Whether you live 45 minutes from the nearest store or within driving distance to three of our garden centers, chances are you appreciate free things. In this particular article, I will share with you at least 7 things you likely have in and around your home that you can use as free (or almost free) […]
What is a vermicomposting worm bin? Vermicomposting is also known as gardening or composting with worm bins. I’ve assembled bins before, and I will again. I have to say it’s much more fun to build with others, instead of by yourself. A long time ago, I made one with my young kids. They were 4, […]
Hosting pets, livestock and wildlife animals in your garden Hosting animals (pets, livestock or wildlife) brings joy to a garden. For the plants, animals and people, you can create a garden that welcomes all. The best part? The animals you invite will help you do it. Read on to find out how! Please be aware […]
“Next year will be better”. Have you said this before while working in your fall garden?
Unlike most beekeepers who are having fun in the southeast, I am the World’s Worst Beekeeper. I am not a retired Navy man or engineer, so I do not have the camaraderie I would in a circle of midwives or herbalists. Oh, well. I love honey with a passion. And as a Wonder Woman fan, I […]
Jasmine with Cici the chicken, who provided love and eggs for years. Ten or eleven years ago (now 25 years ago, Ed.), shortly we moved onto our own acre in the country. I began to hear the phrase “chicken tractor.” If you do not know what this is already, the image it probably conjures up […]
This is an ode to all women who live in the country, and chronicle the exciting and the mundane, and entices the rest of us to raise a lamb, plant a bed of asparagus, aspire to grow an entire meal’s worth of food, or at least eat locally for a year. These women have been […]
This is where I turn off the honey and step onto the soapbox. I may sound and feel like vinegar, but it is a reality here in Farm Country: how to survive drought. Very few places where agriculture is the main commerce escape it. The area we left (Virginia Beach) for Scottsville was 2-4 feet […]
I had no plan to be farming flowers in Virginia early in 2007. However, on a gorgeous day last Fall, my youngest daughter and I took a trip an hour south to Farmville. This was for an open house at a large, diversified farm. There were pastured chickens, a petting zoo, spinning and weaving demos, […]
The first natural medicine I recall growing and using probably was the Aloe Vera plant. While my mom grew all manner of succulents to surround our patio in Norfolk, Virginia, once we moved North, the only plant succulent we grew was the aloe. It didn’t live outside in Michigan…it lived on the top of the refrigerator. I never […]
