Thoughtful musings on various topics by interesting people at Blithewold

What to do with asparagus foliage

I haven’t spent a lot of time in the vegetable garden this summer — Dan has been right on top of the planting, the weeds, and the harvests — but this week I found myself … Read more.

Getting it done.

June is a tricky time for us at Blithewold.  Just when the crowds have started to wane from Spring’s glorious show, summer arrives and a whole new set of eyes are on the property.  Not … Read more.

Mulch ado

After something like 9 inches of rain fell on the gardens in the last week or so we haven’t had to worry too much (too mulch?) about soil moisture. But we’re nearly done planting (wahoo!) … Read more.

Big changes

Do you remember the scene in Grosse Pointe Blank where Joan Cusack’s character describes going to her 10 year high school reunion? She said, “It was just as if everyone had swelled.” I couldn’t help … Read more.

The bare minimum

When the cicadas start buzzing early in the morning we know we’re in for a scorcher. With temps in the 90’s, high humidity and ground level ozone levels that were predicted to “approach or exceed … Read more.

Adaptations

Nature has her own ways of doing things and her own timing. There’s no predicting it. — It hadn’t occurred to us last August when we ordered bulbs that squirrels would be acorn deprived and … Read more.

Cool veg

In the last post I mentioned that Gail and I just picked more vegetables for the East Bay Food Pantry. It’s no accident that we still have veg to pick. Back in the middle of … Read more.

Days of fog and spiderwebs

If it wasn’t for the thick morning fog we might not know that the seasons are in an indecisive transition. And if we didn’t crash through strands of fog-lit spiderwebs with every step we wouldn’t … Read more.

An eye on Irene

Along with everyone else along the Eastern Seaboard, we’re battening down the hatches and doing whatever we can to prepare for what looks to be a sizable storm. Some of us (that’s me) can’t help … Read more.

A perfect partnership

Ever since Dick, our vegetable gardener extraordinaire, first joined his wife Mary in the Blithewold gardens, we’ve had more produce than we know what to do with. (Dick orders the vegetable seeds, starts them, plants … Read more.