Moon Gazing

September 25, 2015

...ings, we could make some other kind of celebratory food–I’m thinking about making some little round crepes with red berry sauce to celebrate the blood moon. Or perhaps our new traditions won’t involve food, but crafts, or songs, or copious toasting–or maybe we can just all stand outside and howl at the moon. It would do us some good, I think. What is a blood moon anyway, you ask? It’s a moon stained red by the Earth’s shadow. What’s a super moon?...

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Easy Scandinavian-Style Bread

Mrs. Homegrown

October 8, 2015

Food, Recipes

7 Comments

...ough starter, take on the mantle (or apron?) of Household Baker, and start making these loaves myself, but I’m already taking on extra chores with him off his feet, so I’m not inclined to take up this one as well. Yet we can’t live two months without good bread. What to do? Fortunately, I’ve found a solution to our bread crisis: a perfectly good yeasted recipe which makes a dense whole grain loaf with minimal effort. No starter. No kneading. No ri...

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When it’s time to remove a tree

Mrs. Homegrown

October 22, 2015

Back to the Garden, Garden Design, Gardening

11 Comments

...the time comes to make changes in your garden. There’s nothing wrong with making changes–the trick is in how they’re made, and why. When you remove a plant and it’s the right thing to do, and it’s done properly, it feels good. Really good. Not just on an aesthetic or practical level, but on a gut level. You don’t miss the plant once its gone. The empty space is hardly noticeable. The garden feels more lively or, conversely, more peaceful. It’s as...

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Our new front yard: history

Mrs. Homegrown

November 11, 2015

Back to the Garden, front yard series, Garden Design, Gardening

19 Comments

...uddenly, I had a vision of a cleared slope, open to the light, filled with meadow plants dancing with butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. Erik saw my vision, and we set to work chopping down trees. As I wrote in another post, in the end, it was not emotionally difficult to remove the stagnant trees. They seemed to want to go. The cactus was more difficult to remove, as it was, undeniably, thriving. We made a deal with it–we moved a few pads to ano...

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Our new front yard, part 5: Constructing a meadow community

Mrs. Homegrown

December 2, 2015

Back to the Garden, front yard series, Garden Design, Gardening

15 Comments

...will like our slope. Linnum lewsie (Blue flax): This is another excellent meadow-y meadow plant, made to peek up between the grasses. The problem with unfamiliar plants is that they are unfamiliar. It’s nice to know the ways of a plant when you choose to use it in a landscape. Many of my selections are complete mysteries to me. That can be fun. I’m really curious to see how they’ll grow in and what they’ll do. It’s also a little nerve wracking. I...

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