Category: Barbara Ganley

Yesterday the wind blew hot and surly across the tall field grasses. Today the high dog days of midsummer have pooled around my feet. It is still but for the drone of heat-loving insects and the intermittent warning of a robin, the hissing of a house wren, the drink-your-tea-tea-tea call of the Eastern towhee.

full story

I’m trying to break a bad gardening habit. I’m trying to resist the urge to over-plant, to stuff the vegetable beds to bursting point no matter how good it makes me feel.

You see, when visitors ask for a tour of my gardens, I do a lot of apologizing — for the small size of the zucchini plants, for the holes chewed in the tomatillo and cucumber leaves, for the broccoli beheaded by deer, sure, but really, I’m making excuses for the dark splotches of soil marring the beds.

full story

Some call them uninvited guests, interlopers, opportunists, ne’er-do-wells, even weeds. Earnest gardeners work hard at banishing these trespassers from vegetable beds, pulling them in fall and spring, evicting them when they pop up during the summer.

full story

Editor’s note: Now that the sap is running, thoughts turn to the upcoming planting season. And so it's time for PatchWork: Two Gardens, Many Kitchens, to return for another nine months of gardening and cooking stories. Kate Gridley and Barbara Ganley will continue to be our featured writers; Judy Stevens has returned to her farm and will cheer from there. Guest writers will join Kate and Barbara from time to time to add their garden and kitchen tales, tips and recipes. Welcome back!

full story