Okay, things are getting a little dead around there, so let’s liven it up. First of all, near the bottom of the sidebar are some good tunes for you to listen to while you’re reading. I planted tomato and artichoke seeds this afternoon. The artichokes are “Violetto” from Pinetree from last year. Since I have…

I know that there is little point in dreading the weather, but tomorrow is supposed to be very windy and rainy. I have visions of chasing my greenhouse across the yard in the cold rain. I went out and stomped the stakes down as best I could, and that’s all I can do, I guess.…

Also known as "miner’s lettuce," claytonia is a great salad green for the winter garden. It is a favorite of Eliot Coleman’s. Since it is really a weed, it volunteers easily. This patch is from the claytonia I planted last winter that I let go to seed. It tastes a lot like chickweed, which is…

Normally I am chomping at the bit to start my seeds, but this year I’ve got more of a “whatever” attitude. I’ll probably feel differently once they begin to come up. I’m not planning to start many indoors, since I’m going to devote more space to beans, peas, and okra this year. I do want…

Well, you know how it is. You get an unexpectedly gorgeous day in the dead of winter, with the forecast of rain the next day. You have a shoebox full of seed packets, more than you could ever hope to plant in your little space. Many of them are cool/cold weather plants. What are you…

Finally got enough butterbeans at one time to make a little pot of butterbeans and bacon! (You might call them lima beans.) Most of these are Carolina Sieva, and the few gray ones are Red Calico, both varieties originally from Monticello. I save the seed to plant again the following year. Next year I plan…

Things constantly change in the Back Forty. March 27, 2007 ^ July 8, 2007 ^ May 6, 2007 ^ July 8, 2007 ^ April 25, 2007^ July 8, 2007 ^ April 21, 2006 ^ March 3, 2007 ^ July 8, 2007 ^

The clouds rolled in, but it was still warm enough this morning that I worked up a sweat wearing a T-shirt. Mainly, I shoveled compost. I finished the shelf supports in the greenhouse, but it may not work. I could not get the frame spreaders as tight as the instructions wanted me to, resulting in…

I don’t know how much I will be able to do in the garden today. The spirit is willing but the flesh is attracting mosquitoes. Lots of them. Vicious little black asian tiger mosquitoes. After I got up twice last night to find the hydrocortisone for my bites, I finally put it next to the…