You can grow coffee and get coffee beans. It's also a beautiful plant. Here's how I've grown mine:
Growing Coffee at Home.
A 2020 – Recap: Books, Beer, and Bugs.
It wasn't all doom and gloom! Funny to look back and think this year started normally here. Sure, there were rumours of a virus in the East, but it wasn’t enough to worry me. And I wasn’t alone. So I wan’t alone in being wrong, either. What a year! It’s been a rough year, of course.... Continue Reading →
Never Buy Ladybugs!
Never buy Lady Bugs!! Seriously. For those of us who know ‘bugs’, and know biological pest control, there is only one reason for commercially available, lab-produced ladybugs: They are the “gateway bug;” An insect that people regularly see, generally like, and view as the poster-icon for beneficial insects. If shopping for “ladybugs” and even applying... Continue Reading →
Growing Backyard Wheat
Summer is a progression from Spring Green to hues of gold and brown. Fields of grasses like barley and wheat reach for the sun, turn gold and bow their heads to the summer heat. Your yard is, no doubt, full of beautiful plants that similarly demonstrate the passage of time in the choreographed, seasonal flora-dance.... Continue Reading →
The Wasp, the Slug and the Fava Bean
I haven’t been writing much this season. Honestly, I have been more often frustrated than not with the garden. This season started so promising. Rye and wheat exploded and filled winter beds with greenery, the green houses were filled with plugs of plants grown to schedule and my over-wintered cauliflower produced heads before most things... Continue Reading →
Equinox – Spring 2020 (The Year Everyone’s Gardens Will Look Spectacular)
With COVID-19 making it’s way around the world, those of us with time and health are able to spend a whole lot of time in our gardens. Let’s hope the commercial greenhouses and nurseries (and everyone, for-that-matter) can survive this. I think it’s about time I wrote of our garden. It’s been a long time... Continue Reading →
The Winterized Garden
The winterized garden: November, 2019. The rains have come. It was actually a wet September, which for us, is unusual. For the trees and my garden, it was welcomed - besides splitting my tomatoes and abruptly putting an end to the season for some more sensitive crops. October had been relatively nice, and we have... Continue Reading →
The Many Colours of a September Harvest
Amazing! I had no concrete plans this weekend, so other than a soccer game, dinner out with the family and swimming with the kids, we spent the entire time in the garden. I knew I’d be out there a bit - a long-range trend shows cool, wet weather coming, so it may have been the... Continue Reading →
Let the Harvest Begin!
Harvesting early and managing summer pests
Solstice in the Garden
Spring is finished - and what a spring! It’s been sunny, dry, and hot and my garden is loving it (with the occasional sprinkler watering). Also loving this weather is everyone else! It seems like twice a week or more we’re sitting with friends on sun-baked patios. When we’re not, I’m sitting on my own,... Continue Reading →
