My salad lover’s garden tips Direct sow your salad greens. It’s easier than sowing indoors and transplanting, and they pop up fast and are fast to produce—in just a few weeks. Re-sow small amounts right through into September in Vermont. I start my greens every two weeks–small, short rows of maybe 5 feet long. […]
Kitchen Garden Designs
The Parterre Garden
Above my drawing desk is a postcard of a garden in Colonial Williamsburg depicting a classic four-square parterre, defined by boxwood circular brick paths, two white benches, and an orderliness that reflects a simple design. The faded postcard from Colonial Williamsburg inspired my own Parterre. Visiting Colonial Williamsburg today, you will be greeted by gardeners […]
Flower Power
It’s been hard to know what to write these past 10 days, immersed in the news and the sorrow that is deeply felt around the world. Last week, when I learned sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine, it seemed okay to share a few synchronized photos of a sunflower that grew in my garden […]
The Young Kitchen Gardener
Lately, I’ve been thinking about families with young children. Mostly about cooking with children, especially this time of year. When my children were young, we made gingerbread houses, hosted Christmas cookie parties, and turned up The Nutcracker Suite. The act of cooking and gardening with children always leads to a messy clean-up, yet the memories […]
In the Spring Garden
With my garden fork, I gently turned over the soil in my kitchen garden this weekend. Like a beautiful blank canvas waiting for the artist to create, it’s pretty easy to be in that glass-full kind of mood. The days are longer, tiny green shoots of garlic and rhubarb are pressing up through the soil, […]
Community Gardens
June 3: Community Gardens. Yesterday, while the world was in turmoil with rioting on the streets, I felt a sense of ease, as I walked through the gate of our local community garden. Instead of noticing the weeds, the jumble of plastic pots, the slap dash methods that gardeners were using to plant their gardens, […]
Seeds and Plants
Push a seed into the ground, then step back to wait for it to grow. It’s a spring ritual practiced by all gardeners. Those seeds are like good friends, ready to bring another season of good food to my table. All I need to do is invite the magic to happen – and choose the […]
Gates and Arbors
GROW AN HEIRLOOM The gates and arbors at Colonial Williamsburg are works of art, and have inspired many of my own kitchen garden designs. Growing flowering vines up a trellis, pruning a shrub into a canopy or patiently tending to an espalier design for heirloom fruit trees requires vision. Nothing grows fast, yet when it […]
10 Tips for a Salad Lovers Garden
About the Salad Lovers Garden Scroll down for a free garden design and planting guide, plus 10 tips for successful growing. A series of small beds provide easy successive planting that will keep a steady supply of greens from seed to salad bowl. A Salad Lover’s Garden can be as small as a perfect one-square-foot plot, […]
Color Wheel Garden
The Color Wheel Garden: Growing the Best Nutritional Varieties Flavor and optimum health go hand in hand when growing a garden, yet knowing what varieties to choose for higher antioxidant qualities can influence what you plant. Science has shown that color—deep purple, blue, orange, and red—vegetables and fruits contain the highest phytonutrients, flavonoids, resveratrol, and anthocyanins […]
Heirloom Apples
Heirloom Apples at Scott Farm If you have ever stood in an orchard at the peak of peach season, inhaling the scent of ripeness, you’ll never buy hard supermarket fruit ever again. Scott Farm preserves heirloom apples, plums and other fruits in Dummerston, Vermont. To get there, you cross over the Connecticut River on […]
Heirloom Winter Squash and Gourds
Heirloom winter squash and gourds are everywhere. Colorful displays decorate front porches, stores and restaurants. The squash is from the genus of Cucurbitaceae or cucurbit family and includes winter and summer squash, melon, cucumbers, pumpkins and chayotes. Globular fruit grows on long vines, with twining tendrils, and requires very little effort on the part of the gardener, beside […]
