Friends of mine are happily canning their garden’s bounty this time of year. Tomatoes are in season … with a fury. A rainy summer has ensured that they are all nice and fat. I love it. When I was a child, we had a huge garden, at least by suburban neighborhood standards. My mother canned [...]

For those of you who are lucky enough to have a high-quality hoe, manage it well. Otherwise, there can only be trouble, as I have unfortunately learned the hard way as of late. I showed up at a friend’s house last weekend to help her weed her flower beds. Smartly thinking, I took my scuff [...]

When I was very young, my dad cordoned off the steeply-sloping back corner of our half-acre lot, built a long, high L-shaped wall of concrete block (about 40 feet each way) to make a level section, and told my mother that when she could fill it with dirt we would put in a garden. That [...]

After a few false starts, here are my top signs that Spring might finally be here to stay here in our neck of the woods: I caught my three-year-old running up and down the front porch … naked … again. I keep catching Grant the Groundhog with what appears to be his new lady friend. [...]

Spring is in the air. I have already planted zucchini, squash, cucumbers and radishes, as well as my yearly herb garden on the deck. Okay, so Big Daddy Jeff planted the herbs, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t think about doing it myself. I love my little garden. The radishes will do great – [...]

I helped Big Daddy Jeff harvest the last of his hot peppers this past weekend. Frost killed the plants well over a week ago, but just acted as a refrigerant for the peppers; they were fine sitting out there in the converted flower bed until we could pick them up (with gloves on, of course). [...]

The Little Princess only goes to school for half a day so she and I have the afternoon to run errands, do chores, etc. (She does not nap.) On one of our late-summer adventures, she and I bought some petunias to plant in two front window boxes. I made a big deal out of letting [...]