• Thoughts

    Broken Wires – Apologies and Forgiveness

    This morning my kids are at school and I’m home pondering apologies and forgiveness for the routine conflicts experienced in family and friendships. One of my own struggles is that after I have wronged someone, even if I have apologized and they say they have forgiven me, I still feel the brokenness. I can shoulder the hurt for years and stash it away to beat myself up with later. Sometimes if I’m the one wounded, I don’t address hurtful actions but blame myself for having high expectations or assuming a friendship was tighter than it was. I’m not in therapy and haven’t studied these topics, but I suspect this isn’t…

  • Garden

    Native Plants for the NC Yard

    Whether we grew up in households that farmed, helped in the yard or lived near open areas or in a concrete jungle, many of us who get into gardening as adults follow a trajectory that begins with grabbing a few landscape plants from a big box store and later finds us amongst the feeding frenzy that are native plant sales at our local arboretum or botanical garden, with our mindset having shifted from sprucing up the yard to designing our space to maximize support of local biodiversity and habitat. We shift in preference from turf grass to sedges and from tea roses to rose mallow. While I grew up in…

  • Garden,  Urban Homesteading

    Summer Garden Recap

    My food growing was a disaster this summer. At least that’s how it felt as I surveyed the mass of weedy overgrowth this evening. I put all my energy into the new pond and quail keeping, and I let the weeds run amok and didn’t feed the plants or top off compost as I should have. For my future self, I’m documenting the season and will start with the positives because no one likes a whiner. Wins One apple tree out of three and one pear tree out of two finally started producing just a few but still very exciting fruits. One really good peach tree yielded 35lbs of peaches.…

  • Garden,  Pond,  Projects

    The Big Dig – Backyard Pond

    "I dig deep thoughts and appropriately sized holes", my current Instagram tagline, makes me giggle. I didn't anticipate digging such an insanely big hole this spring, but I'd been worrying about how large the koi were growing and pointing out spots in the yard to Joe where a pond would fit.

  • Garden

    Essential Garden Edibles

    After nearly 15 years of growing food, I have settled into my garden and learned the local climate, built up my soil, and developed planting rhythms, growth expectations, and a list of essential garden edibles that work best for my garden and household. These 13 fruits, veggies, and herbs have become my essentials because of their flavor, versatility and/or preservability: tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, okra, cucumber, sugar snap peas, carrots, potatoes, garlic, onions, basil, dill, and cilantro. What should go on the list? While I grow tons of different things, these emerged as the foods that I look forward to eating, that I enjoy growing, and that I can combine easily…

  • Garden,  Local

    JC Raulston Annual Plant Distribution

    The Annual Plant Distribution is like getting an annual dividend on your stock. If you are a member, once a year you get the greenhouse excess. It’s wonderful. The “grab” is broken up into four rounds. During the first three rounds, each member can grab three plants. A list of plants are pre-published and numbered with at least four of each available. There are also tons of plants not numbered, and some are real stunners. The fourth round is a free-for-all with the only rule being, “no plants left behind”. Members come with wagons, plan lists and their own game plan. This was our second year as members, and so…