There are many ways to make a garden bed, but one thing is constant: The soil within it should have the lightness of a fluffed-up pillow and the loft of a down-filled duvet. Adding plenty of organic matter to the soil is the key to building a plant-friendly soil like that. But the bed’s design …
To the little people it never felt right. The readers of the old Organic Gardening and Farming magazine saw no logic in spraying poisons on their vegetables. The magazine was founded 75 years ago, with no glamour or gloss, and its circulation reached more a million at its height. It featured tales and photos from …
The “O” word in gardening has long been “organic,” but this year it might be “occultation.” You might well ask what that means and what it has to do with the garden — or the occult. The word occult, which can be used as a noun, an adjective or a verb, signifies something hidden, concealed …
The famous gardener Ruth Stout did not invent mulch. By her account, God did.
The nutritionist Adelle Davis once said that we should eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. Because of today’s schedules, most people reverse that order, grabbing a quick bite before work, a sandwich on their lunch break and a full dinner at night, when everyone is home and …
Winter may not be the most aerobic season for a gardener, but the index finger gets a good workout as the catalogs arrive in the mail. They’re irresistible to flip through, with their bright colors and extravagant claims of flavor and bounty. There are always several vegetable varieties that crop up as novelties in one …
There are windowsills all over the world, filled with small edible plants, usually a few pots of fresh herbs. A city cook with a longer, wider sill might even sow a few flats of microgreens as well. But let’s say there’s a sunny patch of yard, as little as 10 feet by 10 feet, where …
If you have a sweet tooth, you’re in trouble. The news has finally caught up with the facts: Refined sugar is not good for you, and Americans eat way too much of it. It’s hidden in all sorts of prepared foods where you’d never expect to find it. Check the ingredients lists on cans, boxes, …
You’ll find the dung beetle on most lists of the top helpful creatures in the garden, along with bees, earthworms, predatory wasps and mosquito-eating bats.
As a vegetable gardener, I keep a mental scorecard that compares what I grow with what I can buy in the store. Fresh tomatoes in January? The store wins, though its thick-skinned southern imports don’t get high points for flavor. In midsummer, when my homegrown bean pods are bulging with tender, quick-cooking shell beans, I …
