Till or No Till? (and a dead ‘possum)

I am slowly converting my gardens into no-till beds with heavily mulched aisles. This tends to use a lot of mulch–especially initially, but it is great for conserving moisture and cutting down on weed control issues. The area shown above is a small bed with incorporated cattle panel trellis that I am carving out [...]

Planting Windows

Was going to do this post last night, but I was worn out from yesterday’s planting frenzy. I take what windows I can to get crops in this time of year. Yesterday the ground was a bit more moist than the window at the beginning of the week, but dry enough to crumble [...]

Cue: Snow (Notes on Spinach)

Right on cue–about an inch of heavy, wet snow.  In case you’re wondering–the peas will be just fine.  So will the spinach.  These cold hardy crops shrug off this sort of weather.
We had a hard freeze after I planted last year (and with bare ground)–but the early-seeded crops were fine.  A little snow is nice, [...]

As Soon as the Ground can be Worked

That’s when you plant peas–and that’s what I did today.  About 90 row feet of sugar snaps down the cattle panel trellises I constructed last year–topped with a light covering of straw mulch to keep the soil from crusting.
The earth was tender–a little more moist toward the east end of the garden that gets less [...]

VAAC to Farmers Market: No Deal

Last night, three of the five Vermillion Area Farmers Market Board members attended the VAAC Board meeting to sort out whether or not the Farmers Market would be granted a lease for this season.
The Farmers Market Board had asked me, as president/spokeswoman, to see if we could renegotiate with the current Arts Council Board now [...]

Planting Commences

Got my first round of spinach seeded today, and mulched the elephant garlic planted last fall with the remainder of the duck bedding left over the winter in their night shelter-box.
Generally, I think the smell of manure is a good one–it is the smell of fertility.  This stuff–not so much.  While I’m sure the garlic [...]

Community Garden Meeting Wednesday Night!

There will be an organizational meeting for the Vermillion Community Garden Project on Wednesday, March 26, 7pm at the Washington Street Arts Center.
Those involved with coordinating the garden have redrafted the contract in order that garden plot leases will be honored through the end of the season, regardless of any possible sale of the property [...]

Arts Council Board Meeting Tuesday Night

I’m posting on this because the meeting time has changed: The Vermillion Area Arts Council Board will meet at 5:30pm tomorrow night (Tuesday, March 25) at the Washington Street Arts Center.
The time had to be changed due to a class scheduling conflict.
See you there!

Simple Celeriac Mash

The consensus: eat the crazy knobbly celeriac root.  That’s what I did, and it was fantastic!
Though all of the proffered salad ideas looked good, the chilly weather drove me to make something warm and hearty instead.
I peeled the root and cut it into 1″ cubes–boiled about 15 minutes, then added two medium-sized skinned and cubed [...]

A Gardener’s Guide to Plant Names–B.J. Healey

If you are both a gardener/farmer and a lover of history and of language (that’s philologist, for the initiated), this book is the ultimate in gratifying geekery.  The title page offers this summation of the book’s contents:
“An excursion into the mysteries of botanical names; and, I hope, an answer to your friends who fix you [...]