I was thinking about cover crops the other day, and suddenly the property owner in me had a realization: cover crops are like tenants. I don’t know if you’ve ever rented property out, but I’m willing to bet that at some point on the arc of your adult life you were a renter. No matter which side […]
The Via Negativa of Storage Tomatoes
Via negativa mystics tend to stand out among a crowd by the prominent halos that they wear! Many sages and religious mystics, though their quest be union with Ultimate Reality, end up, even after a lifetime of searching, quite unable to describe the object of their desire. They realize that the divine is so much […]
Let the Meta-Joy Begin
Even though I came to it late, I have still been gardening a long time. Whenever one does something for a long time, there are bound to be routines that enter in and, consequently, a lack of novelty. Routines, normalization, same-old-same-old; call it what you will. It’s part of life, but it can sometimes lead […]
Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light.
In so many ways fall in the garden and in life is a time of winding down, a closing of the accounts of summer, a perhaps welcome rest from the labor of the high season coupled with a wistfulness that long, warm days are a thing of the past. To some it is a time […]
Without Design There Are Only the Vicissitudes of Chance
In this post I want to highlight the importance of design. As sustainable design guru William McDonough says, “Design is the signal of human intention.” It’s a good thing to remember because when we intend something to happen, we are designing (not that it always comes right), and when we have no intention, we are rudderlessly […]
Well Wesearched, Woys Weaver
Lemon Drop harvest from 4 plants. Two quarts plus plenty left to ripen. My hat’s off to William Woys Weaver, the food historian and heirloom gardener (http://williamwoysweaver.com/biography/) whose 2006 Mother Earth News article on Lemon Drop peppers (http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/aji-limo-zmaz06fmzwar.aspx?PageId=2) has answered questions I explicitly or implicitly posed in my last post (http://www.urban-ag-solutions.com/while-other-peppers-flop-this-one-still-drops/). And please give […]
While Other Peppers Flop, This One Still Drops!
Backlit Lemon Drop chiles on a summery October afternoon. This summer was a wonderful season for hot peppers. I would even hazard to say exceptional and rare, except that I fear that the heat we suffered will become more and more the norm. Still if that is the case, despite the hardships such shifts may […]
Turn-update
Wow, when I wrote my last post about Hakurei turnips http://www.urban-ag-solutions.com/look-whats-turned-up-in-the-garden/, I threw down a challenge to all comers: impress me and do better than Hakurei. I had even put something new in the soil, a turnip variety I had never heard about before, just to see what it had alongside the master. Well the data’s […]
Look What’s Turned Up In the Garden
These are sexy, magazine-ready Hakurei turnips…probably photoshopped! These are honest-to-goodness Hakureis just out of the ground. Even though I’m a 20-plus-year gardener who rises to the defense of almost any vegetable, if you say the word turnip, my first thought is still a mustardy-tasting mash, sitting unwanted on a plate, probably having been […]
Tool Drool: A Little Garden Haircut Before the Start of School
My latest tool drool: a battery-powered hedge trimmer for back-to-school haircuts in the garden. Sometimes if you’re not totally pesto-crazy, it can be hard to keep up with basil, and eventually comes a day when, instead of leaves one starts to see spikes. Yikes! Here are the floral spikes of thai basil: deceptively, […]