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That is an incredible amount of tomatoes flowerbug! I have canned lots of jam over the years, but I have yet to muster the courage to try canning tomatoes. Do you add citric acid to each jar? And do you start by cooking up the tomatoes for a few minutes before packing them hot in jars?

Looks your container garden is well on its way. My dad always says 'by the time you finish a project, you have a pretty good idea of how it should have been done in the first place.' ;)

I hope that growing carrots will go well for you AMKuska. Here we have had the most success with growing them in large half barrel-sized containers, and also in a raised bed. Placing row cover over top for the first few weeks seems to help a lot too; it limits weeds, provides extra warmth, and...

I've never heard of Cimicifuga either-- will have to keep an eye out for these intriguing plants. Looks like a long stratification if propagating from seed; they say seeds can take up to one year to germinate. Wow. 😲

For several years we have done our best to grow fava beans, and while it has gone okay last year the plants were more or less destroyed by black flies. I was able to salvage some seeds, so I'm trying again. Starting them really early may be helpful, so on January 16th I got some seeds going...

A couple of weeks ago I forced myself to get out and pull weeds too, and now I am so happy that I did. There were so many buckets full that it filled an entire compost bin. Some of the dandelions and hairy bittercress were huge, and flowering. Shortly after that the weather turned cold. The...

Seriously long stretch of bitter cold here. If it were December or January it would not be noteworthy, however for February this is very odd for our area. I think we may have broke records for the overnight low of -9C(16F). We have lots of sunshine in the forecast at least; it's so nice to...

Good chance they want you to just pour hot water over the seeds, and then let them sit in the water for several hours after it cools. (110F for a long period could well kill them). Parsley volunteers generously around here, germinating well in our cool, moist climate.

That's a LOT of water. :eek:

Such gorgeous bean photos-- welcome! :frow

That is a truly amazing photo of the young deer-- well done! :)

There's something comforting about cooking up a big pot of Bolognese sauce when the snow flies. This one has roasted summer tomatoes from the freezer, home grown dried bay leaves, fresh garlic, and Siracha peppers and carrots picked from the garden. Not bad for February! We also made a beany...

I would encourage you to grow a crop of baby kale in a container, and then harvest the leaves when they are still fairly small. The seeds could be planted more densely and it wouldn't take asong to be able to start eating it. Kale is great in soups and stews, or in hearty salads if massaged...

Winter in the Pacific Northwest.

I may experiment with fall planting in my friend's hoop house come autumn-- but it's far too cold here to plant them in the fall without that kind of protection. Having said that, this year several ranuncula plants have popped up from corms that I neglected to lift last June, and they look to...

Well, it's a small high tunnel that measures 10' x 3' x 7', so it tucks right under the edge of our sundeck and is tethered to the deck support posts (so it won't blow away in a wind storm). The side that faces the house can be rolled down, but I just keep it up for the most part; the air...

I started three kinds of lettuce on vermiculite November 19th: Tom Thumb, New Red Fire, and Lunix. Once the seeds had germinated I pricked them out to 1 1/2" soil blocks. Then at five weeks I moved them outdoors; it has been such a mild winter here, and lettuce is pretty tough. Now there is...

Another bin of ranunculus on the move. I had planned on planting them out in the garden-- but cold weather is finally going to arrive later this week. So for now these ones are tucked into a large seedlings bin so they can continue to develop unfettered in our carport for extra protection. I...

I was reading an Eliot Coleman book, and in it he mentioned that they space their tomato seedlings out a bit once their leaves begin to overhang adjacent plants. Otherwise it creates shade, forcing the seedlings stretch and get tall as they search for light. A bit of extra room to grow seemed...

It was time to move a batch of corms that were pre-sprouted about 12 days ago outdoors into deeper containers. They had developed such broad white roots that they required twice as much space as compared to the first stage, where they were snugged in shoulder to shoulder in a couple of inches...