Garden and Food books by Gayla Trail

Stitched Panoramas: Baja California, Mexico

These photos were taken on our recent trip to Baja California, Mexico. I’ve posted them in the order I took them over the course of a week. In my next post I will go into further detail about the location, but for now I wanted to show you the larger panoramas that I took with

Stitched Panoramas: San Diego, California

Torrey Pines State Reserve (Beach) I am writing this from a rocking chair in the San Diego airport, where I am winding down from just over a day in the city. We rented a car here in San Diego, a transportation method I would have preferred not to have made, as we are new drivers

My Year in Gardening: 2011

I wrote a reflections post for 2010, and thought it would be good to end this year in the same way, especially since it gives me the opportunity to revisit some experiences that I did not cover very thoroughly. [This photo and at top of page] My garden in September 2011. Year Start I started

The Butterfly Amaryllis

Every year I try to buy at least one new amaryllis bulb. What seems like a needless expense in the fall when I am still coming down from a bright and plentiful growing season, is almost essential by the time the long grey days of winter kick in. That little boost of colour and life

Please Allow Me to Get This Small Awkwardness Out of the Way

I know that I haven’t posted much about gardening lately. Frankly, I haven’t posted here in over a week now, period. I have started and stopped many times. I starting working on the follow up to the series on garden writing. And then I backtracked and started a second follow-up post that I have since

Until Then

We lost our beloved cat this weekend. I’ll be back on Wed to pick the winners of the giveaway, but beyond that I can’t say what will happen here over the next week. Making the sentences with the words doesn’t feel particularly appealing right now.

Make Your Own Herbal Bath Tea

This is an old project that I originally posted to this site back in the early 2000’s. It was lost when we switched over to a new design, but I’ve brought it back in time for holiday gift-making. (p.s. the photos are small due to the original page design). ——————— This is a simple, but

Heck Yeah! Pickle Obsessive

My fermenting obsession continues to play out at a fever pitch. The honey wine is kicking ass and I just purchased 4lbs of parsnips from the farmers’ market with a loose plan to make parsnip wine. The book, (“Country Wines” 1953) speaks very highly of this particular brew. Thanks to Paula, who sent me a

Easy Growing: Coming Soon

Black and white galley copies of my new book, Easy Growing: Organic Herbs and Edible Flowers from Small Spaces arrived on my doorstep late last week, signalling that we are one step closer to the publication date in early February 2012. If you’re a long-lead publication that would like to write a review or do