Category Archives: garden

Flowers

As my vegetable gardening ramps up, I’m less and less interested in flower gardening. We have terraced beds along the side of the house and the first year I stuck in a bunch of oriental lily bulbs which have been … Continue reading

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The Salad Days

tomato plants at Heritage Farm, Decorah, Iowa I officially began eating garden salads on June 1, and that has been my dinner mainstay every day since. (I admit, I was gone three days to Iowa.) I find that not only does … Continue reading

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Good Food

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and the season of several (video) movies a week is officially over and the season of cooking has begun. Also, feel free to wear white pants and shoes after Monday. After working today on The Art of … Continue reading

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Radishes

Spring continues to be wet, cold and windy. My tomato plants, which I hoped to plant this weekend, are huddled on the front step, toughening up as best they can while still being protected from the wind. That is why … Continue reading

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American Cress

When I was living and working on the campus of Saint John’s University/Abbey, I was the recipient of regular spring gifts of watercress. The watercress was established by Fr. Godfrey Diekmann, a monk of St. John’s Abbey who was quite … Continue reading

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First Harvest

The rhubarb has been, like everything, slow in coming in, but I did manage to get four cups of rhubarb picked on Friday for the first dish from the garden. With some remaining frozen strawberries and help from epicurious.com, I … Continue reading

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Dirt

When I was ordering seeds in February, I also ordered a few books from the Seed Savers catalogue. One that caught my eye was Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians. It is one of those interesting things … Continue reading

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Earth Day / Good Friday

Today is Earth Day, which is completely overshadowed in my corner of the world by its also being Good Friday. I have always taken Good Friday very seriously, and so did a sort of media fast (not entirely, obviously) and … Continue reading

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Planting

cherry tomato seedlings and one surprising batch of cilantro Today I did my first outdoor seed planting. I may have gotten carried away, but I didn’t put in anything that can’t be replanted if it ends up getting very cold … Continue reading

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Soil That Can Be Worked

The key gardening phrase on some seed packets is “as soon as the soil can be worked.” That is when you can plant your first lettuce, peas, carrots, spinach and radishes. I have a large stack of seeds I can plant … Continue reading

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