Posts by Mary

As massive fires burned around us  in all directions but west, all I could think about was rain.  When will it come? Between forays out into the smoky air to hose down the roof of our house in case stray embers blow in on the wind, we stayed inside with doors and windows shut tight, keeping an eye on the fire updates, evacuation bags packed.  Wildfires are part of a natural cycle, embedded in our way of life here in California.  When I am saddened by the tragic loss of so many people's homes and...

Is there a dark side to seed germination? It turns out that the Salem Witch Trials are not the only historical instance of cruel and unusual punishment that occurred in Massachusetts. In 1897, Mr. Asa S. Kinney, a graduate of the Massachusetts Agricultural College in Amherst, MA, conducted an experiment which applied electrical currents to various agricultural crop seeds to determine if it had any effect on seed germination and seedling growth. In his Bulletin titled Electro-Germination, botanist G...

I find it difficult to say no to a sunflower. Pollen-producing?  Pollen-free? 12 inches tall? 12 feet tall?  Yes, please, to all of the above.  I  planted too many sunflowers in the vegetable garden this year, to the detriment of a few sun-starved pepper plants, but to the exuberant enjoyment of all who saw them blooming, humans, insects, and birds alike.  There are dozens of reasons to plant sunflowers in your garden, and many dozens of sunflower varieties available to plant.  To narrow down which are...

Fall is near, with mornings feeling a bit chillier, and in my garden, hundreds of tomatoes and peppers asking to be harvested. This recipe is little more a basic guideline that can be edited at will to match what you have on hand. Quantities are entirely to your taste. The basic ingredients are: tomatoes ( sauce tomatoes are preferable, but any tomato will do) jalapeños or other fresh hot peppers garlic salt Using a heavy skillet or griddle, roast the peppers and tomatoes on medium heat...

Tithonia rotundifolia, or Mexican Sunflower, is a bold summer annual that has captured my heart this season. Tithonia is named for Tithonus, a Trojan prince who, in Greek mythology, was a love interest of Eos, the goddess of the dawn. Native to Mexico and Central America, tithonia is at home in any garden with a good-sized sunny spot. Blooming starts about midsummer; the rich orange, 3 to 4 inch flowers resemble single-flowered dahlias. Tithonia plants typically grow 4 to 6 feet tall, but in the...

Left to Right: Similar views of the garden in June, July, and August. Since transplanting the first little seedlings in May, my northern California vegetable garden has undergone quite a transformation. The growing season started late because of plentiful spring rain, and was followed by a series of heatwaves through July. Most of August has been socked in practically every morning and evening with coastal fog, which has significantly slowed the growth rate of all of the veggies. These past few days...

My earliest memory of eating a lemon cucumber is from when I was about 6 or 7 years old. It must have been August, because our family vegetable garden was at its peak, and the early evening was warm. My parents were away, and our neighbor Dori was babysitting. She took us out to the garden for dinner with a bowl of ranch salad dressing. Dori is a chef, so it was homemade and especially tasty. We just grazed around the garden, picking whatever vegetables we felt like eating, and dipping it in the...

From seed to harvest, tomatoes are included in my top ten favorite plants to grow. The seeds are easy to handle, and seedlings grow quickly with a high germination rate. All they ask of you is warm, fertile soil, the right amount of water, plenty of sun, and some sort of support structure to hold them relatively upright. There are so many different techniques for staking tomatoes; I have good success with the following method. Materials needed: 5 sturdy stakes per tomato, at least 5 feet tall...

While on vacation last week, I had the pleasure to visit the Chicago Botanic Garden. Coming from California where the summers are long, hot and dry, I especially loved seeing the plants that thrive with regular summer rainfall. Vast plantings of hosta, impatiens, begonias, and ferns, to name a few. A mass planting of hybrid hostas in bloom under white birch trees. Gryphon begonias planted with Divine New Guinea impatiens. I found the extensive vegetable garden and fruit orchard inspiring and full of...

I consider myself lucky to live in a part of the world that makes gardening immensely rewarding without having to work very hard. Western Sonoma County northern California has a relatively short, mild winter, a warm summer moderated by proximity to the coast, and a long autumn which extends the harvest time of heat-loving crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons and peppers. My husband and I always plant vegetables in the part of the back yard that has a seasonal creek run through it in the winter...