One of my favorite topics! Herbs to grow, eat, and use in the home.
Small, but meaningful shifts are taking place in the garden. Over the weekend (April 13), I made my first, small leafy greens harvest of the season. It included: Radicchio, dandelion, stinging nettle, garlic, ‘Egyptian Walking’ onion, bloody dock, and strawberry leaves, as well as some chickweed, kale, and dandelion (including a flower) that are further …
I’ve been growing borage (Borago officinalis) for almost as long as I’ve been a gardener, but when I look back, I can’t recall why I started growing it in the first place. Borage is an unpleasantly prickly if not painful plant. It grows scraggly and too tall in my well-cared-for soil and relies on neighbouring …
Back in 2010, when I was travelling to promote the release of my second book, Grow Great Grub, I made a stop at a small bookstore in Montreal. Before the event, I went plant shopping with the store manager, who wanted to get a little herb garden planted in front of the shop. In the …
This year I am committed to writing more here about growing leafy greens. In my last post I provided photographic documentation of almost every one of my harvests of leafy greens in the 2017 growing season. As promised, this post is a complete list of every plant depicted in those photos. I omitted crops such …
Winter is halfway through and I’m sick of it. Over it. Tired of the back and forth freezing and thaw. This week snow and ice, next week thaw and mud. I’m missing the garden big time, but what I’m missing most aren’t flowers, bright colours, smells, or living soil, although I miss those things too. …
I grow several allium species and cultivars in my garden and I find that many of them serve as a hub for a surprising range of pollinators. This is nodding onion (Allium cernuum), an easy to grow, multi-use plant that is native to Carolinian habitats (parts of Canada and the US, including right here in …
I chose TASTE as my prompt for the first day. My original plan was to choose a handful of different basil varieties and make comparisons between the flavours of the different flowers as a way to get to know them better. However, once I was out in the garden I found myself tempted by several …
Growing herbs as cuttings is one quick and cost effective way that I multiply some of my herb crops — particularly basil — midway into the growing season. This way I don’t have to grow as much from seed, and should I purchase a particular variety, I only need purchase one transplant. Not all cuttings …
Earlier today I was doing some writing on the book I hope to publish in the near future. One of the sections I was working on was about particularly aromatic plants and I got the sudden urge to invite readers via social media to share their favourite plant smell, whether from foliage, flower, or otherwise. …
Use old herbs to make a springtime tonic for houseplants, outdoor potted plants, young seedlings, and to help newly planted transplants get established outdoors.
The little patch of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) that I’ve got at the back of my garden is starting to emerge from its winter dormancy. Years ago, when I was first “bit” by this plant, I never could have imagined that one day I would grow it in my garden, or that I would be …
The first hard frost is predicted for this weekend, either Friday or Sunday. I don’t know which because the various weather apps I keep on my phone (and check religiously) are giving conflicting forecasts. At this point I am hustling to clean up for Friday, expecting the worst, but hoping for more time. As is …