Winter is slowly coming to an end around here and it is nearly time to start lettuce outdoors. Until then I’ve been growing and harvesting small batches of micro-sized greens on my windowsill as a way to keep some salad fixings coming through the darkest and longest days of winter. Microgreens are tender and tangy …
Last winter while digging through seed catalogues for new plants to buy I came across a hot pepper variety that I could not resist trying. Actually, I came upon several irresistible hot pepper varieties. As someone who doesn’t actually eat hot peppers I sure do grow a lot of them. As an edible plant they’re …
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 …
A lot of exciting things have been happening in the gardens these days. With summer fully underway I have been harvesting all sorts of goodies. There are new discoveries everyday. Yet none have garnered quite the reaction as when I stuck my right arm into the soil, moved it around a bit and pulled out …
I came upon this shopping cart planter the other day while riding my bike along College Street here in Toronto. The planter sits outside a restaurant located at the corner of College and Clinton, perched up high atop a metal outdoor patio fence. There is a tiny anal-retentive person living inside my brain that REALLY, …
Yesterday I spent eleven hours helping my brother Jay become a container gardener. The original plan was to show up with a few supplies, have lunch, and spend two hours tops setting up. In and out. Back to work by 2pm. Or not. It was just supposed to be two large containers. I didn’t want …
It is a good time of year. We can very nearly say with almost sort-of, closing in on possible certainty that there will be no more snow for a good 6 or 7 months, the plant sales are in full swing, the plant-specific festivals are rockin’ it HARD olde school (emphasis on olde), and people …
While walking in San Francisco. The blue flower is Lobelia.
The discussion around inexpensive containers for indeterminate tomato plants in a recent post has brought up a good point regarding how to conceal the clinical blandness of food industry buckets. The conversation in that post reminded me of a brilliant camouflage technique I discovered on a Saturday walk through my own neighbourhood a few years …
I’ve got a question on tomatoes. I’ve recently ordered about nine tomato plants. They’re still kind of babies, but it turns out that they’re indeterminates, not determinates like was expected. In the book it says that garbage bins work well, but if I chose the cheapest ones I found (they’re 13 bucks) that would be …
I posted this recipe a year ago but it is buried in a larger post and I decided it would be better-accessed if it had its own place. Making your own mix is SUPER easy and worth the small effort if you are growing a lot of seedlings. Seed-Starting Mix These are the ratios I …
