Field Trip

Yesterday we all ventured outside of the City Farm boundaries to see other endeavors of urban gardening.

We visited several community gardens, including:


Saint Isadora Community Garden (at St. Michael's Church)



Manton Avenue Garden, which is rumored to be closing down next year...

Glenham Community Garden, which has an awesome sunshade constructed by Ironworks.

Olneyville Woonasquatucket Riverside Park Community Garden



We also passed by Pearl Street Community Garden, established by the Fertile Underground and masterfully graffitied. Check out some awesome pictures of the site.

We also stopped by a plot of land that is currently maintained by a few urban gardeners but illegally transformed, and basically a free for all garden spot...


Some arugula growing there.


Also.... Raspberries are back!!! The bushes that we have at City Farm are Everbearing, or primocanes, which means that they provide berries once during the early summer, and once around the late summer/fall.

Stay tuned for pictures of the second harvest!! :>

Bug Catchers

Today we took the kids around the farm to catch some bugs!

Perfect bug catching includes....


A jar of any size (smaller may be easier for small children)


A good net (not totally necessary, but sure is exciting for kids)



A magnifying glass for close inspection


Some pictures for identifying


A list to count out the number of bugs we find

We also read a cute story about a boy named Liam and his urban garden-- The Curious Garden by Peter Brown:



On Mondays we always have a rambunctious group, so it was nice seeing them go crazy looking for bugs- After we caught them, we all let the bugs go and explained why it is important having lots of bugs living at the farm.

Dead Heading

Returning to the idea of energy:

To get the most produce out of each plant....here at the farm we like multitasking- while harvesting basil, sometimes you may come across a plant that is not necessarily tall enough to harvest, but you may notice that it has a tower that is flowering at the top- cut off the triangular tower. Making seeds expends a great deal of the plant's energy- energy that could go towards more growth in the plant rather than reproduction.

Though we harvest a great deal of calendula (to sprinkle the petals in our salad mix), a number of flowers die before we can use them. After the flower petals fall off, seeds form in the head (more noticeable in other flowers, such as sunflowers) and by snipping off these past-due flowers, you can shift the plants energy back to producing more buds. This is called "dead heading."


Calendula, dead head on the right



It is sad to think that my internship at City Farm will soon be over.. I have learned so much and met so many generous and good natured people while working at the farm..

Thursday Market

Today we harvested for the Thursday Armory Square Park Farmers' Market. Rich has expanded me and Patricia's internship duties to be self-instructed and intuitive- this means that we are harvesting and completing tasks without verbal communication. At this point we have learned what needs to be done based on the day of the week. It is exciting to have Rich ask at some points if we have harvested something, and for us to reply, "Already done, boss." Sean encouraged us to call Rich, "boss" to push his buttons a bit- he likes to think of us as more of a team.

A "new" perennial flower has bloomed at the farm, raising eyebrows and adding an interesting twist to the flower arrangements.



No one knew what it was called, so I looked it up, and turns out it is a "White Bellflower." Gorgeous.

The wildlife of Providence seems to seek refuge at City Farm... We have a problem with feral cats sneaking into the farm- I did not think that they could pose such a big problem, but they managed to scale the greenhouse roof, tearing a hole in the plastic... a tedious revamping of the greenhouse was needed as a result (this was back in spring). They also cause mischief by hunting birds, some of which may be a part of depleted species.





Anyone know what kind of bird this is?

The Cercospora Leaf Spot seems to have subsided. Rich has been continuously cutting off infected leaves and feeding them to the chickens- the dry weather lately has helped to decrease the spread and survival of this fungus as well.


Ruby Red Chard, recovering well!


Still a couple of spots..

I helped set up the market a bit today. For the Thursday market, City Farm participates in a co-op style arrangement with Red Planet Vegetables and Front Step Farm. This means that each farm agrees to bring a certain amount of produce for the stand and then the farmers can interchange the responsibility of working each market.



Than (from Front Step Farm on Westminster Street), sets up his raspberries for the market.


Other news...


We are bringing Green Concord Grapes to the Saturday Market now!!

Cercospora Leaf Spot

As expected, Rich won the flower arrangement contest at the Thursday market. He said that one of the other arrangements sold but was not sure whose it was. His arrangement was gorgeous, I am glad that someone was able to take it home.

