This year, 2022, I'm going to grow lettuce like it's 1957. Until just this week, I've never had much luck, or for that matter, much interest in growing great crops of lettuce. Oh sure, like any dedicated gardener, in early spring I usually sow a few rows of various types of lettuce. Then throughout the spring, when I remember to do so, I'll cut some of the leaves for salads. I rarely, if ever, get or let any of my lettuce plants form nice heads. Of course, this is not how I was … [Read more...] about Growing Lettuce Like It’s 1957
vegetable garden
Garden Fairies Prepare to Save the Garden, Again
Garden fairies here. We are garden fairies and once again, it is apparently up to us to save this garden from, well, Carol. Let us begin by saying that we've calmed Granny 'Gus' McGarden down and reassured her that we will all help as much as we can. Granny, as long-time readers of our garden fairy posts know, is responsible for the Vegetable Garden Cathedral. Let us tell you she was fit to be tied this past week because Carol took her sweet time and then some before she planted the … [Read more...] about Garden Fairies Prepare to Save the Garden, Again
Random pics & thoughts from a veg garden
Add caption A few random pics and thoughts from The Vegetable Garden Cathedral. Vegetable Garden Cathedral? Are you new here? That's what I call my vegetable garden. All because for one brief summer in or around 2012, or rather precisely in 2012, the garden was arranged with a center aisle with raised beds on each side, like rows of pews. Honestly, entering the vegetable garden was like entering a church. (Begin your interpretation of that here!) So even though it isn't arranged that way … [Read more...] about Random pics & thoughts from a veg garden
The Laziest Gardener in the World, A Garden Fairy’s Tale
Garden fairies here. We are garden fairies and we are here to proclaim that Carol is the laziest gardener in the world. We have evidence! The other day, Granny 'Gus' McGarden came crying out of the vegetable garden because the lettuce was flowering. Now, normally, the presence of flowers is something to celebrate, but not when it is lettuce flowers. As Granny knows, once a vegetable plant stops producing, the rule is you are supposed to yank it out and sow seeds for something else, like … [Read more...] about The Laziest Gardener in the World, A Garden Fairy’s Tale
Anticipation, Thy Name is Green Tomato
My vegetable garden is full of anticipation right now. The green beans are flowering and so are the squash plants. The corn stalks are more than knee high which is good because around here we like to say "knee high by the 4th of July" about our corn, even though most field corn is shoulder high by now. The zinnias are budding up nicely and so are the marigolds. I hope I get as good a display of those this year as I did last year. I do wish my cucumber plants were further along and … [Read more...] about Anticipation, Thy Name is Green Tomato
Conquering Cabbage Consternation
I'll admit that it has been years, if not decades, since I planted cabbage and broccoli in my vegetable garden. When I tried to grow them back in the day, it never failed that within weeks of planting, the pretty white cabbage butterflies would find my plants, lay their eggs and then their larvae, little green worms, commenced to consume my crops. Oh the unsightly mess. I do not use pesticides in my vegetable garden so that was never an option to control them. I knew I could cover them with … [Read more...] about Conquering Cabbage Consternation
