If you’re a North Coast gardener and you feel like melons are easy to grow, please, message me! I want to learn your methods. I have found this crop to be one of the most challenging of annual vegetables. If it were anything else, I’d probably have given up by now. But nothing can replace […]
Heather Jo Flores
Heather Jo Flores is the author of Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community, and a cofounder of the original Food Not Lawns organization in Eugene, Oregon in 1999. www.heatherjoflores.com
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Not Your Grandma’s Marigolds
What do you think of when you hear the word marigold? Maybe you imagine those 6-inch-high borders of orange and yellow flowers that your grandmother planted around her rose beds. Did she buy them by the flat, already blooming? Maybe she knew they helped repel insects from the roses. Or maybe she just liked the […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Beautiful Broccoli
Broccoli is one of those crops that a lot of us have trouble with. Sometimes you get a great head, sweet and delicious. Other times you get a bunch of bolted shoots covered in aphids. So what’s the trick? Broccoli has some special needs, and a basic understanding of what to do, and what not […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
To Bamboo or Not to Bamboo
I recently received an interesting question from NCJ staff writer Linda Stansberry, and it seemed like a great topic for this month’s column. She writes: “I just bought a house whose lovely raised garden beds are being strangled by invasive bamboo. What can I do?” First off, let me say that bamboo is a grass. […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Medicinal Flowers
I am primarily a food gardener, but there are a handful of flowering medicinal plants that I always include in my garden. Not only useful for home remedies, they provide beautiful cut flowers, improve soil and attract beneficial insects. Many of the plants listed here are commonly bred and cross-bred to produce ornamental variations, so […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Happy Trails
There is nothing more frustrating than bounding out to your garden in the morning to see your baby plants and discovering that they have been devoured by slugs and snails. A few simple tricks can help avoid these horrible moments. Trigger warning: In this article I advocate for the massacre of large numbers of plant-eating […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Mulch Much?
It’s that wonderful time of the year when leaves are falling, plants are decomposing and moisture is in the air. A perfect time for mulching! There is never a bad time for mulch, but with so much surplus organic matter available, it makes sense to harness those resources and use them to warm and protect […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Seed Saving Made Simple
This time of the year, the garden might at first glance look messy, unkempt. The plants are starting to dry out, turn brown and die. But look a little deeper and you see an abundance of seeds ready to harvest, and whether you are an old expert at seed stewardship or a new gardener with […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Holy Moly, Chocomole
We can’t grow chocolate or avocados in Humboldt County, but of all the ways in which we indulge in imported resources, these are two of the most nutritious, delicious and versatile treats. Combine them, toss in a few more ingredients and you get: vegan, raw, gluten-free, sugar-free, high-protein, antioxidant avocado chocolate pudding! Say it three […]
Posted inEat + Drink
Sauerkraut
Some of our favorite foods are fermented, such as beer, wine, bread, cheese, pickles, salami, yogurt, tempeh, vinegar, kombucha, kimchi and many more. And whether you are a devoted foodie with a well-stocked fermentation station on your kitchen counter or just somebody who loves a Reuben sandwich, one of the simplest and most satisfying fermented […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Growing Gorgeous Garlic
From Ancient Egypt to Humboldt County, garlic is one of those plants that you can find in almost every garden. It is one of the oldest cultivated crops, and all around the world people still rank garlic among their favorite foods. And it’s not just food —it’s medicine, too. Garlic is used as an antibiotic, […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Eat the Weeds!
Take a moment to ponder your relationship with the wild plants in your garden. Chickweed, thistle, pigweed, plantain. Cleavers, lemon balm, nettle. These not only provide forage for insects, birds, and animals, they also provide food for you. Most of the common vegetables we enjoy in our salads, such as lettuce, carrots, parsley and mustard, […]