Hardly anyone’s garden is the size they want it to be. Either it is too small and limits options. Or it is too large and overwhelms with maintenance needs. Enthusiastic gardeners tend to keep increasing the size of their garden until, one day, they discover they either need to hire help or adjust their gardening […]
New Chicken Coop Water Cured Cement Floor
My husband is an electrical engineer with a hobby interest in working with cement and stone. He has made me several things with cement, including a beautiful workbench for my greenhouse and the still in-progress cement border for my swimming pool. His most recent cement work has been making the cement floor for my new […]
Are Your Backyard Chicken Eggs Organic?
The meaning of the word organic is a bit slippery in popular culture. It is a spin-off of the more exact definitions from biology and chemistry, but sometimes vague and even contradictory. In the scientific realm, something is called organic if it has carbon atoms in it or if it has to do with life processes. From this point of […]
Dilemmas and Solutions for Old Garden Seeds
The nagging question about this time of year is “Should I just use all my old garden seed?” This is complicated by enticing seed catalogs, fears of low germination, and desires to plant exactly the right thing. Let me offer some things to think about, that will hopefully help you decide what you […]
Learning How to Use a Sauerkraut Crock plus Other Winter Harvest and Storage Suggestions
I had managed to harvest 8 cabbages and a few pumpkins from my garden before a hard freeze hit. By “harvest,” I mean I piled them in the garage and hoped the freeze wouldn’t be low enough or long enough to damage more than a few layers of green. When the cold temperatures continued, I […]