Recently I was invited to write a guest post at Fiftyisthenewforty.com about edible gardening and how to easily grow organic produce. The benefits of eating organic vegetables are immeasurable, it makes sense that more and more people are interested in eating healthy and having a direct hand in the food's growing process. Trucking to the [...]
A week and a half ago on the other website I contribute to, Beautifulwildlifegarden.com, I wrote about my 2012 edible container garden, and had taken some pictures at the Saratoga Organic Supply store where my friend is currently growing some beautiful, healthy, organic leafy green vegetables. Stopping in a week and a half later, I [...]
Contrary to what many people think, many farmers and gardeners are still harvesting delicious organic produce even this late in the fall. Thoughtful planning in the edible garden (coupled with good rainfall and temperature conditions) can expand the limits of conventional vegetable gardens and increase our capacity to eat fresh, healthy, organic food longer. Edible [...]
This work week continued in a Clifton Park property that's added extensive habitat garden space over the summer. Many native plants for butterflies have been introduced, especially in this featured photo, which will one day be referred to by neighborhood children as, "Butterfly Land." Here we see the quintessential Monarch habitat plant: Swamp Milkweed or [...]
This summer many of the edible gardens I've planted, in Saratoga and the capital region have included the obscure but hardy spinach known as "India Spinach." I found out about it from the Otrembiak brothers in Rock City Falls: they have a booth at the Saratoga Farmer's Market and they grow seedlings for many obscure [...]
People suggest I show "before" and "after" pictures of gardens I'm designing; it's much easier to think of photographing in the aftermath of lots of change. At the outset of any project, there's usually too much concentration and set-up to remember a "before" photo. Today in Clifton Park, NY I was sculpting an edible garden [...]
My home edible garden is in containers, and it's teeming with life force, vitality and fruition. We planted everything in mid to late May. We've been disciplined about watering when there's no rain and the most excellent organic soil available was used. This is one great advantage to container gardening: you get complete control of [...]
The past week an organic produce garden was developed deep in Saratoga county. The soil is sandy; we amended with 6 bags of compost humus. Many unique plants are being experimented with, like Italian Spinach and Tomatillo, as well as many standards. A farmer told me the other day that the more people who are [...]
About 2 months ago I bought some attractive Fingerling Potatoes from the Saratoga Farmer's Market. I promptly forgot about their prescence in the house and they grew long, spindly eye buds and the potato bodies turned soft and flacid. Finally today I got around to picking the eyes off the potatoes to plant them. The [...]
Today I was invited to visit the Gomez Family Farm, highly productive vegetable gardens south of Saratoga. The style of gardening is work horse utilitarian, high volume output and all natural methods. It was beautiful to observe. The Gomez' produce can be acquired at the farmer's markets in Saratoga year round, and other farmstand locations [...]
This winter I discovered grapefruit. It happened advertantly when I bought some grapefruit shower gel and realized if anything could taste as good as that smelled, it would be impossible to hate it. A couple weeks later, my friend was cutting my hair and offered me an organic grapefruit. Hesitantly I accepted- I've always hated [...]
Tea is medicine to me year round; iced tea is literally a spiritual experience for me in the summer. There is something ethereal about the process of seeing herbs grown organically in all their aromatic splendor, harvesting them and seeing them transform, as if by magic into tea, a substance so subjectively wonderful and really [...]
A unique and wonderful project has unfolded in Jessecology-land this summer. A client found me who has nothing but space- seriously, his family is situated on a 100 acre horse and cow farm- and he wants to grow his family's own produce, but needs help as he has never done it before. Since we don't [...]