Category: New American Victory Garden

One of the things I find odd about garden writing is that while there is generally more than ample advice about sowing and planting food crops, there is comparatively little information about harvesting, which, after all, is the entire point of the exercise. And often times, proper technique is critical. Take garlic for instance. Garlic [...]

This year for the first time in a long time I was able to get a good germination from notoriously hard to germinate carrots, and the key to my success was using floating row cover. Tacked directly onto the soil, the cover provided just enough moisture to allow the carrots to sprout without drying out [...]

A month or so back I wrote about lilacs, and the uncanny ability their scent possesses of being able to transport you out of time and place to sunny moments of your past.  But for me, there’s another plant with similar abilities – though through a very different manner of delivery – that’s just now [...]

Well, it’s almost solstice, and the annual garlic harvest has once again come to a head. (I know, I know – I couldn’t resist.)  But seriously: the individual cloves I planted last November have overwintered, sprouted, and have now formed 2′ tall plants, ready to flower. These blossoms, twisty floral spikes called  “necks” in the [...]

Part One of an Occasional Series on Tips for Designing the Home Landscape When you step into a really well designed landscape, something just feels right: There’s a sense of pleasure, of comfort, of being at home, outdoors and in. While you might be tempted to think that this sensation arises from nature, in reality [...]

OK, so we’ve all been there: enticed by those luscious catalogs glowing with glossies of ripe and redolent vegetables, we’ve rushed out, bought large quantities of seeds, and then stuck the packets in a drawer, only to remember them again in June, far too late in the game. Well, thanks to our friends at John [...]

One of the nicest things about gardening is that it’s a hobby easy to share, and around the world there are folks with fabulous landscapes just waiting for someone to ask: may I see your lovely garden? That request, golden to any proud gardener’s ear, will open almost every door, if asked politely, and can [...]

As promised, the best of the best, and worst of the worst seed-grown vegetable list from 2009. Now remember, to some extent these ratings are subjective, and dependent on climate; when choosing varieties, you must always select cultivars that are adapted to your site and growing conditions. Take for instance, that all time American favorite [...]

I’ve been doing a considerable amount of research ahead of my 2010 national lecture tour, pulling together three new talks on “Greening the Victory Garden”, all about how to get started growing your own fresh food in an environmentally sensitive way. In the process, I came across this short video which I think you’ll enjoy. [...]

Last week we had a hard frost, and before those hoary fingers had a chance to damage the last of the harvest, I brought in everything I could. As you can see, this season – so lacking in most things – produced a bumper crop of sweet peppers, from a very prolific green-to-red variety I [...]