was not…
Chitting Potatoes
They’re not pretty, but the results are sublime. And, if you’ve never tasted freshly dug organic potatoes, you are in for a treat this summer! Why chit? Pre-sprouting your seed potatoes will make for an earlier harvest, give the plants a jump on blight, and prevent pale, elongated, brittle shoots from growing in the bag…
Wild Rose Hips and Amaryllis
With this warm weather (it must be over 50 degrees today), the wild rose hips are still in good condition. Down coats and plastic bags will not survive this foraging. I speak from experience. Gloves are a must, the thicker the better. The amaryllis I planted last month is at it’s prettiest and the…
Paperwhites
Love these beauties. Paperwhites may be planted in either soil or stones. Place the bulbs about 1″ apart and cover two-thirds of the bulb with stones or completely with soil. Water and place them in a light, cool place until the foliage stands 3″ to 4″ high. Then, place them in a sunny location at…
Seed Saving
Seed saving is either a simple activity or an elaborate fight against nature. It all comes down to cross-pollination and whether it will affect the plants progeny in an adverse way. First we must discard any consideration of propagating hybrid plants. They are manipulated by the grower who uses two different parents to produce a…
Preserved Autumn Leaves and Bittersweet
It was cloudy this morning, so while I was waiting for the sun to come out for some food photography, I went and foraged a few things from my woods. I had some glycerin from my soap making days, so it was time to preserve some autumn leaves a la Martha. Most of the leaves…