And back to cold weather...

Winter harvest.It's been warm recently and yesterday, it was in the mid 80s! My Lollo Rosso lettuce has bolted (flowered) and has become bitter--not so bitter that we don't still eat it, but it's certainly past its prime. On the other hand my sugar snap peas started blooming again and have produced...

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Signs of spring

I've been so distracted by other concerns that I've neglected my garden lately. We've enjoyed summer green beans (from the chest freezer), roasted tomatoes, too, and even roasted peaches (turned into freezer jam).A lovely excursion with middle-school students into the Garden (where I work) found us listening to early bird calls and noticing all the early-flowering Asian plants.Hmm, it looks like...

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Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida is in the warehouse!

Melissa and I received the email from University Press of Florida today telling us that our book is in the warehouse and is ready to ship. Yay!Melissa and I received our covers last week, but I didn't expect the book quite this early. If you've preordered your copy, you should have it soon. We...

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Leeks fresh from the garden

freshly harvested leeks I've left an assortment of leeks tucked in raised beds in the mountains through winter. They're so attractive, with their gray-green tops, and hardy, too. But I was noticing that a couple were getting REALLY big (hmm, about grocery store size, actually), and I was thinking...

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Cilantro & Carolina jessamine

Amazing to harvest fresh cilantro in mid-January for our black bean chili - tonight's dinner.  Normally it would have long have been frozen out by now.And, I noticed the first Carolina jessamine flowers outside my study window, too.  Not to mention the crocuses that have popped up over the last few days, too.Hmm, can spring really be on the way?  It's sort of feeling like that, as I'm...

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Arugula

My arugula patches have sailed through the winter, so far, both here in the Piedmont and in the mountains. Of course, the winter has been mild! (It was 70° F this afternoon - peculiar).I had the idea that arugula's frost tolerance was more like "normal" lettuce (not Winter Density or North Pole or Arctic King), and so it's been a revelation to have these flourishing patches -- happily, it's the one...

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Tomatoes & Peppers from Seed.

Last week my husband and I started our tomato and pepper seeds. We want the seedlings to have a good head start before setting them out in the garden--approximately two months from now. We hope to pot them up to larger pots at least a few weeks before we set them out in the garden.On the right, a pot...

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Warm weather

It's been warm this week - unseasonably so.  And the weekend ahead is downright balmy for January.  I've been sitting on my hands in terms of vegetable garden planting, but I've been ordering seeds, woo-hoo!)This weekend, I'm planning to free the woodland perennials of their winter overcoat of leaves (not necessarily a good thing when they're water oak), cut back the main perennial border,...

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Creasy greens

We had our first creasy greens (upland cress: Barbarea verna) today, a totally delicious green that's a winter and spring tradition in Appalachia. I bought the seeds from Sow True Seeds, a local Western North Carolina seed company, in Asheville, as a bit of a novelty.A good friend of mine who grew up...

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Organizing plants

A call on the radio program today had me thinking.  We don't always edit our plantings enough. The caller was worrying about her view from her home office (it sounded pretty jumbled up).Taking a clear view, printing out photos (b&w), thinking about what you actually SEE -- all are so helpful for transforming views in our landscapes.It's not always about adding more plants, but editing them...

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Even more seeds...

Hmm, I'm on a roll, even as the weather turned grey and rainy today.  I ordered more seeds this morning (unusual ones), along with some gratis ones from Renee's Seeds (I'd just placed a paid order yesterday, so I'm not feeling too guilty about accepting the media freebies).  They're (Renee's, that is) are the best!  I love her seed choices.I'm itching to start seeds under lights and...

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