Monthly Archives: July 2016

It’s only the end of July and the red alders are starting to drop some leaves. Trees can produce more leaves in the spring than they can support when it gets hot and dry during the summer. And so the … Continue reading →

It’s early in the morning and I’m cleaning the onions I just pulled out of the ground for today’s Bow Little Market. How do onions do it? How do they make all those thin layers without them sticking together? How … Continue reading →

What is pink and fuzzy in a summer garden? Mint in bloom. In a moist climate like here in the Pacific Northwest, mint will grow and spread with wild abandonment. If you want just a little keep it in a … Continue reading →

It’s time to study. Two books that I’m studying are Rebsie Fairholm’s The Lost Art of Potato Breeding and Carol Deppe’s Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties. I’ve learned that a reason you only see seed potatoes and never potato seeds … Continue reading →

I had some tomatoes for Bow Little Market on Thursday. They sold out quickly. The only ones who got any were the early birds. This year I’m severely pruning the tomatoes as they grow, limiting each tomato to a single … Continue reading →

Writer Evelyn Waugh is said to have said, “Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.” I chuckled when I read that in a BBC article about the punctuality of the Swiss. Many of my ancestors were Swiss. When I visited … Continue reading →

The baby kale sparkled with dew this morning. And the potato blossoms were smiling when I went out to the garden to gather produce for today’s Bow Little Market. Their anthers are such a brilliant yellow. I’m studying Rebsie Fairholm’s … Continue reading →

Eat the weeds! It works when onions are the weeds. Last fall, I let some onions do their thing, go to seed, and let them fall where they may. I ended up with a bed thick with onions. I thinned … Continue reading →

Elephant garlic and shallots are worth growing for their flowers. The elephant garlic’s purple flowers are about to open, and the shallot’s white flowers fringed with green are unfurling. Such beautiful flowers. I’ll let these go to seed and start … Continue reading →

You don’t need to grow many vegetables to realize that many are worth growing just for their flowers. Eggplants with their blue and purple flowers, squash with their spectacular orange explosions, they are as remarkable as any daisies, and their … Continue reading →

A few days ago, I discovered a spider hiding out in the carrot flowers, waiting to nab passing bees. Today, I found it feasting on a bee. I suppose, if you are a bee, dying on a bed of carrot … Continue reading →

One of the trees is blooming, putting out tiny, spidery flowers with a hauntingly sweet fragrance. So many trees have such delicate flowers. Bashful beauties of the woods, their beauty is for the few who go looking. Niji-hime 虹姫 (Rainbow … Continue reading →

Yesterday was market day at Bow Little Market. Many of these colorful onions ended up going to people’s homes. Thank you for all who came to the market and stopped by. Our congressman, Rick Larsen, even stopped by for a … Continue reading →