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Now that December is officially here, it’s beginning to look a bit more like Christmas around here. I made two swags yesterday: one for our mailbox post and the other for our wood shed door. Just for fun, and just because I have the materials on hand anyway. If you’ve never made a swag before, I thought you’d appreciate a […]
Read moreDo you have any pumpkins left over from your garden? There is nothing finer than a homemade pumpkin pie, especially when you fill it with the yummy goodness of your very own, homegrown pumpkins. Even if you didn’t grow any, you can easily find pie pumpkins, also known as sugar pumpkins, at the grocery store. You would think that turning […]
Read moreYesterday, I got together with several friends to make decorative holiday decor items using natural materials from our gardens. We made wreaths, centerpieces, candle arrangements, gifts and so on. If you’ve been following my blog for a long time, you know that I bring up this topic each year as the holiday season approaches. That’s because it is my hope […]
Read moreHere are more of the photos I took while my friends and I were making decorative holiday decor items for our homes and for gifts, using natural materials from our gardens: Two wreaths using non-traditional color themes with pretty accents and ornaments. I made this for a gift for some friends. This is a swag one of my friends made, […]
Read moreLook what visited our garden this weekend! You are looking at a female Sharp-Shinned hawk. They are the smallest hawks that fly into our yard this time of year. Since we have a bird-feeding station, there are lot of birds flying around which attracts the attention of these hawks as well as Coopers’ hawks and Goshawks. All of them eat […]
Read moreI have a large perennial bed out front that is just brimming with all sorts of cool plants. But something happens to that bed during the winter that I’m not too crazy about. Since we live in a rural area, there are a lot of animals we have to deal with. The big ones like moose and deer are definitely […]
Read moreWe interrupt the travelogues with some interesting fall garden information. (at least, I think it’s interesting even though it’s about those annoying insects, leaf miners) Today, my husband and I harvested the last of our root crops — potatoes, carrots and parsnips — and I picked a bunch of spinach and lettuce from my fall garden bed. I wrote a […]
Read moreSpotted Wing Drosophila: Photos courtesy of Beverly Gerdeman, PhD, WSU Research Associate and WSU Whatcom County Extension. Even if you can’t pronounce the name of this dreaded insect, you need to know about this — especially if you grow fruit trees or berry plants. The Spotted Wing Drosophila (or SWD), Drosophila suzukii, has been found in Spokane and it is […]
Read moreI know that sounds like a “B” movie but it appears local gardeners are starting to have problems with stink bugs eating their vegetable and fruit crops and that is worrisome to me. I think a lot of us grew up thinking stink bugs were those large black beetles that smelled nasty if you stepped on them. It turns out […]
Read moreYesterday, a friend of mine was asking what floating row covers are since I mention them frequently in my columns. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to do a post about this topic because it’s one of my favorite tools for growing a productive vegetable garden. Floating row cover is a lightweight, woven fabric that looks very much like the interfacing […]
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