Posted in Behind the Scenes

So I started a local gardening group…

…on Nextdoor.com.  An app that, depending on where you live, is either a toxic cesspool of humanity, or exactly what it was purported to be–an online space to chat with nearby real life neighbors (though the “nearby” part can be argued since I’m still not sure exactly how they determine their overlap–we have a few other border towns included in mine–but they are fairly low population which might be the reason). Continue reading “So I started a local gardening group…”

Posted in Conservation, Creatures, Plants

Late Winter Wildlife Feeding

It may be ingrained in folks to tidy up the garden when things start to die back in the fall, but many bits if not all of those plants are useful to a broad variety of wildlife as shelter and/or food in the colder weather to come.  They may spend their winter in a curled up leaf; use browned milkweed stalks as a resting or observation perch on your lawn away from the cold snowy ground; feed from seeds of goldenrod; or many other possibles, depending on the visitors in your garden. Continue reading “Late Winter Wildlife Feeding”

Posted in Plants, Seeds

The unexpected seed order

A friend of mine gave me a gift card to Territorial Seed Company, which is closer to the other coast so we hadn’t ordered from them before even though I had previously bookmarked a few of their products in my garden planning bookmark folder.  They sell an abundance of kitchen garden crops within their products.  Given our garden budget for this year had nothing earmarked for kitchen crops save one rosemary starter, this was a very welcome gift.  Hopefully—with some careful seed saving—it will also be one that keeps on giving. Continue reading “The unexpected seed order”

Posted in Behind the Scenes, Creatures

First deer track sighting in the back yard.

After I finished shoveling out a path in front of the house for our postal carrier, I gathered my implements and headed back to the side door only to realize I’d forgotten to bring our compost bowl outside.  I headed towards the bin anyway, thinking to forge a trail through the drifts from the comfort of my snowsuit and to see what visitors we might have had.  Then I spotted something I hadn’t seen in the near four years we’ve been here.  Continue reading “First deer track sighting in the back yard.”