-
A Pruning of Personality
My house is gross, and it’s really only my fault. I chose to adopt two cats. I chose to buy my son two parakeets. I chose to have two kids. The vision of the piles of clutter often feels like a hot, thick vapor in my lungs, and it’s the reason I’m driven out into the yard where I can feel the breeze and watch things grow. However, at the end of the summer season, the veggie garden and perennial…
-
Summer Garden Refresh in Central NC for mid-July
We had a massive rain event at the end of last week, and I had to clean up the garden. In clearing out carrots that were ready to be pulled and trimming back snapped tomatillo vines, I found there was room to add some more crops in the garden. The following table was adapted from NCSU CES “Central North Carolina Planting Calendar for Annual Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs” for July 15. I have added more beans, carrots, cucumbers and squash.…
-
What’s Growing (other than mosquitoes)
The garden is pure magic this week. It seems like we’ve moved to a completely different region as we went from dry conditions to late spring rains and plants that were only poking their heads above ground are lush. I no longer have to worry about the chickens plucking out tender seedlings and can let them out to forage for a little bit during the day. If it weren’t for the mosquitoes, I’d sit outside all hours of the day.…
-
Pi Alpha Xi Plant Sale Spring 2018
My oldest and I went to the NC State Pi Alpha Xi plant sale at the NC Museum of Art Saturday morning. The plant list was shared earlier in the week, and I looked up all the native plants and boxed the ones I hoped to pick up. Without going to a specialty nursery, it can be difficult to find native plants, so this sale is a goldmine in that there are plenty plants clearly marked as native (and many…
-
An Evolving Rock Garden
We have a little tradition in our family of bringing home rocks from camping trips or special times in the mountains. We don’t always remember to do it, but the times we have it usually involves picking one out and seeing if Joe is able to lift it and get it into the car. We also regularly dig up rocks in the yard. Nearly every time we have planted a tree, we’ve unearthed rocks of varying sizes. This has resulted…
-
Before the Last Frost (0 Weeks)
If you live in Raleigh, don’t plant today or tomorrow. I’m holding my breath for spring (and for the pollen to be washed away). If you have already planted, consider cloches or floating row covers to protect tender plants. I’ve used buckets, tarp tents, plastic cups, and cloches all to varying degrees of success. Yesterday I noticed that most of my pumpkin and watermelon seedlings were done for, so I will be direct seeding after this weather passes. My tomatoes…
