Category: Potager
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In the shade
Minimizing Water Evaporation in the Vegetable Garden After a very changeable spring it got up to 25 and 29 degrees in June with nary a cloud in sight. So I started to test my idea for shading the vegetable garden to help prevent water evaporation. All the shading nets available are dark and I break…
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Calendula
I don’t really like “hot” colors in flowers, like yellow, orange, or red. But there are some I can’t resist. Among them is Calendula officinalis or Marigold – one of my alltime favorites. Marigold thrives in a Mediterranean Garden When we first arrived here I tossed a package of calendula seeds in the vegetable garden and…
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Direct sowing or cultivation in pots?
Coming from a more Northern country I was used to start my seeds in pots on the windowsill before finally putting plants outside in the garden. I’ve tried it here as well but, lacking windowsills in this French-built house, it’s become a bit complicated and not altogether successful. I bought a grow light and rigged…
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And lead us not into temptation
The “Ice Saints” in the South of France. No, there are (usually) no more sub-zero temperatures in May or even in April here in Capestang. February and March offer many days with warm sun and 20+ ℃. And it can feel physically painful to NOT start sowing your tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, melons, etc. So I…
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Waiting
“Garten heisst Warten” – a German phrase I coined a few years back in my Swiss garden. It means that gardening is mostly about waiting: Waiting until you can plant stuff.Waiting for stuff to grow. Waiting for stuff to bloom. Waiting for stuff to ripen so you can eat it.Waiting for next year. Here, in…
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The Orchard
This garden had been an orchard once upon a time. There was a cherry plum (prunus cerasiferus) that had created its own little forest, damaging the garden wall in the process. A big old fruit tree of unknown kind that was more or less dead on its legs. Two stunted old apple and pear trees,…