The Damsel in Dis Dress
Posted in gardening on Apr 26th, 2013
At the Cottage by the Mountains, it’s finally spring, and the garden planting has commenced: peas, beans, beets, spinach, chard, and onions are currently underway. Various squash and pumpkin starts are next up to move outdoors, and last fall’s garlic planting is looking great. Here we go! Garden experts say that plants grow best in [...]
Posted in gardening, Uncategorized on Mar 16th, 2013
Bright lights, big lettuce. The Damsel heard you could grow lettuce indoors under florescent lights and decided then and there she wanted to try it, because the Cottage By The Mountains was buried in snow, and spring seemed oh so far away. She yearned for soil, seeds, and sprouts. Jan. 26: She fetched a plastic [...]
The Damsel has been playing with more kitchen castoffs. This was a stump from a head of romaine. The Damsel just stuck the stump in a dish of water and waited. This is about two weeks old. To be clear, you’ll put the weird, flat, brownish side down, the [...]
The Damsel was so taken with the easiness of regrowing green onions that she reached out to the universe and found out there are other things you can do with produce trimmings besides compost them. (Click here for green onion instructions) You can regrow celery. Amazing. Imagine here a photo of the bottom of a [...]
Green onions! Mmmm! The Damsel loves them. They have that great onion flavor, but somehow fresher tasting, and usually not harsh or bitter. They cook fast. They’re cute. What’s not to love? Well, they don’t store as well as grown-up onions. But what if you could grow your own, easily, quickly, and–free? The Damsel currently [...]
Posted in chickens, gardening, Uncategorized on Aug 2nd, 2011
When is a free-range chicken a bad, naughty chicken? Come closer, dear students, and the Damsel will tell you. The Damsel lets her chickens run loose in her large fenced yard, eating mosquitoes and possibly earwigs. For this hope alone, it’s worth the risk they pose to the garden plants. They do like to peck [...]
Posted in gardening, Uncategorized on Jun 6th, 2011
Curious who the manufacturer is for the Damsel’s garden fertilizer? That’s right. Near the Cottage by the Mountains, there is a friendly horse riding arena/stables, and the “output” is prodigious. Thanks to the law of supply and demand, a person can get an entire pickup truckload of high-quality compost from this place for only $5. [...]
Posted in gardening on Apr 15th, 2011
Planting onions is as easy as kindergarten, especially if you start with “sets.” Sets are baby onion plants you buy at the nursery. It only takes a few minutes to plant a bunch of these, if your garden is ready. The Damsel planted both yellow and red varieties on this bright spring morning. For root [...]
Posted in gardening, Uncategorized on Apr 1st, 2011
In the olden days, before people bought seeding trays and little peat pots at the nursery, folks sometimes planted seeds in eggshells. This idea actually has some really good things about it. 1. eggshells are free. 2. planting in eggshells adds good nutrients to the soil, strengthening the little plant. Starting seeds in eggshells now, [...]
Posted in gardening on Jan 25th, 2011
Do you have grape plants, or know someone who does? Do you want more? It’s easy as kindergarten to enlarge your grape kingdom, and if you live in the Northern hemisphere, this is the perfect time to do it–while the plants are dormant and spring is only a few months away. Please, Spring! Be only [...]
