Last week, Raleigh got 3-4 inches of rain with hailstorms an inch deep in a few hours. Weirdly, no cars or buildings got damaged and the plants bounced back even healthier. The apple trees are having their best year ever thanks to pruning tips from Martin’s Fruit Trees for Every Garden. For anyone who hasn’t tried pruning trees, to get those beautiful big sweet apples organically without spraying pesticides, you need to prune in the winter (February is common in NC) followed up by handplucking the extra blossoms off or pips in early spring to leave 1-2 baby apples per bunch. Wow, it makes a huge difference and isn’t time consuming even on large trees like we have. Figure 30...
Realistically, most people aren’t going to spend a year of 5 hours a week redoing their yard to be organic gardens. It’s delicious and highly recommended, but totally get older people complaining about their knees or hips. Raised garden beds and windowsill pots are MUCH more popular and less work. Plus, they’re great for regular meals without reinventing the wheel. While I spent the weekend weeding radishes, pruning apple trees, and planting trays of herbs for the outdoor kitchen garden, definitely had neighbors showing up for free purple basil for their countertops. If you spend anytime in NC, BASIL is the #1 herb as it scares off mosquitoes. The trend brings back visions of the 90s kitchen container herbs: Rosemary,...
This past week has been such a blessing. Hope you’ve enjoyed the holidays too. Thanks everyone who showed up with cardboard for the yard, yummy treats, and good company. Knocked a ton of time off the ongoing gardening project. Looks like we’re down to the shop which looks like the last load of mulch for hugelkultur, German style land regeneration. Nice. No more poison ivy or brambles! If you live in the Southeast, poison ivy is a PEST and it’s so nice to have a real solution for the problem that has plagued our place for a decade. Whoot. There’s plenty of tutorials online for anyone who's interested in learning about this ancient art and if you live in Raleigh...
This morning the birds got up at 5 am to say what a beautiful day it is. My new favorite morning tea is oat flowers which is an old European energy staple. Got the purple asparagus and herbs planted this weekend which is a nice start to April. #1 neighbor tool request is Clyde’s Garden Planner for $5-8. It’s a small slide ruler of basic planting dates, companion crops, and yield for spring and fall annual crops in the US. Practically, a kitchen garden means planting 1-2 crops every week in a 15’ x 30’ plot which saves the average family $4,000-8,000/year in grocery bills, but given all our different temperature zones compared to Europe, it can be a bit...
After an unusually cold winter, NC is tasting spring. The Viking Experience is gearing up for another weekend. Outdoor music concerts. College basketball games on Sunday afternoon tv. The fairgrounds are hosting tons of different shows and events back-to-back. It’s nice. Got a late 80s/early 90s clothing vibe walking around. Expect to see small print flower dresses making a comeback with edible flowers. Our local museum does Artists in Bloom with florists. I keep expecting them to expand to gourmet food for their gift shop. French flowers and gardens do well in the US and they have a long history of putting flowers in all their food, including 4-star salads. Violets which taste like fresh peas can be candied for...