Books are  a welcome token of love for any occasion. They truly are the “gift that keeps on giving” as they get passed from friend to friend and share their goodness along the way. I am an avid reader and sharer. Since I don’t keep books, one of my few regrets in life is not [...]

Strawberry season generally started early June – sometimes late May if the weather was right – and ended around July 4. When the season was close to starting, Mr. Luttrell would put ads in the local papers with our number. Our harvest gold phone would start ringing non-stop and we’d write down names, addresses and phone numbers on a green steno pad. “No, season hasn’t started yet. Probably next week. Yes, we’ll call you.” “You live where? OK, you’ll get bus #6 at Zatterburg’s grocery at 4:30am.”

I first got introduced to Seed Saver’s Exchange in 1989. At the time I was working for an environmental publication and had the pleasure of being friends with a co-worker who was one of the original employees from Smith & Hawken. She had taken me under her wing to teach me everything she knew about edible gardening and started me on an interesting and joy filled path that I still walk today.

They come in a lot of lovely colors and sometimes have variegated leaves They’re totally edible (flowers, seeds and leaves) You can make interesting things with the seeds (nasturtium bud capers anyone?) They’re a trap crop (meaning, nasties prefer to eat them vs. other crops – three years ago they distracted a black aphid infestation [...]

What an honor to be included in the roster of garden bloggers at this year’s Garden2Blog event hosted by P. Allen Smith! [And, yes, before you read further please note that this was a professional trip and expenses were paid for us - to read the fancy disclaimer language about an event like this, see [...]

There’s been a lot to report over the past few months. The Peterson Garden Project is truly becoming a project vs. just a single garden which we’re all very excited about. 2012 is the 70th anniversary of the first year of WW2 and the first historic Victory Garden summer. Since The Peterson Garden Project had brought awareness [...]

It is ironic that having grown up near Portland, Oregon and spending over 70% of my time commuting to Seattle for work over the last two years this was my first NWFGS. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip – I was in town to do my “Chicago Victory Gardens: Yesterday and Tomorrow” lecture [...]

There’s an old saying “No matter how things change, they stay the same.” This is particularly true for gardening… no matter how much we’re influenced by TV, internet and social media people still learn to garden from other gardeners… Surprisingly, this holds true for the under 40 crowd as well who report that 82% of [...]

Even though the calendar says spring, the weather says winter. Struggling through the loooonnnngggg “spring” in Chicago’s Zone 5 can be a chore. Especially when I really, REALLY want to be out there digging and planting. It would all be much easier if Peter would just give in and get me the greenhouse I’ve been [...]