living simply and embracing imperfection
With the start of a new season, I’m always thinking the garden should be – poof! – growing and providing food. Too bad I don’t plan and plant enough during the fall and winter to actually make that happen. I’ve looked into it, because Steve Soloman says we can grow things year around in our [...]
I’m so excited to share with you the progress we’ve made on our future chicken coop! Since I’ve been talking for years about wanting to keep a few chickens on our acre, you all can probably guess how fun it is to finally see it coming together. We started with this three-sided structure on our [...]
I know from past experience that we often get wild and crazy weather in March. It’s our daughter’s birthday month which makes it easy to remember that we’ve celebrated her birthday in sunshine as well as snow and hail. But it’s always weird to me. Especially since last week the rest of the country enjoyed [...]
It was so nice to read all your comments and emails telling me how much you are looking forward to the new season and the Tuesday Garden Party- thank you! I love it, too, and am so glad to have you guys to share it with! So without further ado… What garden chores have you [...]
Here’s a quick update on the Great Asparagus Experiment (I know you’ve all been waiting with bated breaths…): The first week of June I stopped harvesting bed #1 so it could produce it’s ferns. Just yesterday, during this last week of June, I cut down the ferns from bed #2. In the picture above, bed [...]
I just received a garden update from the Oregon State Extension Service and read an interesting article on hedgerows. You know, the “hedgerows” they always mention in books set in England or Ireland. Huh? What? Why was the extension service mentioning this? I don’t think I even knew what the word hedgerow meant until I [...]
Some of you may remember my dismay last summer when the voles (otherwise referred to as field mice) started attacking my vegetable garden with a vengence. I knew we had them around the property because I had seen the holes in the grass, but they had never ventured into the garden in the four years [...]
One of the things I enjoy about starting my garden vegetables from seed is the thrill I get when they sprout. It’s just such a little miracle. You put this dry, brown thing in more dry brown stuff, add some water and – poof! Plants emerge. Real, green living things. And sometimes they’re pretty old [...]
The Christmas tree is gone, the decorations all in their boxes ready for the attic, and now I finally get to sit down with my… Garden catalogs! Seriously, my daughter rolls her eyes at this (welcome to life with a 13-year-old), but I restrain myself through the holidays, putting aside the new year’s gardening catalogs [...]
My 13-year old daughter has taken some really good photographs this past year. I really think she’s got a great eye for composition (yes, I know I’m biased, but I really do think…). So I asked her to take some pictures of flowers that were blooming now in our garden for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day [...]
We’ll start with the positive: I love bringing in the basket full of beautiful produce. Zucchini for kabobs, the last of the lettuce, green beans for my favorite side dishes, and a lovely head of “Graffiti” Cauliflower. Isn’t the color something? One of the reasons it’s so fun to garden is to be able to [...]
I’ve seen some magazines (and bloggers) who have beautiful hoop houses that they use to protect their vegetables from frost and cold weather. They might be covered with plastic, spun row cover or shade cloth, depending on the time of year, but they always look tidy and neat. This is my Oregon Cottage tomato cover [...]
I believe a cottage can be anywhere or anything (condo, ranch, farmhouse) as long as you have a "cottage mentality" which puts people above things, celebrates imperfections, embraces simplicity, and finds joy in everyday life. Thanks for joining me!
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