Start! part 2

This is the 2nd article of a 2 part-series geared at first-time would-be food gardeners (Read Part I here) What should I plant? Not so fast! (aren’t you getting tired with me saying this so often?) Before you plant, you need a place to plant. 

Pushing Up!

Bow to the mighty asparagus! The first ones are now tentatively pushing their rosy tip up – just checking on the above ground weather. Is last year holds true (and so far, it does, as after a few days of warm weather, we are back 

Hardening Off

It’s time to start hardening off the babies. At least, for those of us in the Northern Piedmont (and in the mid-Atlantic area). Yep, time to start hardening off the hardy annual vegetables that were lovingly started indoors. That include you people who took one 

Planting Onions

Transplants: 350! (more or less); about 200 planted on Monday and 150 planted ten days ago. I have never been successful with the sets (mini-bulbs) planted in the spring: they hardly grew bigger than they start at! So, this year, I bought (more expensive) transplants: 

A Potted Kitchen Garden

Do you do pot? Not that kind of pot, silly! But “pot” as in food grown in a container… Virginia Rockwell asked me in a comment on the post labeled “Eating Local in the Northern Piedmont in Winter” if I have “any tips for newbies 

Lovely Lemony Sorrel

There are indubitable signs of springs out there (besides the 2 minutes of additional daily daytime we are getting now). For once, the snowdrops are nodding their tiny white bells in the still blustery gusts of wind and then, then!, yellow IS swelling the buds 

Guess what..

Can you guess what this is (without hovering over it with your mouse)? Hint: it’s not ginger. Answer – and recipe – in the next episode. Oh, and if you are the first person to guess right, I am happy to send you some (US 

It’s That Time Of The Year Again

Yes? Yes! YES! It’s that time of the year. Nooo… not the time of cherries (although that will come too), but even better: the time to start seeds for the spring & summer kitchen garden. I am giddy, giddy, giddy. First of all, the days 

Growing Chayote in Virginia

Growing what? You know… “chayote” (sometimes spelled “chayotte”), also known as chouchou, chocko, christophine, mirliton, vegetable pear. You don’t know? Time for today’s lesson, then: Sechium edule, a member of the cucurbitacea family (or if you prefer a cousin of squashes and cucumber), originates from 

Enamored of Mache

The last three winters since we’ve been here, I have been able to grow salad greens throughout most of the winter. While it dipped down to 0F (-18 C) in February of 2007 (or was that 2006?), there was a thick snow cover that helped