Every August I get the distinct sense that I've been running a five month garden sprint, and should have paced myself for a marathon instead!  It's so easy to have grand visions in March; after all, we've been cooped up for months indoors, and the promise of copious amounts of fresh produce is just so enticing. Then the rains come, and the weeds grow, and that small bed into which you quite possibly might have planted a few dozen too many winter squash seeds has essentially taken over a quarter of your garden, turning it into an impenetrable tangle of squash (not that that is a bad thing, mind you). And in that moment you promise yourself that next year will be different.  You will … [Read more...]

The Midwest has been hit with a number of severe thunderstorms over the past few weeks, making this year's late June garden particularly challenging.  On the one hand, there is a LOT of lush growth, like this volunteer Butternut squash, for instance.  It conveniently grew out of a compost pile, so is slurping up nutrients and taking over this new perennial flower bed! This garden bed is one of our grand experiments.  We created several beds over the winter with the following method: lay down a thick layer of cardboard, then top the cardboard with heaping mounds of cow manure and barn bedding.  It's not exactly like the lasagna gardening method I normally use, but it was a way to make … [Read more...]