The little border of flowering annuals I mentioned in my last post has begun to bloom and it’s doing just what I had hoped: providing a little bit of additional nectar and pollen for the pollinators in our garden. You might recall that this was a quick project we put together in spring using materials we… Read More
I am sitting at my workbench, an ambitious word to describe the small desk on our screened in porch, watching the birds and the squirrels frolicking just feet away. It’s lovely. OK, so one of said squirrels just ran off with a precious tomato and then another pulled off a rosehip from The Generous Gardener… Read More
Summer arrived in a big way this week. The kind of heat and humidity that has us all feel a bit wilted by mid-afternoon when, thankfully, a refreshing thunderstorm passes through. The fruits are ripening: tomatoes, cucumbers, blueberries, strawberries and now, as you’ll see in the photos, the addition of a pluot tree! Most of… Read More
Remember last spring I talked about how we have begun building our kitchen garden? It’s going to be a long process but one of the things I wanted to do this year was try out various annual vegetable crops in small batches to find out if they would 1, do well in our limited sun… Read More
I think I must be still on Pennsylvania time because up until a few days ago I had a real “well that’s that” defeatist thing going on with regard to the garden. I keep forgetting that seasons are longer here. There is still time to plant new things, to finish old projects, to simply enjoy… Read More
Back again with a short tour of what’s blooming this spring. Consider this a part II of Roses, Chickens & Bees. 2017 will be our third season here (we arrived in mid April, 2015), and we’ve certainly had, and continue to experience, our share of struggle as we fix up this home. Besides the garden,… Read More
It was a whirlwind weekend, starting with the annual Rose Exhibition at the North Carolina Arboretum where I gave a presentation on growing no-spray roses. Very exciting, if not a bit daunting, to talk about something I am so passionate about and I hope that I did it justice. If I had to do it again,… Read More