Some sort of disease has been plaguing the chard recently. After researching a bit, it seems that the Giant Swiss Chard and Golden Chard appear to be affected by Cercospora Leaf Spot, a fungus that looks like so:



And lower leaves appear as so:





After researching a bit, I found that it may be best to remove the affected leaves and spray the remaining in a diluted milk mixture (30%) and a bit of baking soda. Rich is away in Seattle this week, visiting his family, so perhaps Sean and I will try this remedy.

If anyone has a suggestion for other effective ways to treat this fungus, please leave a post!!

Honey Bee

Recently, I visited Christina and Erika's plot at Urban Edge Farm to help them out for the afternoon. Christina Dedora is the Director of Operations and Erika Rumbley is the Community Gardens Network Coordinator at Southside CLT. Christina is very experienced in growing flowers while Erika brings in knowledge about growing food to their farm land.

City Farm has taught me a great deal-- it was nice taking all of that knowledge to practice while harvesting in a different location as well as learning variations and additional knowledge from these other farmers. Although I have been harvesting flowers for City Farm, Christina was able to teach me when a flower should and should not be picked. Rich had explained that it is best to choose flowers that are not fully open, and that they will open while sitting in a vase, but Christina showed me when the best time is for harvesting sunflowers. Like other flowers, it is a good idea to harvest them when not quite fully open, but she also taught me how to tell by just looking at the face of the flower.


A sunflower with a puffy face will not last long once it is cut.
When you think about it, this makes sense because it is an indication that the sunflower has finished growing and is starting to focus its energy on producing seeds.



Today Than, the apprentice at City Farm last year, stopped by to open up a beehive.


The two beehives at City Farm.

He has been beekeeping for three years now, and he was explaining to me and a volunteer, Karen, how he is experimenting with natural beekeeping. This means that he does not buy frames (that have a wax border preinstalled). One problem with preinstalled was frames is the wax that is being used- Conventional beekeeping uses pesticides and antibiotics (directly in the hives) causing chemicals and toxins to build up in the wax that is used for these frames.

He explained that in conventional beekeeping, it was first thought that breeding bigger bees meant more honey, but this theory has been nullified. Natural beekeeping focuses less on the size and honey output of the bees, and more on the health of the bees.



Natural beekeeping seems to make sense-

"As long as we treat we get weaker bees who can only survive if we treat, and stronger parasites who can only survive if they breed fast enough to keep up with our treatments. No stable relationship can develop until we stop treating," Bush Farms.

Than gave us a taste of their honey too! Yum.

Power to the Flowers

Whenever it is time for harvest on Thursdays, Rich always gives me the wonderful task of cutting flowers for arrangements. I think he has realized how much I enjoy this part of harvest.


Gorgeous Zinnias are blooming all around the farm!

It is one of my favorite jobs because there are very few guidelines- as long as the flower is pretty enough to give to your mother or lover, then it is perfect for arrangements. He also encourages picking flowers and leafy plants (for extra girth in the arrangements) that are interesting and different.. The other day I cut some flowering dill and cilantro!

After harvesting the flowers and placing them into some buckets, we bring them back to the Southside Community Land Trust office and arrange the flowers ourselves. Rich likes to put a bunch of different flowers into beer bottles, creating a wild flower look.





Sean and I have been competing with the flower arrangements- we each make the same amount of arrangements and then see how many of ours are able to sell. Sean has been winning :P Rich and Patricia joined today and we all made one arrangement each. Rich's arrangement looked fantastic, you can tell he has been doing them for a couple years...

We will see tomorrow whose sold!

Food for Thought

Today Chris, the Children's Garden Coordinator at SCLT, and I romped around with kids from Bright Horizons and Luv 4 All Daycare Centers. We made sure to reiterate the parts of the plant to them (root, stem, leaf, fruit, flower), and what plants need to grow (light, water, soil).

After taking a walk around the garden, we checked on the spot where everyone in the group planted cilantro. I had not expected to see any cilantro shooting out of the ground in just one week, but to the kids' excitement, there were little tiny cilantro seedlings popping up.

We then had some arts and crafts time, and the kids were able to draw imaginary plants, with one condition: that their imaginary plants have all of the necessary plant parts. It was really interesting seeing what the kids drew- Car plants, money trees, and ipod plants... It makes me wonder how the future will evolve according to the priorities of this generation..

We have also incorporated a bunch of activities that involve eating into the lesson plans- it is important for the kids to see that healthy food is delicious, and that they can someday grow food that they can eat and enjoy as well.

