NINETEEN YEARS AGO ALMOST TO THE DAY, I ate pickles for breakfast with lovely Dan Koshansky, a retired railroad conductor and an organic gardener in suburban Long Island. I was garden editor at Newsday newspaper then, and the beat included many a recipe tasting at harvest time. It’s how I learned to garden, and to cook from the garden: from people like Dan. Today, on our second of a series of weekly Thursday Food Fests in collaboration with Everyday Food’s Dinner Tonight blog, I want to share his recipe with you. Enjoy. [Read more...]
a kousa dogwood i’m certain about
REMEMBER THE GREAT KOUSA CONTROVERSY, when I wanted to evict my nursed-from-infancy weeping Kousa dogwood? You all helped me see the error of my ways, and we’re still together. Though I’ve often waffled on the weeper, there’s one Kousa I never have regretted planting, and that’s the showy white-variegated ‘Wolf Eyes.’ That’s it beaming at you hundreds of feet beyond my back yard in the photo, shining like a beacon, even at a smallish size. Wow.
won’t you join our thursday food fests?
ONCE YOU FIND A GOOD HABIT, STICK WITH IT. Last week’s Pesto Fest collaboration with the Dinner Tonight blog was so well-received by gardening and cooking friends that we’re throwing a series of events each Thursday through Labor Day.
This week: Cukes and Zukes, from tips for growing to how to take the bounty from garden (or farmer’s market!) to table.
Next week (Aug. 7): Beans (as in that Heftybag-ful of long green pods in my fridge).
Here’s how easy it is to participate (and what’s up in other weeks to come):
frogboys on google page rank of 6: unanimous ‘no comment’
WHEN NEWS ARRIVED YESTERDAY on our 4-month blog-aversary that A Way to Garden had earned its first Google Page Rank ever—a robust 6!—the staff uttered no comment. Well, the occasional “urp,” but basically nobody even got out of the pool to party. “Wow,” I told them, “Guy Kawasaki at Alltop put us on the top row among garden sites yesterday, too!” But did anybody out back care? Now perhaps you see what I’m up against. Thanks to all of you for your role in making our funny little blog a success, for reacting to our stories by sharing yours. Keep the comments coming (but please, say more than “urp,” OK?).
more leaves that i love
I HAVE ALREADY SPOUTED OFF ABOUT HOW I AM NO FLOWER GIRL. Foliage rules here. Month 3, and it still looks good. What flower can say that? Oh, really?
- pelargonium ‘vancouver centennial’
- farfugium japonicum ‘giganteum’
- euphorbia cotinifolia
- h. ’sum and substance’
- athyrium nipponicum ‘pictum’
- rhus typhina ‘tiger eyes’















