The weather has not been very good lately. Since the 25th of June, my farm has received only 0.5 inches of rain. The heat has made the dryness of summer even worse. I’ve lost track of how many days it’s been above 100°F; the worst we’ve had at home is 115°F. It’s frustrating to watch…
It’s finally autumn and after a hot summer I’m certainly celebrating this year. It’s amazing how different the garden looks. A few rainfalls, cooler nighttime temperatures and shorter days have had a big impact on plant growth and my sanity. It’s a miracle the plants survived after such a harsh summer. Native plants are fortunate…
Scented violets, do you like them?Not only is there a great deal of confusion on my part about what a scented violet is and what it is not, but the same is true of botanists as well. Fortunately, with the recent sequencing of DNA, this issue seems to have been resolved. Of course, there are…
I am also designing my own farm in this very space, and considered how he could plant the right plants, in the right places, with such precision? I’ll be talking about how the tiniest details of perception will determine which plants will go there. Of course, this skill takes time and practice, as well as…
The annual vines known as cup and saucer vines are loved by many gardeners. Their large cupped purple or white flowers and distinctive trumpet-shaped corollas look very much like teacups. Many of us have never really given it much thought. Like many familiar garden flowers, the cup-and-saucer vine, or Cobaea scandens, belongs to a much…
We all love to see our gardens full of flowers blooming in the spring, shouldn’t we be sowing seeds in the winter? Sowing seeds may be easy, or look easy, but then it is difficult. Shortcuts rarely pay off unless people know the pros and cons. There are many novel ways to do this circulating…
There was a lot of touring of the farm and then we walked back to the house along the base they had dug out of the extra soil, past the vegetable garden, where corn, peas, lettuce, courgettes and other vegetables were growing in neat little boxes framed with old metal. We returned past the house,…
Dan pointed to the south and told us they owned the next two hills, the one we saw had a trail running through it, as did the hill behind it. He reiterated that the farmers who owned the land before them had kept the vegetation under control, growing as much grass as possible. But they…
In this garden, constructed on an 8-foot bamboo pole base, branches and sprigs are then tied to the structure. Early sweet pea seedlings started in deep trays were placed around the base and squeezed back to produce stronger stems, and by July the structure will be covered with flowers. These will be a mix of…
When we were travelling to England last summer, as we turned onto a one-way street. I was now in the driver’s seat. The road is heavily hedged and tighter than any road you’ll see in America. I prayed that we didn’t run into any oncoming cars. After about 2 miles we came to a gap…