We picked tomatoes and gathered a bit of cilantro (not the seedlings, but some that was fully grown) and made a fruit salsa.


Chris's Fruit Salad Salsa


1 peach
20 cherry tomatoes
1 kiwi
8 cherries (take out the pits)
a handful of cilantro
3 scallions
1 lime

All the ingredients were diced up and the lime was squeezed over the salsa for some added flavor.

Some of the kids were shy to try the salsa, but most of them enjoyed this homegrown tomato dip. It would be better if all of the ingredients were able to be grown locally... Rich told us that we could use some of the recently harvested pears at the farm for the other groups that come!

Visitors and Intruders

Today was the weekly visit from our good friends at Bright Horizons, nine playful and curious kids.

We started off our morning with Seeds, a book by Ken Robbins. After talking about the way that plants grow from seeds last week, this was a good follow up because it discusses the different ways that plants manage to spread their seeds far away. It covered everything from dandelions to plants with burrs.

We walked around with the group and everyone picked a plant that they will pay close attention to for the rest of the summer. We are hoping that the kids will be able to notice the changes that occur and how the plant's life cycle carries out.

While checking out the Tomato plants, one of the teachers noticed a bizarre caterpillar resting under one of the leaves. It reminded me much of the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. Some bugs are beneficial to the farm, such as certain Butterflies, Earthworms, etc. while others are highly damaging, like the Cutterworm, so before I picked it off of the plant, I brought Rich over to check it out.



He identified it as a Tomato Horn Worm, a damaging insect at the farm. After letting all of the kids check it out, we ran over to the coop to give the chickens a snack :P




We showed the kids a cool plant that we have in the greenhouse, the Sensitive Plant. The video below is able to show why it would be called this...



There is some more interesting information on Wikipedia..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa_pudica

In with the New

The farm is constantly changing.

New vegetables and fruits have been popping up everywhere:



Cucumbers



Cranberry Climbing Bean (this is a type that you remove from the pod and dry)



Pears appearing too (Not quite ripe yet though)

We harvested Garlic last week. With this crop being under the ground, it is difficult to tell when the bulb is not fully developed, or if it is so much so that it is beginning to rot... You can estimate the best time to pull it up when the foliage is about 80% dead (or brown).

Some of the Garlic was a bit slimy, showing the first signs of decay, but we saved these anyway- Sean and I salvaged this garlic, separating the cloves and removing the parts that had gone bad. Rich took all of the good garlic up into the attic to be dried for later sale at the market.

I have been eating a lot of the salvaged garlic, and supposedly it is called "green garlic." I believe this is because it is harvested earlier in the season than regular garlic and has not been cured.

Usually when a bed is harvested and cleared out, we aerate, spread compost, and spread seed or transplant another type of plant. Contrary to the norm here at City Farm, we didn't spread any compost because garlic does not deplete a great deal of nutrients from the soil. In addition, beans are nitrogen-fixers, so they actually help to replenish the soil while growing.

We have been also just recently been harvesting Purple Bush Beans at the farm.



I was not aware that all beans are not climbing beans... pretty cool purple color! They are green inside and supposedly they turn fully green when you cook them.

In with the new, but also out with the old; the pea plants were taken out and put into the compost- the last couple of weeks the pea pods have been noticeably less tasty and the plant, less productive.

This Cyclical Earth

Today was one of the Children's Garden Workshops with a local daycare. Last week, we explored topics such as how to keep a plant healthy (soil, water, sun, nutrients), and also had a scavenger hunt for finding different plants and bugs around the farm. This week, we taught the kids the life cycle of plants (seed>plant>flower>fruit>seed) using a children's book From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons, and the book, A Seed Grows: My First Look at a Plant's Life Cycle by Pamela Hickman. These were great- I would suggest picking one up at your local library if you need a tool to use for explaining this process.

We also drew plants making sure to include the major parts: the roots, stem, leaves, and flower/seed/fruit. Once we started walking around the farm and physically pointed out some of the concepts that we learned from the book it really clicked for some of the children- this was very exciting to witness. I especially liked seeing an attitudinal shift take place in the kids with their idea of bees. By learning about the way bees play an important role in the life cycle and survival of plants, the kids were able to realize that a bee's role in life is not merely to produce honey or bother humans. It was enlightening being able to see this shift from fear to understanding.

