The Damsel in Dis Dress
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 [...]
Posted in gardening, Uncategorized on Jul 15th, 2010
One of the most annoying problems the Knight has faced in the Cottage Garden is spider mites. The chemicals farmers used to use for these sorts of pests are no longer available, and besides, we want a more natural solution. The Damsel was going to show you a magnified picture of a spider mite but [...]
Posted in gardening on May 31st, 2010
Students of the Old School know the Damsel loves old fashioned things–and that includes old fashioned flowers like Grandma had in her garden. And the flower she loves best is lilacs. There’s something sweetly innocent about these little blossoms. Cute, yes, but it’s their fragrance the Damsel loves so dearly. The Damsel has a few [...]
Posted in gardening on May 12th, 2010
If you live in the northern hemisphere and are lucky enough to have a raspberry patch, you may notice little babies growing amidst the bigger plants. Raspberries reproduce freely, even more than the humans at the Cottage by the Mountains. Some babies grow in line with the grownup plants. These are the good babies. But [...]
Posted in gardening on Apr 28th, 2010
The Damsel adores potatoes. They are her food of choice. You know how people talk about what food they’d choose to be stranded on a desert island with? The Damsel does not hesitate to say potatoes potatoes potatoes. And she especially loves new potatoes, which means freshly dug and not monstrous. She feels it a [...]
Posted in gardening on Mar 17th, 2010
The Damsel will be the first to admit she’s no expert on raspberries. She is highly expert on eating them, and getting mighty scratched up trying to fool with her raspberry patch. What little she knows, she is happy to share with you. Raspberries grow on long, willowy, prickly wands (properly called canes). They grow [...]
