4 Rochester

It’s not easy to find time to tend the garden with two little ones. Or do any singular activity, for that matter. They like to be involved. Our backyard, tiny as it is, is now strewn with kids toys. The turtle sand box, basketball hoop, water table, little slide and see-saw. I love it, honestly...

I love my compost bins, tucked away behind the garage. It’s so quiet and private back there (a big thing in a city backyard) and smells of leaves and rain and the forest. I finally got around to screening my compost. Oh, what beautiful stuff. It’s not such good work for my back, but good...

I’ve been woefully ignoring my blog again. Must be too busy picking weeds out of the garden. OK, so I’m not yet a master composter. I was a bit desperate for soil to fill in a new bed, so I used compost that hadn’t been properly heated, and was full of maple tree seeds, and so [......

At the bottom of our garden in my childhood home in England, we had a large rhubarb plant. Every now and again, my step-mum used to send me down to pick a few stalks, which she’d usually make into rhubarb and apple crumble. I loved its tangy sharpness. As soon as I had a garden of [...]

It’s been cold and rainy here lately, so I haven’t been spending much time out in the garden. I haven’t even had a chance to go outside and take a picture of my new compost bin that Kevin (finally) built for me. Not only do I now have one compost bin — I have two! We [...]

My herb garden is growing. The blog article I posted a link to the other day reminded me that I do like growing herbs. They’re very satisfying - easy to grow and offering an almost immediate harvest. So far, we’ve eaten asparagus and rhubarb from our garden this year. Maybe I should make...

You know that poem, Anyway, usually attributed to Mother Theresa? People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true...

You know that poem, Anyway, usually attributed to Mother Theresa? People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true...

I have such fond memories of gardening in North Carolina that I thought I should explore my old photos of the garden. I can only find photos from the first year — when I was still creating the beds. Nothing from when I’d replaced most of the raised stone beds with cement blocks. Oh well....