Sweet potatoes must be one of my most favourite vegetables. This was the first year I’d had a chance to grow them; Sow True Seed kindly provided a selection of slips – All Purple Organic, O’Henry and Beauregard. The vines quickly took over the garden, sending out runners like Triffads. I didn’t realise until late on…
Category: Gardening
If sunflowers had teeth…
…then this one could have bitten my head off! I’ve read Day of the Triffids by John Wyndam and watched the BBC adaptation and it’s enough to know that I’m glad plants can’t walk (notable exception: walking onion!) and most of them are not carnivorous. Sunflowers may be one of the most anthropomorphized plants out there, a…
How I Came To Witness The Amazing Pink Mushroom
Being a Community Relations Manager for EarthFare, Belle gets to hear about things… Belle: there’s a mushroom cultivation workshop happening. Me: when? Belle: today. Me: how much? Belle: donations. Me: you want to go? Belle: working. Me: interesting. The workshop was run by Tradd Cotter of Mushroom Mountain and was excellent. I think most people at…
Nature Eats Nuture
It has recently occurred to me that my nightmares of impending and horrific doom occur daily in the garden. Albeit, on a smaller scale, but terrifying and destructive for the players involved. It’s a warzone out there. Over the course of a week, three different neighbours told me they’d found the remains of a dead chick in their garden….
Cow Manure
Three miles from my house, there is a field full of cows. The field is five feet deep in cow manure. Technically that’s not true. It does not qualify as manure until it is used to fertilise land. So, when I arrived at the cow field, what I was really looking at was a huge…
Growing Potatoes in Straw
I’ve been digging raised beds for weeks. I’ve started making protein shakes out of bananas, peanut butter and chocolate soy milk, just so my body doesn’t fall apart. My soil is pretty much clay; it sticks to the spade and I have to stamp it off like I’m squishing a bug. I’m worried about the…
Sow True Seed
I have a lot to say about this seed company, but for now, just let me give you a glimpse of the future of food: I have some digging to do…
Backyard Pesto
Some awesome post-Apocalypse skills went into this little jar of green, nutritious delight. First, allow me to rebuff the pesto purists (and Apple Mac’s internal dictionary) by telling you that pesto does not require basil and pine nuts. This is a lie told to you by capitalist grey squirrels who pay red squirrels peanuts to…
The Very Inspiring Blogger Award
What an interesting concept – a quick Google search reveals no history, no overall winner, no origins. In fact the only thing a Google search shows is a long list of recipients, which is no surprise considering nominees are required to nominate a further 15 blogs. I think this must be the most successful chain…
Preparing for the Apocalypse (or how to freeze parsley)
I met a lovely slightly scary lady who believed the end of society as we know it is pretty dam close – food and transport infrastructures are on the brink of collapse and the fall of government and the economy wont be far behind. Apocalyptic Lady: it wont be long now. Me: the end? Apocalyptic…
Greens for Green Scheme
I was frustrated that the sustainability centre at Furman Farm used plastic bags to give out the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) food. Speaking to the Farm Manager revealed that it’s consumer driven. So the problem is: how to get people to bring their own bags? In England most supermarkets will now charge you for a…
Saved by Community Supported Agriculture
Buy local. Buy organic. Buy seasonal. Take a bank loan too? You’ll need one. This was my dilema when I moved to Greenville, SC. I wanted to eat the good stuff but it was a struggle to afford it. You say: Grow your own? I say: Yes, yes. I know! In time I’ll have the…
Garden Mushrooms
My back garden is host to a panoply of mushrooms: I wonder if any of them are edible? In all likelihood they are more dangerous than the black widow that lives on my bean planter:
Worms – Drowned. Mint – Perished. Spring Onions – Droopy. Chickens – Escaped.
I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m relying on Google and brief conversations with my worms. So in a way, I suppose this disastrous day was inevitable. I should’ve paid more attention when my parents made me water the garden at home. In no particular order: 1) My entire worm population attempted mass suicide by drowning….
Guerrilla Gardening for Perennial Herbs
. Gorilla Gardening: take one baby gorilla. Dig a hole deep enough so that the bottom of the gorilla’s ear lobes will be covered. Use an organic compost and choose an area with partial sun. Firmly pat down the soil around the Gorilla’s head. Gorillas like to be keep moist, but not soggy. Use well…