I’ve been told by certain garlicphobes—shockingly, I know a few—that I stink of garlic. “Stink?” I think. And then, inevitably, the look of bewilderment slides off my face, my mouth opens and something along the lines of “Here, eat some of my husband’s pesto and shut up” graciously pops out.
MoreIt’s hard to believe that in a city where August is punctuated by air quality alerts and the heat index routinely hits the century mark, cool salads, after taking a short hiatus in July and August, are back in rotation by September. So, smog be damned, late August is a great time to plant another
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Fear that cooler temps and shorter days will put an end to your garden-fresh produce? Fear no more, my friends, fear no more. The time is ripe for an office garden.
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October’s waning days and crisp evenings provide welcome relief from the summer’s brutal heat, but it’s a bittersweet reward: The summer’s bounty is already nothing more than a bright delicious memory, and your garden is largely in hibernation. If your recall is anything like mine, though, it’s a great time to document your gardening triumphs
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Beetles, worms, ants and aphids, oh my! I’m convinced that because my Pennsport deck is home to the only vegetables within, oh, most of the neighborhood, every pest in the ’hood sees my garden as an oasis of tastiness. Last year’s battles included all the garden-variety bugs you’d expect, plus whiteflies, cabbage loopers and brown
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One of the upsides to container gardening is that crops are less likely to succumb to soil-borne illnesses. Unlike traditional farmers and gardeners, container gardeners have the option of starting with fresh, sterile soil each year. If last year’s crops lost the battle against blights, wilts or mildews, then it’s smart to ditch the dirt,
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I confess. I judge books by their covers. I’ll happily lay down an extra couple of dollars for the bottle of wine with the well-designed label. And yes, this unfortunate tendency extends to my little garden. For the past several years, containers sprouting heirlooms with awesome names (Mr. Stripey, Dragon’s Egg, Boothby’s Blonde, Painted Lady)
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We’ve all carped about the litter cluttering our neighborhoods’ streets—even catching litterbugs in the act and voicing disapproval. For Matt Migliore and Brooke Allen, it got to be too much. They could no longer see past the tossed tissues and discarded Doritos bags.
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Last winter, after helping our neighbors shovel out of a blizzard, we were rewarded with a lovely pineapple. It got me thinking: “How do these things work?” Unfortunately, it remains a bit of a mystery, as last year’s attempts at pineapple propagation failed, and ditto the efforts to start an avocado tree.
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Sigh. It’s that time of the year again—days are on the wane and winter is on its way. As much as I’d like to replace the contents of each container with a promising crop of hearty root vegetables, the Earth’s revolutions (and my neighbor’s bathroom addition) shelter my little blue roofdeck from most of the
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