Last year I was commissioned by an amusement park to put together a children's gardening project in Lake George, NY. We decided to plant organic edible gardens in non-permanent raised beds, using an excellent quality organic soil. The project was boatloads of fun for everyone involved- as the summer progressed, the children experienced harvesting organic [...]
Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with a fun young couple in Glens Falls, NY (in the capital region) to co-create their first organic edible garden. The couple happen to be newlyweds and new homeowners, and joy permeates their property in a palpable way. It feels like all the edible gardening here will do [...]
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 lovely but scary spider sits square in the middle of our organic container edible garden in Lake George, NY. We've watched him (her?) get noticeably plumper over the summer, he's (she's) a wonderful ecological neighbor. The spider eats any garden pests who might dare visit, and our tomatoes, peppers, beans, lettuce, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, [...]
Checking up on a property today, I was delighted to see the Little Acre raised beds teeming with life, vitality and organic produce. We filled the boxes with high quality organic soil and organic vegetable seedlings; the result has been gorgeous healthy organic produce. It is exciting to be able to empower more, and more [...]
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 [...]
In the region of the world where I live, (the Saratoga and Lake George area) gardens are just starting to produce basil in useable quantities. The Saratoga Farmer's Market is the first place I've seen basil for sale, and only one organic herb farm has it ready fresh from their gardens. I also found garlic [...]
This week found me delightfully engaged in one of my all time favorite types of gardening projects: I was comissioned by an amusement park center near me to design and install some Children's Gardens, with the kids there helping! We decided to use Little Acres because they are the perfect size for manageable fun for [...]
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 week we realized a large mistake had been made in soil medium at the farm stand garden. An error in communication resulted in the beds being top dressed by the farmer with undigested horse manure, rather than fully composted cow manure. Both are available on the property; this was simply human error and hopefully [...]
Rain poured from the sky today as I staked the baby and mid-growth hops vines with fishing line. It was a relief as the weather has been brutal this week so far. In this business of professional gardening, rain is immeasurably preferable to blazing sun. In the rain, we don't worry about sunburn or heat [...]