I'm always looking for new ways to use my garden. After years of growing sweet potatoes I came across a recipe that called for the leaves. Sweet potato leaves are edible? Yes. Yes, they are.The sweet potatoes slips I got this year were supposed to be a bush variety. While they haven't thrown vines out … Continue reading The Greatest Green You’ve Never Eaten: Sweet Potato Leaves
I do a lot of research before I try new things. There are two ideas floating around right now that I really liked. One is Hugelkultur. The idea is basically a huge, permanent, water retaining, slow composting hill. This is a great site about it: http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/ Down here, anything that saves water is welcome. The … Continue reading Hugelkultur, Keyhole Gardens: Bridging Ideas
While we were in Colorado there was a trend to rip out anything that was growing and replace it with a gravel landscape. Every time I saw someone ripping out their grass to do this: I wanted to throttle them. Here is why: rock is not low maintenance. I understand those who don't garden are … Continue reading Please Don’t Rock Your Yard!
Spring is full of heavy lifting, digging holes and amending soil. I usually build or renew my beds in spring and then switch on and off between: planting/watering and harvesting the first spring veggies. It's usually beautiful outside and I enjoy the time I'm out there. I end up in a meditative state. I can … Continue reading Saving The Harvest
I usually grow my vining melons on a trellis. Trellising makes them easy to care for and the plants themselves are healthier. Getting melon vines off the ground keeps the powdery mildew under control and I can easily spray the leaves when the inevitable aphid explosion comes. Since I like to research things, and I'm … Continue reading Melon Trellising
In Texas we're in our miserable part of summer. Our heat index is fluctuating between 101 and 103 degrees Fahrenheit. It's nasty in the high heat part of the day. It's also still in the high 80s at midnight and later. It's too hot for a lot of things, (like tomatoes) so we're getting through … Continue reading Summer Fun In The Garden
Every once in a while I end up on Pinterest. I try not to do it often, because it's like going to an all you can eat buffet: I think I can eat (or do) way more than reality will allow me to. On one of my visits to Pinterest I saw some melted pony … Continue reading Melted Perler Bead and Pony Bead Craft Projects
This soup makes use of spring garden ingredients: peas, lettuce, spring onions and tarragon. If you have ever grown peas you know shelling peas is a pain. It's a whole lot of work for very little reward. Apparently, I am not learning my lesson from the previous experiences, because I rush out and plant them … Continue reading Cooking With Lettuce?!?! Yes! And It’s Delicious!!!
Hidden uses of your spring garden!
I have seen this idea around for a while and it seemed easy enough to do. I decided I'd try building one and I finished it in an hour or so. This is what I think of them: it's a lot of work and not a good project for someone with a bad back.There are … Continue reading So, I Made A Potato Tower
Sweet potatoes, beet roots (These are chiogga beets. White, yellow or striped beets have a milder flavor than solid red beets), beet greens and spring onions This is my recipe for using up spring veggies before the heat of summer ends their season. I grew all the veggies except the sweet potatoes (which are not … Continue reading Moroccan Sweet Potato Fritters with Ras El Hanout Yogurt Sauce
This is a great time of year to plan and build raised beds. This is how I built my raised beds and I have given them no supplemental watering in the last two years of San Antonio heat. I've had bumper crops with almost no input outside of planting and occasional weeding! This has been … Continue reading Mother’s Day Raised Hugelkultur Bed!
This is the third part of a four part online course. It’s free and if you would like to know more go to the top of this page and click on the Gardening Basics tab. Or you can get the first and second parts of this course here: Beginning Gardener (part 1) and Beginning Gardener … Continue reading Beginning Gardener: Class 3-Walking You Through What You Need To Know
Learning to garden takes time. It's also helpful to have a seasoned gardener show you how to garden in your area. If you don't have someone on hand: you now have me! I may not live where you do (and it makes a huge difference if you are growing in a different area) but I … Continue reading Beginning Gardener: Class 2-Walking You Through What You Need To Know
Spring is on the way! It's time to brush up on your gardening skills and learn new gardening ideas. This year I thought I'd get back to basics and start publishing pieces of my gardening advice from my page: Gardening Basics. For the novice gardener: read on and stay tuned! This is pretty much everything … Continue reading Beginner Gardeners: Walking You Through What You Need To Know
Last night we had one of only a handful of freezes for the year. February is our spring down here in Southern Texas. It's time to put my corn in (we have two seasons for sweetcorn down here!) and I seeded the other bed with spring veggies about a week ago. One of my favorite … Continue reading Watering With Soaker Hoses
I love using milk jugs! My kids drink a lot of milk and we always have empty gallon milk containers. These are always useful in my garden! I use them to harden off transplants and in this blog entry: to keep tender plants (like tomatoes) outside, where they're warm and have plenty of light, while … Continue reading Quick Mini Greenhouses From Milk Jugs
This is an old recipe for me. I stumbled onto the base of this recipe back when my kids were infants and only my husband and I were eating "real food" for dinner, it was always a romantic table for two! I love healthy food and I love this recipe. I've adjusted it to feed … Continue reading Swiss Chard With Pasta And Feta
Update: It's now 7 years after I wrote this article and all of the pieces I've included in this post are things I'm still using! It works! I'm sick. This has been a bad year for colds in our home. My youngest boy started school and he loves to germ up while he's there and … Continue reading Decadent Herbal Cold Remedy: Turmeric Milk
I have a next door neighbor that I absolutely love! I used to watch her daughter after school and she has helped me out when I've had my husband out of state or driven one of my kids home when they got sick at school and we weren't able to be reached. She's super cool. … Continue reading For My Fun Neighbors
Crazy Green Thumbs 