by Noel | Feb 11, 2009 | Gardening
I got most of my onions seeded into a flat tonight. Three types – Copra, a hybrid yellow storage onion that I’ve grown for years. It is extremely reliable and an excellent keeper. Redwing, a red storage hybrid. This is a new one for me. I had been growing a red onion called Mars, but Fedco Seeds dropped it, I think because the seed all comes from Seminis, a Monsanto owned company. Monsanto is on Fedco’s do not buy list, which is fine by me. Monsanto is...
by Anneliese | Feb 3, 2009 | Events, Gardening
I’m excited about the coming months for many reasons. We have a busy schedule exhibiting at garden shows and Green Festivals, and it’s always fun to travel and meet new people (and say hi to the folks you haven’t seen since last year). I’m excited for spring to arrive. Which it will. Eventually. I hope. I’m also excited to turn 29 this month. Okay, not really. But what I’m excited about today is that I had my Master Gardener...
by Anneliese | Jan 30, 2009 | Environmental Issues, Gardening
I’ve wanted a worm bin for a while, but it was never an urgent issue. It’s not as though we don’t have a compost pile. For as long as I can remember, we’ve composted all of our food scraps. In fact, when I was a kid, I didn’t know what a garbage disposal was. I distinctly remember visiting a friend’s house and asking where they kept the compost bucket. The way I understood it, throwing food into the kitchen sink was a BAD thing....
by Geoff | Jan 29, 2009 | Gardening
On Monday afternoon I went out to my garden to harvest spinach and chard for the evening meal. However, I discovered some friends who were also helping themselves to the spinach and devastating the beets: Texas Leaf Cutting Ants (Atta texana.) I hadn’t noticed any sign of them the previous morning, but in less than a day they had eaten about one third of my beets to the ground and severely damaged the rest. Initially panicked and upset about the rapid loss...
by Geoff | Jan 21, 2009 | Gardening
Last January the Arthouse at the Jones Center here in Austin hosted an exhibit by architect Fritz Haeg called Attack on the Front Lawn. The hands-on installation presented examples of projects from Los Angeles to London to South Austin that transformed front yards into food gardens. The presentation inspired a couple of good friends of mine, Courtney Morris and Martin Perna, to rip out the front yard of their East Austin home and fill it with vegetables. Last...
by Judy | Jan 17, 2009 | Gardening, Recipes
As I used a handful of our fantastic dried tomatoes in last night’s veggie sauté it brought to mind the very thought provoking book that I read a couple years ago by Barbara Kingsolver, ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life’. This is a story of how the Kingsolvers lived and ate as locally and as seasonally as possible growing much of their own food and raising their own animals. My local book club recently discussed this so I had the...
