January is the time when nursery catalogs pour through our mail slots and cold evenings are spent carefully deciding what new trees, shrubs and vines to add to the homestead. There is an on-going debate between permaculture advocates and native plant experts on which plant species should be planted and which ones are dangerous. David Fothergill is one of my classmates and a plant expert,
Winter Garden Chores
Planting season is just around the corner and it’s time to prep the beds that will soon hold spring crops. You can hardly make out the spinach in my beds through all the chickweed right now. As the winter rains let up for a couple weeks, the ground was nice and soft for one of my favorite winter chores: weeding. Weeding is not everyone’s favorite
Pruning Grapes
There are a handful of grapevines growing out at the Urban Farm and it’s pruning season! Some of them they let ramble, while others they focus on maintaining for good quality fruit. We went to work on the maintained vines and I learned a lot. Last year I attempted to prune my two grape vines and wasn’t really sure I did it right. With a
When to Plant
There are a few rule-of-thumb planting dates among the gardening community that we enjoy repeating every year. One is to sow your peas on President’s Day. Another is to plant potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day. These are general rules though which will not apply to you if you happen to live in sunny southern California or frigid Canada. To properly time your planting, it really