Most people don’t think of winter as a season in which you can garden, but here in Virginia, you certainly can–even without greenhouses or cold frames. One of the foods we planted last fall and haven’t had to protect all winter is turnips. Now, it’s true that the temperatures down in the twenties a couple…
Tag: vegetable gardening
The Vegetable Oscars
It’s that season of the year when every vegetable gardener is up to their ears in seed catalogs. They’ve been arriving for weeks now, and, if you’re like me, you can’t throw away a single one–even the ones you’ve never ordered from–without peeking to see what stunning new varieties they may have on offer this…
Does Vegetable Gardening Actually Save Money?
While my primary reason for gardening is love–love of the outdoors, love of physical work, love of plants in their infinite variety–my pleasure in gardening is immeasurably enhanced if I know that my labor is actually productive, if I know that, down the road a few weeks or months, I’m going to be enjoying the…
Garlic Harvest, Part II
A couple of weeks ago, I pulled the garlic from the garden and spread it to dry, stems and all, on the concrete floor under our deck. A couple of days later, I peeled off the outer leaves, culled for the refrigerator a few of the bulbs that were showing some deterioration, and, for convenience’s…
It’s Summer!
Today’s temperatures peaked in the nineties again, but that’s not why I’m exclaiming about its being summer. It’s because the first squash came in from the garden today–Yellow Crookneck and Tender Grey Zucchini. Along with them came a gorgeous green pepper (Jupiter) and the first Riesentraube cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes and green pepper we ate…
Brussels Sprouts for This Fall
It’s hard to believe it’s already time to start planning for the fall and winter garden! We just brought in our first ripe tomato (of the extra-early variety Zarnitsa), and the early corn is just showing its first silks, but indeed it’s time to get some of the slow-maturing crops for this fall underway. Brussels…
Garlic Harvest
I’ve been watching my garlic patch for the last few weeks, trying to determine whether it’s time to harvest yet. Ten days ago, I pulled the first plant, just to see where it was in the bulb-making process. There was a decent-sized bulb there, maybe two inches across. But once I peeled back the layers…
Can’t Beet It!
I love the smooth texture and understated sweetness of a lukewarm beet. Since ours first got big enough to pull, I’ve been boiling them, chopping them, and eating them on salads, omelets, and even plain. They’re beginning to feel less like a luxury and more like a necessity. How did I go thirty years of…
May’s Bounteous Promise
May is the season when the garden is at its greenest, every plant lush with the possibilities of the coming months. When later everything’s yellowing in the late August drought, or better yet, blanketed under snow next January (fingers crossed!), I’m going to look back at these pictures with longing… And between now and then,…
Freezing Spinach
I didn’t have much success with spinach last year, in the spring or fall. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t very invested in it. I planted some seeds thinking, “It might be nice to have a little spinach,” and then basically didn’t pay any more attention to them. So I guess the weeds and the drought…
gettin' fresh! 