After taking them on the observation walk, we showed them how to harvest lettuce, basil, tomatoes, husk cherries, scallions, and edible flowers. All of the kids got a chance to harvest something- we showed them the correct way to cut off a lettuce head and where to snip basil so that both plants are able to grow again. We also demonstrated that husk cherries are ripe when they fall to the ground, and that tomatoes start out small and green and that they are ready to eat when they turn red. After harvesting all of these plants, we made a nice salad with the kids and shared some with Rich, and the high school interns, Princess and Eugenio.

Today was totally fulfilling in the sense of "aha" moments with the kids. It was great seeing how eager each of them became to try their first husk cherry and how pleasantly surprised they became when realizing how delicious basil leaves are.








Husk Cherries!

I am looking forward to seeing them next week, and in future weeks, to witness the progression of their understanding of the environment and food systems.

~~~How to harvest basil~~~

When your basil reaches a stage where there are two sets of leaves, they are ready for clipping!

Clip just above the lower set of leaves.



And in a week or two, you will see that your basil is just about back to the height it was before :>

Sweetly Eaten, Savored, and Stung

As the season moves on, it is amazing seeing all the cycles of each plant. A few weeks ago, the raspberries were at their peak, providing thousands of flavorful, explosive berries each day, seemingly ripening within mere hours. They were the big hit at the market, vanishing faster than they were able to be picked. Now the raspberries, though still enjoyable, have seemingly become the "washed up actress" at the farm: still available, but less flavorful, not as badly wanted (at least by the volunteer/work crew at the farm- we have had our fill of berries with decadent grazing during harvests), and quickly dwindling in abundance.

Tomatoes have graced us with their presence, and suddenly the spotlight has shifted from sweet raspberries to these savory gems. Yesterday, I ate the first cherry tomato of the season. I had no idea what cherry tomatoes actually tasted like until this moment.



More on bind weed... Rich told me that there has been a bind weed problem at the farm the entire time he has been farming there- almost a decade! The previous caretaker of the farm thought that the weed was actually a wild morning glory. Though these two plants are related, bind weed is extremely invasive. Sean, the apprentice at the farm, pointed out the difference between the two to me- The first picture is that of a morning glory plant, and below is a bind weed.






Notice that the bind weed has a much sharper leaf shape. Both bind weed and morning glory leaves and flowers are edible, but should be eaten in small amounts. I ate a bind weed flower on the farm the other day (they are white and look like morning glory flowers) and Rich told me that he would be hesitant to eat such a plant. You are what you eat... perhaps I will only eat this weed out of necessity in the future.

The sunflowers are blooming everywhere around the farm, and it is absolutely wonderful with their added presence.



Rich gave us all Stinging Nettles this past Friday and told us that we had some homework to do: Find out the reason why this plant is good to have around the farm, and cook something with it. Rich told us that usually, nettles are considered as weeds- they are quite unpleasant to come in contact with, living up to their name.

So I called up my friend Rachel, an ethnobotany lover, and asked her why they would be beneficial. It is amazing how healthy this plant is for you- containing up to 25% protein, nettles are the most protein rich of all leafy greens. Consuming it is also beneficial to your kidneys and acts as an anti-diuretic. This plant has a great amount of iron in it, making it a good treatment for anemia. It has also been used externally as a treatment for arthritis, through repetitive whipping of the body with a long section of the plant.

While preparing the nettles, I made sure to avoid touching the plant at all, because it seems that there are stingers, or "trichomes", located not only on the stems but even on the leaves. At the beginning, I carefully plucked off each leaf individually, but then eventually I realized that by holding the top of the stem, grasping the stem in a fist (with gloves or wash cloths), and sliding my hand down, the leaves were able to strip off of the plant quite easily.

In Europe, nettles are not only more present, but more frequently eaten. I called up my mom to ask for a Swedish recipe, and I also added my own spin.

Stinging Nettle Soup:

1. Soak the nettles in room temperature salt water (I added about 5 tablespoons to a large bowl of it) (I think this is to deactivate the sting).
2. In the bottom of a large pot, saute onion, garlic, chives, and chopped potatoes with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.
3. When the potatoes are almost fully done, add a bit of vegetable broth and then a bit of flour, and repeat, to make a rue of some sort.
4. Add a tablespoon (or two) of ginger, a splash of soy sauce, and a tablespoon of thyme (perhaps some rosemary too! I didn't do this, but thought that it would have added a nice flavor)
6. Stir in chopped tofu. Let cook for a little, then chop the nettles into strips and add to rue.
