Gardening

Why does basil always seem to grow best at the end of summer, just when it’s threatened by frost? Basil plants are very sensitive to cold, even if there isn’t an official frost. Once picked, fresh basil doesn’t keep all that well. After you cut …

I wrote about Too Much Cheese a few weeks ago. Now I’ve got too much kale. This time the source is my garden. I planted a lot of kale seeds and they struggled along for months. Something was chewing little holes in the leaves, but …

I can’t let the summer gardening season go by without talking about my favorite green: arugula. I grow it every year. Picking fresh arugula and making salad is one of my favorite rewards for gardening. The arugula you buy in the supermarket is most likely …

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with a woman whose house burned down over a year ago. She lost everything, but when she went back last spring to survey the damage, she saw that her asparagus was coming up as if nothing had …

The changing seasons conjure images of yearly traditions like holidays, social events and seasonal food. For me, spring and green go together. The color green (as new plants emergy), and edible greens. Citrus fruits aren’t at their peak quality anymore. It’s too early for summer …

This year I tried growing corn. The plan was to mimic a traditional Native American technique of companion planting: corn + beans + squash. Beans are nitrogen-fixing plants and corn needs nitrogen, so it’s a good combination. We intermingled the corn and pole (climbing) beans …