Share my passion for all things gardening!
I know what you’re thinking. Why would anyone want to know how to make catsup when they can just buy a bottle in the grocery store? I used to think that, too. That is, until we made our own just for fun many years ago. Homemade catsup is AMAZING! It’s kind of like a gourmet steak sauce in our opinion. It […]
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‘Tis the season for picking Italian plums, isn’t it? In addition to drying them, making jam or tarts, they are awesome in spiced plum butter. We made it for the first time last year and discovered a fabulous, can’t-eat-just-one appetizer to make with it. Take a pita cracker, top with some Cambozola or other creamy cheese that has a bit […]
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My husband, Bill, and I grow three kinds of grapes: ‘Canadice’, ‘Glenora’ and ‘Vanessa’. The first to ripen is ‘Glenora’. Sometimes we use the grapes for jelly and oftentimes we make grape juice. Doing the latter is very simple, especially if you have a steamer/juicer. Step by step: 1. Pick the grape clusters, leaving them on the stems. 2. Wash […]
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For years, I’ve grown geraniums in pots on my front porch. At the end of each garden season, I’d toss them in the compost pile. That seemed like a huge waste of money to me. Then I learned that overwintering geraniums is easy as can be. That’s the subject of my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review. Here’s a […]
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The growing season is coming to close. Yet none of us wants to fill our basements or closets with green tomatoes, right? It’s a topic of great interest to gardeners these days because they’re frustrated and watching the days zip by. As you might already know, I’ve been filming short videos on how to get your green tomatoes to ripen, […]
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I’ve been growing celery for several years now and just love how flavorful it is. The only down side is that there’s always more than we can keep up with but we certainly don’t to waste it. What’s the answer? Preserving it, of course! Today, I’m going to show you how to freeze celery. If you’re wondering why you’d want […]
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Every year, we grow a nice patch of Swiss chard because we love how tasty it is and how it doesn’t bolt to seed in the heat like spinach can. But there’s always more than we can eat at any given time. Bill and I have come up with a great method for preserving it, so I wanted to show […]
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I recently wrote a post on Growing apples organically, but wanted to do a follow-up today. I get a lot of questions from readers about how to do this, so I wanted to clarify a few things. Last week, we decided it was high time we thinned and covered our young apples to protect them from the apple codling moth, […]
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Tomatoes have got to be a vegetable gardener’s favorite crop! I mean, you just can’t beat the flavor of a homegrown tomato, right? Now that we’re into the middle of May, that means it’s time to plant these gems so I just filmed a video on growing tomatoes. Take a look: Here are a few more thoughts on growing tomatoes: […]
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I just planted my pole beans. It’s exciting to see them in the garden because, to me, that really means the season is underway. Planting pole beans is pretty easy, provided you have a sturdy trellis for it. If you haven’t seen how I grow mine, I’m hoping this photo will give you some inspiration! Several years ago, I got […]
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