7. Gradually add more vegetable broth (as much as you like) and let simmer for 5-7 minutes.


I enjoyed this recipe, but Sean told me that he ate his nettle soup in a pureed form! The hearty texture of the nettles I imagine can be a problem for some people, but I enjoyed eating this earthy plant. Tomorrow the rest of the farm crew will share recipes and information on nettles- it should be interesting learning about different ways to cook this plant.

Children's Garden

Yesterday marked the beginning of the Children's Garden Program at City Farm. Chris, the Children's Garden Coordinator, and I met before the kids arrived to go over the day's agenda: there would be two groups coming in to see the farm today, a group of 11 from the Bright Horizons Family Solutions, and a group of 22 from Luv 4 All Childcare Center.

When the first group arrived in the morning, we all sat down underneath the shade of the Crab apple trees and introduced ourselves. We wrote down the rules of the farm on a large pad of paper (staying on the paths- no walking in the beds, no running, no picking vegetables/fruit unless we say it's ok). Chris and I split the group into two, and each led a tour around the farm. We made it a point to ask the children questions like: what is the difference between the soil in the beds versus the soil on the pathways? What is this vegetable? What is compost?

I was especially impressed with some of the children with this last question--some already had a knowledge of what compost is. I did not even know what compost was until my senior year of high school! With this confessed, it is even more apparent that school programs on gardening should be in place.

On the tours, we showed the children what a ripe raspberry looks like and how to pick it, and then we let them try one. I also showed them what flowers were edible and gave them the pleasure of eating bachelors' buttons and nasturtiums.

We sent them on a scavenger hunt after the tour- Chris typed up a list of things they had to find and observe, then draw in their journals. I always enjoy seeing little children's drawings and creative takes on the world. I found myself drawing chickens along with them and having just as much fun.

Next Monday is a holiday, so the kids will not be joining us, but they are scheduled to come back to the farm for more lessons for the rest of the summer.

After the second group filed back into their buses, I helped Rich spread finished compost onto a newly cleared bed, for lettuce. We sifted the dirt from an old compost pile, throwing unfinished bits like shells, pieces of cardboard, and compostable plastic (which takes a couple of years to finally break down) into a bucket for further composting, and took out stones and misplaced garbage.

The end result from sifting is a gorgeous, rich soil that can be spread over the top of a (freshly aerated) bed. After raking the compost over the top, we watered the soil and got to work transplanting lettuce seedlings.

Rich uses a biointensive method for growing lettuce; this is when the lettuce is planted close enough together to grow into an almost carpet-like appearance when mature, but far enough apart to ensure that all of the plants receive enough nutrients to grow to their full potential (we planted the seedlings about 4 inches apart). Below is a picture of the newly planted lettuce... notice the staggered planting style.



And in a couple of weeks...


Fully grown lettuce, ready to harvest.

Less light to the ground= less weeds :>


Finished product of yesterday's work:




This is a great way to grow food if you are concerned with water conservation- the shade on the ground ensures less evaporation from the soil, and organic, composted soil retains more water than synthetically treated soil.

After transplanting the lettuce, we watered the bed as a final step in transplanting. It is important to transplant in a way that is least shocking to a plant. The bed was watered before planting, the seedlings were watered before planting, and the ground was water post planting.

Planting all this lettuce reminded me of the funk band, Lettuce. Both are delicious!!

Gooseberry Attack

Today we started off the morning picking berries and flowers. Raspberries were, of course, on the agenda for picking, but Rich added a new berry to the list: the gooseberries located in the back of the City Farm plot. 6 pints to be sold to Olga's. My mom is especially fond of gooseberries because they are a regularly enjoyed fruit in Sweden, her homeland. We have had a gooseberry bush in New Jersey for a couple years, but the birds always seem to eat the berries before we can get to them.

These berries start out white/translucent and slowly grow bigger, getting softer and turning red-ish. Finally, you know it is ripe once it is a dark red and tastes sweet.





They taste very similar to grapes, with lots of seeds and a tougher skin. You have to watch out when picking from these bushes because they have a lot of thorns on them. What the heck, Rich, why can't we grow berries that won't maul us? haha, joking, joking.



Raspberry battle wounds.

Today was unbelievably hot. Basically, as soon as we harvested a plant, it wilted. We had to be very conscious about the temperature because of this, and timing is everything. After picking a bunch or two of greens (Giant Swiss Chard, Dinosaur Kale, Dill, Golden Chard, and Oregano today) we had to run over to shade and submerge the veggies in a tub of cold water, where they would immediately bounce back from the refreshing rush of water.

