The last cool-weather crops

It's my opinion that the best growing season here in north Florida is the winter because the cool-weather crops that grow right through to late spring. But now that season is transitioning to the warm/hot weather and those lovely crops that we've enjoyed through the winter are ending their cycles. I've...

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Swiss chard

I wish I had a photo to go along with this post! I harvested lots of chard from the mountain beds earlier in the week (they were starting to bolt).We had part of it (the harvest) cooked a couple of days ago, but I included the final harvest in a chard salad to take to a local foods potluck this evening.  Yum. I'd not made a fresh chard salad before, amazingly, but chard (chopped finely)...

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Enjoying waterfalls

My gardening companion has been visiting great wildflower and waterfall areas, as part of his field work for a new project.Here's our boy Woody, enjoying the research!Woody at Jones Gap Fa...

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An Edible Gardening Convert

A nice collection of lettuces.A guest post by Claudia Graves, a college friend and now a new and enthusiastic gardener.Zero to sixty in three yearsMy mother could grow anything. It seemed that her touch could bring a sickly plant back from the brink or encourage a healthy one to thrive. “The greenest...

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Waiting for monarchs

I brought some Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) shoots and (dug-up) plants to share with a friend in the mountains.  She's "fostering" monarch caterpillars through Monarch Watch (I think).  What a great thing to do!I had plenty of milkweed in the Piedmont, but the chilly spring has meant slow emergence in the mountains.  And the numbers of monarchs overwintering was at a really low...

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Bok Choy

This year I have a lot of Really fun greens that I will be planting. One unique green is Bok Choy, sometimes called Pak Choy. I am planting a Red and Green variety. They should be planted every 12" apart, and can be used as a cutting green or harvest all at once, like a one stop shop. Unfortunately they...

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Spring migrants

The director at the Garden where I work (in the Piedmont of SC) reported hearing numerous warblers yesterday in our woodland gardens (in this Facebook post). Wow!And Journey North's expert described an amazing array of sightings in his final Weather and Songbird post.It's a great time to be out watching (and listening) for bir...

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