Japanese farmers knife
Several years ago I bought a Japanese farmers knife (or “hori hori”) from Lee Valley. I chose the carbon steel version, and have had no problems with rust (wipe the dirt off when I put it up, and I’m done with maintenance). I can’t say enough about this tool. It is a perfect weeding tool, as it let’s me dig and loosen weeds right among perennials with fairly surgical precision. And, it’s strong enough to dig out some deeply rooted volunteer trees, etc...
Book Review #3: Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening and Conservation by Donald J. Leopold
This book offers a wide selection of native trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses and wildflowers from the northeastern part of the United States and Canada. The author’s goal was to introduce readers to attractive native plants and learn how they can be used in a garden landscape as well as in conservation and restoration projects. In the book’s introduction, Donald Leopold discusses the ecology of natural communities and what affects them. He briefly introduces concepts such...
Book Review: 100 Easy-to-grow Native Plants
March 7/10 100 Easy-to-grow Native Plants For Canadian Gardens, by Lorraine Johnson I purchased this book at the Stratford Garden Festival yesterday. I like having a quick visual reference to help select native plants for my yard. At first and second glance I was pleased with the book as it provided photos of the plant and the technical information re: the plant needs etc. Today, I read the introduction section and found it really interesting. The author had been asked to record t...
Garden attempt #2 Spring 2010 #5: Where Am I?
Each day I seem to wake in a different “zone” than I went to sleep in, lol. With highs in the mid 40’s and winter coats traded in for sweaters or hoodies, it just FEELS like getting your hands and knees dirty in the garden….then BAM! I wake up to Christmas! Snow covered EVERYTHING, ice scrapers and a ten minute freeze job just to take kids to school…... and BAM! Next day wake up to not a drop of ice or snow to be seen, it somehow ALL MELTED overnight….. isn...
Book Review #2: Perennial Vegetables: From Artichoke to ‘Zuiki’ Taro, A Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious, Easy
This book is helpful for temperate-climate, North American gardeners who want to grow at least some of their own vegetables and are looking for ways to use nature to help reduce the amount of work growing those vegetables entails. Imagine the work involved in a conventional vegetable garden: tilling, seed starting, transplanting, sowing seeds, hoeing and weeding, mulching, watering, fertilizing and seeding cover crops. Now imagine gardens that do some or even most of the work themselves, le...
Garden attempt #2 Spring 2010 #3: No Fish In Here!
OK A progress update :) I took my 20 gallon aquarium that I no longer use (since we now have 2 55 gallon ones for our fish) and it has a under gravel filter that I placed a couple strands of xmas lights underneath. I took a bunch of pepper seeds from last years plants and some tomato seeds from grocery store tomatos and put them on wet paper towels in a plastic cake dome from the bakery and placed this inside the aquarium. Hopefully those seeds will start, but I’m starting them early...
Book Review #1: Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway
Permaculture is a set of techniques and principles to design and implement sustainable human settlements. It is dependent on place and each garden is different, with diverse climates, resources and needs. This book seeks to aid the gardener in finding the potential of his/her garden, treating the entire property, including the buildings, as part of a living and dynamic ecosystem. I recommend this book to anyone who is also trying to “grow their way to freedom”. The book is geared toward a...
Garden attempt #2 Spring 2010 #2: I LOVE big trash Day :)
So tomorrow is big trash day in my neighborhood, so I couldn’t resist driving around and taking a look since it only comes once every three months, lol…. and I found a couple shower doors (lil hothouse or cold box perhaps?) and a very new looking and sturdy resin table to use inside new greenhouse until shelving is built :) I also found a BRAND NEW Champion punching bad for DH and DS16 but that is not part of my garden attempt :)
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