This new year begins with rain and relatively warm temperatures–38 degrees this morning. It feels like March–gray and slightly foggy from the melting snow. It feels like the sap should be running in the trees, but it’s 2 months too early. The forecast is for more of the same. The good thing is no ice.Read more about No Control[…]
The first frost has finally fallen. The gardens are now officially dead, though clean-up remains to be done. Clean up now, so you don’t have to do it in the spring. However, garden energy is running low now, and it starts to run like sap in trees, come March. November has its own beauty. TheRead more about First Frost–Finally[…]
I finally focused on the invasive worm scare that i’ve been hearing about. All the worms in my vegetable garden are the jumping worms that eat up everything, including roots of plants. They leave behind, not beautiful, rich worm castings, which fertilize the soil, but loose, granular soil the texture of coffee grounds that sterilizesRead more about Oh, No.[…]
A mat of watercress is floating on my fishpond. I have pounds of watercress. Scads of watercress. A mattress of watercress. I love the taste of the peppery leaves of watercress, but this 4’x4′ patch is more than i can eat. Besides, just think of the cleaning–the rinsing, the sorting. With mindfulness, I sort throughRead more about Watercress Gone Crazy[…]
Last evening, before meditating, i saw a young porcupine in an apple tree. Very cute. Being an aversive type person myself, some of my good friends are of the prickly sort. Most of them don’t even realize they are sending little darts of ouches. They think they are making the world a better place byRead more about A Prickly Friend[…]
I’m not a fan of radishes, but a friend said roasted radishes are delicious. So i planted radishes in June. Wow. Now i have radishes! Big radishes. As the song from The Fantasticks sings, “Plant a radish, get a radish, not a Brussels sprout.” That’s what we are doing every moment of the day: PlantingRead more about Plant a Radish, Get a Radish[…]
New Zealand spinach isn’t really spinach, but it has arrow-shaped leaves, which taste slightly spinachy. The great thing about it is that it is slow to bolt. I’m actually harvesting enough to freeze. The Buddha offers a teaching on the 2 arrows. The first arrow is bodily (or mental / emotional) pain. We have bodies,Read more about New Zealand Spinach[…]
The deer are eating my zinnias. Zinnias! For the first time in 20 years, my zinnia flowers have been nipped off. Did you catch the cause of my irritation, the beginning of distress? “My” zinnias. Sez who? Someone else grew those zinnias; i (merely) planted them; someone (or something) else ate them. In 3 moreRead more about Please Don’t Eat the Zinnias[…]