-
Preparing the Soil in Raised Beds
If you haven’t already added compost to your soil for the upcoming season, now might be a good time to do so while it is unseasonably warm and the soil is workable. In raised beds, getting soil tested may not be necessary if you are using more topsoil, compost and supplements than the naturally occurring soil. Personally, I have not had my soils tested, but as I expand beyond the raised beds this year, I probably will. Last year, I…
-
Seeding and Planting Timeline
My brother recently requested that I let him know whenever I was planting something so that he didn’t plant too late this year. Last year I was an eager beaver planting earlier than most, which lead to my tomatoes coming in a month before most of my friends and my squash gave me a nice early crop before being ravaged by pests. Other plants were too early, and I either had to replant or just never enjoyed any yield from…
-
Time to Plant Onions in NC
It’s strangely warm outside, and I thought I’d look into onion planting dates for NC. Last spring I waited until March or April and my plants bolted and never bulked up. According to the Department of Horticultural Science at NCSU, the window for Spring planting is January 15 – February 25. For more information on planting onions, check out this information leaflet from NCSU.
-
Poop Poop?
Whe Scooby and I have a morning of errands to run, there is a small window of opportunity to get out the door that will allow enough time to complete everything without melting down in the middle of what is usually the last stop. If I spend the entire morning getting us ready, he gets upset that there’s no play time. So this morning we played downstairs and ate chocolate chip pancakes before I took a shower and blew out…
-
Engineered, but not Reversed
Our church does this yearly practice in early January called “Reverse Engineering”. Individuals and families are asked to prayerfully assess nearly all aspects of their lives: priorities, habits and patterns, relationships, finances, daily schedules, vacations, emotional and physical health, spiritual development, family life, etc to make the most of the time and resources they have available. The idea is to look at where you see God directing your life – 1,2,5 and 40 years into the future – and begin…
-
Gardening – Just A Novelty?
Another issue of Organic Gardening came in the mail yesterday, and is still in the plastic wrap. I’m not sure how I keep getting these since I didn’t pay for them, but I am not complaining. Maybe I signed up for a free trial? My Fall gardening completely bombed due to one main factor: morning sickness. I wasn’t in the mood for anything green for about 15 weeks, and it seems to me that Fall gardening is all about green:…