Hands-On Gardener
The Farmer is the Man (or Woman)
by Miriam Hansen When I was a kid my mother used to break into soulful renditions of “The Farmer is the Man” at seemingly random intervals. Looking back, I suspect her singing had something to do with preparing meals for eight to ten people, but what stuck with me is the idea that the men [...]
Hands-On Gardener: April 2013: Not for the Faint of Heart!
by Miriam Hansen Despite a spring that has looked more like November than April, I still think we’ll be frost free by the third week of May. I know it’s hard to believe, but a pair of bluebirds has been frequenting the house my husband just built, fresh crocuses keep springing up and the February [...]
Hands-On Gardener: Middle of March, People!
by Miriam Hansen I’ve got onions, celery, parsley, dahlias, dianthus, foxgloves and snapdragons, as well as lettuce, arugula and tomatoes for the greenhouses, up and growing under grow lights. With lows around zero and a wallop of snow predicted, even I am feeling a bit ahead of the curve. Last year at this time, we [...]
Hands-On Gardener: Time to Start the Onions, Celery and Parsley!
by Miriam Hansen Today I sprinkled last year’s onion seeds onto wet paper towels, marked the variety and date and slipped them into individual Ziploc bags. I’ll start checking for germination in a couple of days and every day thereafter. Last year I forgot about them for a week. By the time I checked, their [...]
Hands-On Gardener: Tips, Revelations and Resolutions
by Miriam Hansen It is time once again to order seeds, toss old seed packets (three to five years old, depending on the vegetable) and start planning the garden. I order my seeds in January because I don’t want to miss the lower prices Fedco offers on some of the hotter varieties. Even that approach [...]
Hands-On Gardener: The Way to a Gardener’s Heart . . .
by Miriam Hansen This year like last year, we are enjoying an exceptionally balmy November. The winter rye is thick and green, but even though the garden continues to percolate along with kohlrabi, kale, cabbage, parsnips and celeriac, the season is definitely winding down. Carrots, beets and parsnips will soon be tucked under tarps full [...]
Hands-On Gardener: Waiting for the Deep Freeze
by Miriam Hansen It has been such a mild fall, the raspberries have budded up and a few have actually ripened! Soon we’ll cut back last year’s canes. Hopefully next year’s will still produce a good crop. The asparagus patch is a forest of feathery fronds. I’ve weeded, thrown compost around the plants and mulched [...]
Hands-On Gardener: Surviving the Harvest
by Miriam Hansen Well, we did finally get late blight. Indeed, the first signs appeared on the tomatoes August 26. We harvested the fruit, ripped out the plants and buried them. As the fruit has ripened, I’ve been cutting out the blighted bits and burying them with the infected plants. The photo above shows the [...]
Hands-On Gardener: Late Blight and Other Challenges: Keeping It in Perspective
by Miriam Hansen When a reader contacted me at the end of July asking me to address the problem of late blight on potatoes and tomatoes, I agreed to devote my August column to it. Late blight, the scourge of potato and tomato crops, is caused by a fungus-like organism called Phytophthora infestans, the same [...]
Hands-On Gardener: Heat and Shade
by Miriam Hansen Long hot sunny days with hardly a drop of rain are especially brutal if you don’t have a good watering system. We’ve been watering almost every day, moving sprinklers and dragging hoses around the garden and greenhouses. Easy-to-use brass quick-release connectors (Tractor Supply) for the sprinkler and gun attachments make life easier, [...]