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[caption id="attachment_530" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The cottage by the sea"][/caption] One of the things we love about our little island in Maine is that seemingly nothing ever changes. And yet things do change-- in subtle, positive ways. For instance it was always difficult to purchase good produce on the island because there is only one market and they tend to bring in produce that travels well, such as iceburg lettuce.   This summer we enjoyed a floating farmers market, which motore...

My friend the horticulturist Ruth Clausen told me about a great activity to do with kids indoors.  She calls it "garbage gardening" because it involves planting vegetable scraps that would otherwise be headed for the garbage pail or compost heap. Ruth asks, 'What sounds like more fun to a child than growing garbage on a windowsill?' It's a good question. Start with carrots and onions, potatoes, pineapples and other vegetable waste, and use recycled cottage cheese or yogurt containers as your pots. Be...

In one of the classes I took at the NY Botanical Garden I learned about the container gardening concept of "Thriller, Filler, Spiller". When you're selecting plants for your container, the Thriller is the central plant that grows taller than the others and is the focal point. The Filler is the plant or plants that surround the Thriller, and the Spiller is the plant that spills over the edges of your container. I followed this concept with the container I planted at my home, shown here. The Thriller plant...

[caption id="attachment_230" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Tom stirring tomato sauce for ziti"][/caption] Womanswork hosted another evening meal at The Lunch Box in Poughkeepsie last week. On a typical evening The Lunch Box serves 150 people who need a hot meal. They also serve lunch on week days but this has expanded to include dinners whenever they can get volunteers like us to do it. The numbers of people in need of services like this have been growing here in Dutchess County, NY, like ev...

  Children and gardening go together naturally, but too few kids experience the fun of getting down into the dirt.  Try these projects to get them interested and don't forget kids garden gloves to protect their hands.   What sounds like more fun to a child than growing garbage on a windowsill?  For a "Garbage Garden" start with carrots and pineapples, potatoes, and other vegetable waste bound for the garbage pail. It's educational and inexpensive too. There's no need for pots either....

The vegetable garden at Bunny Williams’ property in Falls Village, Connecticut, where professional gardener Tricia van Oers is employed, is all about relationships. Bunny calls Tricia 'the soul of the garden' and says she has never eaten so well. Tricia is equally complimentary of her employer. “Bunny lets me feel a sense of ownership of the garden. She allows for playfulness and freedom within the established design of the garden,” says Tricia. Their paths first crossed in the summer of 2018 wh...

Dominique Charles is a woman with a mission. A busy professional living in Washington, DC, she first began gardening in 2014, after her friend Lauren built her a starter garden as a gift. Despite having grown up in New Orleans, and spending summers helping her grandparents - Emmitt and Thelma Muse of Greensburg, Louisiana – with their farm, where her favorite activity was picking blackberries and snapping green beans, Dominique didn’t really believe that she had a green thumb. It wasn’t until sh...

Remember the adage that good things come in small packages?  Let’s start with microgreens. Scientists and nutritionists say that microgreens provide a denser source of nutrition than their mature selves.  A study referenced on WebMD.com concluded that because they’re harvested right after germination, they still contain all the nutrients they need to grow. The flavor packs an outsize punch too, and they are great sprinkled on salads, in sandwiches or as a garnish for soups. Microgreens are no...