When we bought our new house, we had big plans to build a tree house around our huge oak. Then we found out that the oak might qualify as a Big Tree and we don’t want to damage it. And establishing the garden is taking an inordinate amount of time and money, leaving little...
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Warm days are here to stay, hooray! As the temperatures rise, staying cool becomes all the more important. Here’s how we keep ourselves cool in the summer: 1) Don a hat – a lightweight hat keeps sun off the face which keeps your whole body cool. In addition, it shades your eyes which prevents eye...
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Bring out your bowls and cups – punches are coming back! These mixed drinks are returning in a big way for good reason – they’re fun, fast, and festive. I make punches following the ratio recipe of the traditional Barbadian national rhyme: One of Sour, Two of Sweet, Three of Strong, Four of Weak. Traditionally, the...
Read more →Lil spent the better part of Monday and Tuesday last week building a fairy house. Crouched below a tree, she collected and arranged equal-sized pieces of bark into walls and a roof. She lined up tiny branches to form a path to the house, keeping an eye on little hound Hawise at the same...
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Unlike 2012, and 2011, and 2010, we have no garden plans this year. We certainly have lots of seeds and lots of seedlings and lots of perennial edibles. But instead of a predestined place, our strategy seems to be “this plant will die if it doesn’t go in the ground now, better build a bed!” So...
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Hey, hey it’s almost Earth Day! Go green with one of these activities: 1) Stand Together with Earth Day Columbus by volunteering. With a hundred work sites across the city on Saturday and Sunday, there is something for everyone. Then celebrate on Saturday April 27 at Columbus Commons with bands, food trucks, and booths....
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What’s going on inside the hoop house we built? 1) Garden beds of Price Farm Organics soil from City Folks Farm Shop and peat moss over cardboard broken by walking paths of landscape cloth covered by mulch. Alas any gaps between the cardboard and cloth are already growing weeds… 2) Seedlings hardening off on...
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This blog has been fairly quiet recently because we’re taking advantage of dry weather to work on dozens of outdoor projects. Setting up a homestead is enough work to occupy us for years! One project that could not be ignored is setting up a new chicken coop and run for our growing chicks, now...
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Have you ever been hungry? Really hungry like the 16.2 million kids in America who are food-insecure living in families without the means to regularly put nutritious food on the table? I’m hangry when I forget to eat a big breakfast before becoming immersed in a project and suddenly it’s two pm and I...
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What do you get when you combine 500 square feet of UV-resistant plastic, twenty four intrepid individuals and twenty hours of work in the cold? An unheated, season-extending plant paradise otherwise known as a hoop house! We built our hoop house as a workshop under the expert guidance of Joseph Swain, farmer at Swainway...
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