A novice's attempt to get 15 percent of his food from his suburban fifth acre
Posted in Uncategorized on May 9th, 2010
A frost-less winter had me ready to write a breathy tribute to my great success in overwintering last season’s tomatoes — a pair of Beefsteaks and a Husky Cherry — despite the fact that I put no effort into the overwintering and had even less to do with whether or not our region had a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Feb 27th, 2010
The orange tree out back of our kitchen announces spring for us each year with thousands of white buds and a citrus scent I can smell from across the yard. It did so this past week, and it always surprises me in its timing because it seems like we just finished eating last season’s fruit. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 23rd, 2009
A few weeks ago I planted a perennial gourd called a Chayote, and in this brief period of time it has displayed the durability I’d hoped for in this enduring class of plants. If the squirrels and rabbits are too numerous to be controlled and starved of other edibles by drought (which they are), then [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 29th, 2009
When crops start small, they start vulnerable. This was an essential weakness of my warm season crop: 90 percent of the loss occurred early in the plant’s development. Birds pulled just-sprouted veggies from the ground to eat the seed off the bottom, leaving the first inch of growth to wither in the would-be garden. Rabbits [...]
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