Move over California, with your water-hungry almonds. 4.5 litres of water to grow one almond? Ridiculous! We have apricots with sweet kernels here in the north, that can grow in the shrub […]
Sweet Apricot Kernels
In Memory of Hans Rhenisch, Gardener, 1932-2017
Hansel in 1935 It begins with a grandfather taking a boy out into the garden. Then comes eight decades (and a bit more) of working with the earth to keep that moment […]
Plastic, Gardens and Drought
The replacement of lawn with gravel to save a rain shadow valley from drought is based on the principle of laying plastic down over the living earth and smothering it so that […]
Who is the Gardener?
I have learned this week what I already knew but had no words for. I am not the gardener in this land, but the garden that the land makes. Needle-and-thread grass makes […]
A Summer Home for the Family, On Earth and in the Sky
Here we are in a community garden in Stein am Rhein, Switzerland, an old roman fortress, and before that a 4000-year-old settlement where Lake Constance becomes the Rhine. A shaded picnic bench […]
Apples Make Their Own Heat
Here’s my Spigold opening up last week. Note how the sun drew the leaves out quickly, but the flowers take their time, drawn out more slowly by the heat their fur traps […]
Gold Finch Gardeners and Foodies
A male and three female American goldfinches stopped by the other day. The females had a go at the red orach, this lovely salad amaranth. But who am I to complain? They […]
Peaches and the Meaning of Life
I went to my tree this morning and knew ……this is why we live… …this morning and another year. The last transparent thinks so, too! Look at her with her red haven […]
Sustaining the Okanagan 10: 24 Apple Pies
We know who makes the best summer apple pies. Here she is, the summer pie maker. She was born in Russia 220 years ago. Look how young she looks in my garden. Here […]
Eliminate Black Plastic Now
This is today’s post on creating a sustainable Okanagan. Like the others, it is archived above. Black plastic sheeting serves 4 purposes, but all look like this: It warms the soil for earlier crops. […]
