Happy Summer Solstice!!! My third article in this season’s Globe & Mail Kitchen Gardening column was published on Saturday. The topic is growing nasturtiums to eat. One of my goals with the series is to publish articles while there is still time for as many gardeners across Canada as possible to get that particular plant …
This is how I see canning: making snack foods for the apocalypse. Because in truth, with the exception of the plain tomato jars and sauces, many of the items I put up tend to be condiments, pickles, and intense fruit preserves — food I could probably live without. If, say, we were to suffer through …
And make our own edible version of Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party! There has been a long and harried internal debate raging in my brain for days over that title. I have avoided making this post, worried that I will offend people by using the anatomically correct word for part of the female anatomy on a …
Let us turn our minds back four months (almost to the day by coincidence) to April of this year. Way back then, in a season that felt not so much unlike this one in many ways, what with the rain and the fact that I was wearing rain boots and long sleeved shirts, and it …
Behold, the first of the non-cherry, indeterminate tomatoes that has reached maturity for 2009. And it’s a beauty. Incidentally, I’ve managed to grow several ruffled tomato varieties this year purely by happenstance. Well, that and the fact that I have a very obvious preference for that shape. I’m yet to try it out, but I …
Every year I go a little nuts growing large crops of onions such as ‘Egyptian Walking’ over at my community garden plot. Onions grow easily in the ground, but they tend to take up a lot of space in containers. In the past I have grown smaller, bunching onions in pots as a way to …
My latest Globe and Mail Microfarming article came out on Saturday. I’ve included the text below. My editor sent a photographer out this time so there are some pictures in the printed version not taken by me, and one of me planting arugula online. I didn’t lay chickenwire over the flat as protection after planting, …
These gooseberries aren’t from my garden, although judging by the chewed up state of its leaves I’d hazard a guess that they have suffered a similar plight. A week or two back, what was supposed to be a quick trip to the community garden turned into a caterpillar squishing marathon. The gooseberry bush and the …
The following article was printed over the weekend as a part of my food gardening series in The Globe & Mail. Summer has been a late arrival around these parts — heavy rains and thunderstorms have been in the forecast regularly since spring. It’s been great in some ways since many of my plants are …
Click the image to see full-size. I’m long overdue to present a mini roof garden tour this year, let alone a garden tour of any kind. As always I’m behind, which inevitably leads to thoughts that things aren’t just right yet. Or the light is wrong. Then of course there is the classic, “But wait …
The rooftop garden is finally set up for outdoor living and the heat has suddenly cranked up, which means it’s summer drink time. I’ve taken to making up bright red batches of roselle, aka sorrel (not to be confused with the cold hardy herb Rumex acetosa), a tangy and refreshing ginger infused hibiscus drink popular …
Hey Internet, Remember when I helped my brother make a container garden on his balcony? Behold, it LIVES! He’s done really, really well for someone with almost no interest in gardening only a few months ago. I was concerned that I had overwhelmed him with plants through my own enthusiasm and that he wouldn’t be …