This past week, armed only with a garden fork, I worked for an hour at making my own soil, mixing together kitchen scraps, shredded papers, and the remains collected in our vacuum. 

We are at the height of summer vegetable gardening across the northern hemisphere. Plants are established in their spaces and we, the gardeners, are starting see the rewards for our work. Surely a garden tour is in order, right? Keep in mind, that my garden is mostly potential at the moment, not edible produce.

During the First Break Out Session on Saturday, July 19th, I have the honor of hosting the Home and Garden Birds of a Feather Meet-Up. I want to make this session special for both the attendees and anyone who blogs these topics.  So, I am bringing my video camera so I can tape the session and share it with you all. I hope to structure the session like a interview getting the best tips and ideas from the attendees in this very special place.

My approach to pests in the garden or landscape is usually to adopt a technique that is least harmful to the general environment while being highly destructive to the pest itself. So I often use soap, dusts, hot pepper and young men to deal with my pests. Except for muskrats. They actually drove me to buy a .22. But let's hope your garden invasions don't end up resorting to that degree of destructive power.

When I was growing up, until I was about ten or eleven, we had a vegtable garden every year. One of my earliest memories is getting in trouble for stealing baby carrots from the garden and harvesting raspberries that would be turning into yummy jam. It was A Lot Of Work so it's probably no coincidence that gardening was put off after all the free labour (ie my siblings) moved out. Luckily we have relatives who plant way too much for themselves and we still raid their gardens.

A long holiday weekend like we have here in the US leads many to think about life outdoors: barbecueing in the backyard, a game of catch or croquet.  But before we do those things, we must consider our lawns.  Do we really need all those swaths of green that require mowing, fertilizing, and pesticides? 

In her  Where Organic Gardening and Meditation Meet, Alameda Garden's Claire Splan point to this NYT Article, Dharma in the Dirt, by Patricia Lee Brown.  The article profiles Wendy Johnson who is part of the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Northern California.

I promised you an entire post on planting, growing and carrying for your tomato plants. Almost everyone with a garden of some kind decides to grow tomatoes; they are by far the most popular vegetable (well, actually fruit.. ) that's grown. So let's get digging.

It's a gorgeous Saturday for you (I hope). As spring moves north 10 miles/day, more are beginning to feel the warmer days and cool nights that typify this time of year. We just can't help it. We want to get out and plant something to experience the season of rebirth and renewal. I've already discussed preparing your soil and pots; today, how to successfully plant almost anything. It comes down to the golden rule of planting: Dig a hole $10 dollar hole for a $1 plant. But what does this mean?

This weekend I planted a very special part of my garden: the pots of succulents that grace my front steps and the kitchen pot garden that I keep on my back deck.  Why? Container gardening gives you options that you might not otherwise have in gardening: Plants that can be moved with the sunPlants where you want them, whether there is dirt or notPlants to experiment withPlants even when you have very little space.Plants replaceable for seasonal color. 

I spent time this morning reading the wonderful posts that populate "hobbies" in the BlogHer news feed. Posts that are touching, funny and I fear way too often completely overlooked. They shouldn't be. So let me shine my editor's light on some of the remarkable writing on my beat. Kelly from Donna Mills Diva comes from a family of private pilots. After learning, last week, that her cousin was killed in a flying accident, yet contemplating the warming weather that will allow her to take off in her family's float plane, Kelly asserts I WILL FLY:

I am not working in my garden this weekend. Last week I got my compost piles rotated, but weather moved in before I pull all the weeds that have sprouted in the veggie beds this winter. Though the job list grows by the minute, a winter storm blowing through again this weekend will keep me inside reading about gardening instead of grabbing my shovel, clippers, and pail and actually working. Ah the joys of February gardening!