Fig harvest from our large volunteer tree, originally uploaded by dewelch. We are getting 10-15 figs a day from this volunteer (well, bird-seeded) fig tree in the back garden. It s behind our little garden shed. This is good because it doesn’t take up a lot of space, but bad because it wants to reach [...]
Plums (Italian: pruna/susina), originally uploaded by dewelch. Here are some lovely, tiny, plums that were growing in our cousins garden in Sicily. Such a nice little mouthful, although it did have some fairly large seeds inside. Juicy as all get out, too. That “dirt” you see on the leaves is actually sabbia, or ash, from [...]
A collection of gardening items I found interesting this week. My Garden, the City and Me – August 23, 2011 Soaker hoses, the poor man's drip system – August 17, 2011 Beet Risotto – August 16, 2011
Book Review: Garden of Secrets Past by Anthony Eglin: An English Garden MysteryMinotaur Books, 2011 I have been a big fan of Anthony Eglin’s books since reading the first English Garden Mystery, The Blue Rose. He caught me immediately with his protagonist, Lawrence Kingston, who was a learned and avid gardener as well as a [...]
It is quite amazing what can happen in 3 weeks while you are away traveling. The small basil and tomato seedlings I left behind jumped dramatically under the care of our friends who were housesitting. Here is what they looked liked just before we left. Here is the basil now… (upper left in above photo) [...]
A collection of gardening items I found interesting this week. Meet the Beet Buckets – August 18, 2011
There are some food experiences you can only have if you grow your own and I was introduced to another one a few days ago on our last days in Sicily with family. I had noticed and photographed these almonds growing on Serafino’s tree earlier. A few days ago, though, I noticed that the pods [...]
Olives, originally uploaded by dewelch. Morgantina is an ancient Greek city her on the island of Sicily. It was taken over by the Romans in 211 BC. Substantial ruins remain and we toured them the other day. In the parking lot, the major patch of shade on this extremely hot day was provided by this [...]
Yesterday we spent most of the day on the south slope of Mount Etna (Mongibello in Italian and Muncibeddu in Sicilian) at the 100+ year old farmhouse of a family member. It isn’t inhabited full time anymore, but remains a vacation house for a variety of family members that own part of the property. Over the last [...]
A collection of gardening items I found interesting this week. Tea for Two, Two for Tea: How to Make Compost Tea – August 7, 2011
A collection of essays by Douglas E. Welch
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