Terminal Verbosity

Get the jump on the spring garden

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:48:34 +0000

Energized by the first truly spring-like week we’ve had this season, I spent a lot of time in the garden these past few days. Yes, I know there’s still snow in the shady spots and the ground alternates between frozen and muddy muck, but there’s still a lot you can do in the early spring [...]

Garden Primer 4 – Starting Plants from Seed

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:39:07 +0000

With this post, my garden primer series transitions from the planning stage to the doing stage. I will be writing about what I’m actually doing in my garden as I do it, so if you’re in Zone 5-ish, you can probably follow along in your own garden! So, if you’ve been following along with this [...]

Planning the Perfect Pot Garden – Primer Part 3

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:05:42 +0000

I’ve already talked about growing herbs indoors to beat the winter blues, but I know a lot of gardens in urban landscapes are looking to maximize growing space using containers (no, not that kind of pot!) to garden outside too. Whether you’re planting a few herbs in a sunny windowsill inside or growing a large [...]

Birthday Cake – Localized

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:34:49 +0000

Today is my darling husband’s birthday, so this morning the kids & I baked him a cake. I chose my Grandma’s Fresh Apple Cake recipe in part because I had ingredients on hand and in part because it was one I could adapt so that it used mainly local ingredients. Oh yeah, and also because [...]

Why Climate Change is Irrelevant

admin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:02:26 +0000

The recent spate of snow has brought out the crazies. And I’m not talking about Shaun White. I’m talking about those who, through reductionist thinking, have convinced themselves that this particularly cold winter disproves climate change. But honestly, I’m not even going to get into that debate, because frankly, as I recently posted on a [...]

Garden Primer Part 2 – How Many Vegetables Do I Need?

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:48:58 +0000

It took me longer than I’d hoped to get this post out. Part of my struggle was that choosing the veggies for your garden is such a personal choice. But a conversation with a friend last night helped me really focus in on how I choose veggies for my garden. Start with the limiting factors If you [...]

Eat From the Pantry Challenge – Week Two

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:47:52 +0000

My biggest lesson-learned in the Eat From the Pantry Challenge is not to send your spouse to the grocery store–even with a detailed list–if you expect to hold to eating from the pantry. Oh well, we still were able to use up quite a bit of stuff from the pantry this week, so I can’t [...]

A Vegetable Garden Planning Primer

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:01:45 +0000

I spent about two days of my time off of work planning next year’s vegetable garden. Yes, I realize it’s early January, but I like to start seeds beginning in February, which means I need to get my seed orders in now! That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s too late for you to get started [...]

The Eat From the Pantry Challenge

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:55:37 +0000

This month, Life as Mom is hosting the Eat from the Pantry Challenge. The idea is that each family spend the month of January trying to eat their way through the bounty in the pantry/freezer/cupboards to save a little money in the New Year. I am a bulk food addict and I belong to an [...]

A Few Holiday Crafts for Cold Weather Fun

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:09:14 +0000

We had a solid week of single-digit temperatures, leaving me with two kids wilder than the Mad Hatter and a desperate need for fun indoor craft activities. Here are few things we did that were cheap, easy, and used mainly things we already had around the house: Making them each their own miniature Christmas tree out [...]