Category: gardening

Another swell use for those metal shipping containers—make ’em into urban greenhouses. TweetFacebookLinkedInTumblrStumbleDiggDelicious

7 reasons to become a gentleman gardener. Now that the art of manliness is on the upswing, or so I am told, gardening is one way to demonstrate/practice your masculinity without clocking somebody. Or, without getting clocked. Grow vegetables, cook for your woman, and take it from there. TweetFacebookLinkedInTumblrStumbleDiggDelicious

If you miss your garden when you’re out riding your bicycle here’s a way to take a little bit of the garden along with you on your journeys, with a bike planter designed by artist Colleen Jordan. No bicycle? No worry. Where there’s a plant there’s a way. Here’s a planter you can wear, anywhere. […]

When I wrote about the cold frame heater I’d just made, I didn’t mention that the other side of this story involves the several hundred thousand red wiggler worms I’ve got living in plastic buckets in the garage. They aren’t squatters. They are there because I built an insulated room for them and now I’d […]

Two-bit Guru | Give 'n Take | Photo of a weed in the foreground with pole beans in the background getting ready to harvest

“Giving, in all its forms, might be the key to creating heaven on this earth” ~Two-bit Guru~ Throughout the growing season the earth gives us gifts: peas and lettuce early, potatoes and dry beans near the end, but if we didn’t give to the earth along the way, the harvest wouldn’t be nearly as abundant, […]

Two-bit Guru | Speaking to Plants | Photo of pak choy gone to seed

When I wrote about picking raspberries I realized that when I’m in the garden, or encouraging seedlings in the house in the spring for that matter, I spend much time speaking to the plants. I compliment the tomatoes on their abundance, and the pole beans on their lovely appearance. The raspberries themselves get a lot […]

I love to be in the garden, whether I’m working, or picking raspberries, or just hanging out. This morning I opted to pick raspberries to put on my cereal. The patch is located literally 4 paces outside the front door, as the crow flies, meaning I have to step over the hostas. It’s 8 paces […]

Last gardening season I planted Butternut squash and Hubbard squash. This season, several volunteer squash plants came up in the same area. If I don’t need the space for other plantings, I usually let volunteers grow, just to see what will happen. Since the squash from last season were heirlooms, I figured that I would […]

Two-bit Guru - Growing Ground Cherries - Photo of ground cherry in husk and an open husk showing the fruit.

The ground cherries are coming. Ground cherries actually aren’t cherries at all but rather members of the Solanaceae family, also known as Nightshade. The family includes bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, tobacco, potatoes, petunia, and more. With such a wide-spread group you’d think the whole family was adopted but not so. Richard picked a half-gallon or […]

View Part I here. Still, no rain. I can’t recall a time when we’ve gone so long without rain. Nor can I recall a time when it’s been so hot. A few days ago I drove several miles away from Lake Michigan. The temperature was 103º F. I believe this is the highest natural temperature […]