My Raspberry and Strawberry Plants are Here!

My mom grows the best raspberries in her garden.  There is nothing better than going out in her yard and picking a handful of just the most delicious ripe berries or having some of her homemade raspberry jam.  So I decided it was time to try and grow some myself.  I ordered them earlier this winter … Continue reading My Raspberry and Strawberry Plants are Here!

Spring in Virginia

We had the chance to go to Virginia last weekend to make one last visit to two colleges before the May 1 deadline requires my twins to make a decision as to their plans next year.   Aside from the great admitted student tours, it was a real treat to leap ahead a couple of weeks into … Continue reading Spring in Virginia

Time to Sow Seeds Indoors

After my last post where I realized that spring was indeed coming, I figured I'd better open my boxes from Botanical Interests and Burpee that were still sitting by the front door and see what I had bought.  I know I'm still ok with timing since I usually don't start anything until after spring break.  Oops, forgot … Continue reading Time to Sow Seeds Indoors

Enough of February 2015

February is finally done and it was quite a month for much of the country. It finished here in Chicago as tied with 1875 for the coldest February ever, with an average temperature of 14.6°F, and the third snowiest with just under 27 inches.  I hope March will not be anywhere near as record breaking. I … Continue reading Enough of February 2015

Harvesting Fall Beets

As I'm getting ready to plan out this year's vegetables, I know I want to include beets.  Again. I thought I had planted beets last spring for the first time ever, but somewhere along the growing season I forgot, or thought they never came up.  All summer I thought I had grown 2 plots of swiss chard, … Continue reading Harvesting Fall Beets

Kitchen Lettuce

I saw on Pinterest lots of pins about how you can grow some vegetables from the remains of store-bought or farm-raised vegetables. I thought I'd give it a try with some green leafy lettuce I bought at the grocery store. First, I cut off the end off the head of lettuce. I wrapped the washed lettuce leaves, … Continue reading Kitchen Lettuce

The Blue Jays are Back (and That’s Not a Good Thing)

My mom, Peggy, has had an ongoing issue with blue jays in her yard.  As I wrote before in Bullies at the Bird Feeder, they can be a real nuisance at her feeders.  They eat an obnoxious amount of bird seed and really act as bullies when other birds try to eat. Now the latest problem is that … Continue reading The Blue Jays are Back (and That’s Not a Good Thing)