We also cut flowers for cute little wild arrangements to be sold at the market today. Rich told me that they are not usually a big hit at the market, but having them there attracts people to the stand, like little bees :D

Maybe if we planted more flowers in our dying city streets, then more people would come around to build them back up. Guerilla Gardening, anyone?

Energy Exchange

Friday June 18

Today Rich and I traveled to several different places to donate some extra food from the farm. The Genesis Center on Potter's Ave was the first stop- this place is an adult education center that provides a window of opportunity for immigrants, refugees, and low-income residents to learn valuable skills; City Farm donates food to the organization's culinary arts program.

After dropping off lettuce, mint, and some other delicious produce from the farm, we were treated to some awesome fries from the chefs-in-training at the Genesis Center. The next stop we made was over at the Rhode Island Food Bank. I was surprised that we were donating to the Food Bank because I had figured that this type of organization would only accept canned food. I was really excited to find out that fresh food is accepted because it seems that the people who need fresh food the most are often those who have the least amount of access to it.

Rich loves the idea of community exchange; a concept in which many different people participate in a barter system where everyone engages in their individual interests, contributing to the community in exchange for other people's contributions. He even implements this idea of exchange with produce and compost pick-ups.. At the Friendship Cafe, Rich delivers produce in exchange for coffee credits. At White Electric, he picks up coffee grounds in exchange for coffee credits as well. Being a lover of coffee, I would not mind growing food in exchange for coffee.

Hearing Rich talk about this, I was reminded of the alternative money system in Ithaca. "Ithaca Hours" are slips of paper that are used to trade one person's hour of work, for another. For example, you are a carpenter that works on someone's house for one hour. You receive a slip of paper that entitles you to one hour of another person's skill. This is an interesting form of bartering that would perhaps be a little more tricky when it comes to farming. So many hours are spent on the farm tending after plants.. how would you even be able to calculate how many hours you spent planting, weeding, watering, harvesting, cleaning/bagging, etc. for a bunch of collard greens? If you know anything about how this barter system works in terms of food, then I would love to know- leave a comment!

The rest of the day we spent harvesting for the Hope Street Market. The Gator Spinach is finally reaching a large enough size and volume to harvest! I have never tried this type of Spinach, but I am sure it is popular at the market because it is a variety that you never really see for sale.




Gator Spinach <3

Rich also put us to work on the raspberry patch- It is absolutely amazing how many raspberries these bushes have produced over the past few weeks.

Rich likes to keep notes everyday, recording when the first harvest of certain plants take place, if it rained, and other information about the produce and farm. He took out two calendars and laid them out next to each other. One was from last year and the other, from this season. Little notes and drawings filled every square- a thorough recording. He looked at month of June 2009-- First Raspberry eatin'- June 30th. Tracing his finger over this year's calendar, he stopped at June 9th, 2010. The raspberries were in fact, nearly 3 weeks early this year. I am a strong believer of climate change, but I was really surprised to see such a difference in only a year. I will be interested to see when the first picking happens next summer...

Sean, the apprentice at the farm, is full of useful information about farming as well. Just yesterday he told me that the more raspberries you pick, the more raspberries your bushes will produce. This makes sense if you think about it in the energy exchange sense- when a ripe raspberry is picked, the plant no longer has to put energy into making that one raspberry more ripe that it already is, and that energy can go towards ripening another, less ripe, raspberry. You just have to make sure that you don't accidentally rip off a whole bunch of unripe raspberries when you only meant to get one ripe one. That seems to happen to me more than I would like it to. That concept also applies to peas and tomato plants.


oops, picked off a bunch of unripe berries...

I have always enjoyed taking clippings of plants, putting them in water, watching them grow roots, and them eventually planting them. My roommates and I always do this with geraniums in our house. Recently, I found out something new about how to grow tomato plants from clippings... Sean told me that if you pick off a large sucker, you can just stick the end of it right into a pot. I am super excited to have learned that little tip about tomatoes.. they are one of my favorite savory fruits- well, avocados too of course. It is a little harder to grow avo's in this northeast weather though.




Sucker plant!