Big and Small

First, the 'Big'...massive butternut squash / crookneck pumpkins have been the main story the past few weeks in the garden.  I think there are

Mini-Melons and Bok Choy

My watermelon patch has been producing ripe fruit.  So, I've been eating these miniature yellow meat watermelons for breakfast or lunch.

Autumn Arrives

Temperatures dropped yesterday by 10 degrees.  We've had lots of rain in the last week, and it rained all day today.  My sons are finally back in

Garden Insects Good, Bad, and Ugly

I don't spray pesticides in my garden.  My first year of vegetable gardening, I used Sevin powder and the supposedly organic stuff made

August Harvests Camera Roll

The garden is usually a solitary thing for me.  When I go out to it and weed, plant, water, and harvest, I am usually alone.  A few times this

Late Summer Garden Status

The garden in mid-August is a mix of harvest victories, new growth, and hungry weeds.  Cucumbers and winter squash are sprawling out of

This Week's Harvests

Here's a visual run-down of what the garden has produced in the past week.  Of note above are the small carrots - these were accidentally

Dodder, the Vampire Plant

 Earlier in the summer, I noticed an odd orange vine growing amongst my carrots.  I pulled it out and didn't think much about it.  Things

Harvest after FloydFest

Mrs. Rabbit and I hightailed it out of town last week for a music festival in Floyd, VA, and while we were away the garden finally got

Vegetable Gardener Pornography

Mid-summer harvests at the Beware of Rabbits Garden are large and magical.  The images of these harvests are a bit like pornography for

Ripe Tomatoes

There has been a ton of produce coming out of the garden.  Tonight was typical...I picked 3 pounds of ripe tomatoes and 2 cucumbers.  The

Alliums Galore

Garlic and Onion harvests happened yesterday, almost spur-of-the moment.  I had not been watching my alliums closely, and their

Hello Summer

The heat has set in for the summer season.  Highs are now hitting mid to upper 90's regularly, with humidity levels somewhere between light

The Tyranny of Peas

The peas don't care that my fridge is full of peas.  They don't care that I had plans for the weekend that did not involve them.  The peas

Catching Up

The past two weeks have been busy, in and out of the garden.  We've also had some pretty fantastic springtime weather recently.  This

May Harvests

Gorgeous weekend in the garden.  Highs in the 70's, and mostly sunny.  It was a pleasure to be outside. I actually harvested 5 things this

The State of the Garden

There is lots of good stuff happening in the garden these days...so much stuff that I have had trouble finding time to write about it.  I suppose

Asparagus, Wild Onions, and a Carrot

Three things have come out of the garden recently.  First, the asparagus harvest has been going well.  We had enough for a meal,

Planting Potatoes

This is my fifth year of backyard gardening, and for many of those years, I was experimenting in two ways.  First, I was trying to see

Endings and Beginnings

I harvested the last of my parsnips.  Some of them had started showing their age...their skin had become bumpy and large crevices had formed

The Enemy

I only have one plant in the cabbage family in the garden. It is a brussel sprout plant that Just. Won't. Die.  It survived winter and started

Asparagus Rising

My asparagus patch is sending up spears!  I've harvested only 5 spears so far, but more are coming up every day.  Since this is Year 3 for my

The Tool That Killed My Rototiller

I no longer till my garden.  There are two reasons why...first and foremost, because of the style of gardening that I use, there really is no

Unexpected Harvest

This weekend's gorgeous weather led me to plant 4 more seedbeds.  In doing so, I uncovered some vegetables that I did not expect to find.

The Greenhouse

We have a greenhouse in our backyard.  It was on the property when we purchased it over 4 years ago.  Our home was built in 1972, and had

Growth and a Mystery

In the past month, I've planted 3 varieties of peas, onion sets, fava beans, and spinach directly into the garden.  Half of my 1,000 square

Thinning Day

Sunday was rainy and cold, and a perfect day to complete a key greenhouse task; culling, thinning, and transplanting seedlings.  Many

The Gardener's Reward

This weekend felt like a good time to harvest and cook up another batch of parsnips.  With the recent bouts of warm weather, the tops of these

Prepping the Asparagus Bed

This is the third year for my asparagus patch, which means that I finally get to harvest a crop.  Last year as thick stems burst out of the

Baffled by Basil

I've written about my love of volunteer plants in the garden before. Miraculous growth of unplanned vegetables is a fun part of gardening

Fava Beans Arrive

Last week, some seeds I'd ordered arrived.  I placed an order with Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.  This seed company isn't really a

Planting Spinach

Spinach is a crucial crop in our garden because my wife loves the stuff.  I enjoy it as well,  but these leafy greens hold a special place in the

Sprouts

When the first sprouts pop through the soil in my greenhouse, I get pretty excited.  Feelings of hope and relief wash over me.  Right now,

Snow Day

We've had a bumper crop of snow this winter.  This last storm plopped 4 or 5 inches on us with a nice crusty layer of sleet on the bottom.  My

The Dibbler

So, I planted onion sets this weekend.  There were large and small seed onions in the bag, and I made a tool to help me make holes that are the right size for each onion.

I made it from scrap wood by drilling a hole in the larger 'handle' piece, twisting the

Winter Parsnips

Besides garlic, one other vegetable has survived this winter...parsnips.  These parsnips were planted last spring.  Their lush summer foliage has long since died, but they regrew new winter leaves...

There are a little over a dozen parsnips in the patch, and many of them are huge.  I am a big fan of these root vegetables.  While they are a lot like carrots, I find their cooked flavor to be far superior.  Cut into chunks,

Name Change

For a number of reasons, the name of this blog is changing to 'Beware of Rabbits.'  This new name is an homage to our primary garden pest, the wily and speedy bunny rabbit.  My wife came home last winter with a Stop sign, and last summer I posted it with an adornment in the garden...

So, www.bewareofrabbits.com is the new name of this blog.  Please make note of it.

Garlic

My Aunt Sharon is also a backyard gardener, and in late 2012, she gave me a bulb of seed garlic that she didn't have room to plant.  I separated the cloves, made holes, and buried them in the ground in November. That's what the interwebz said I should do.  They each sent up a green shoot.  I was worried they would die during the winter.  Nope.  They grew, and I harvested a dozen large bulbs in late spring.

Planting Peas

We enjoyed two sunny 70-degree days this weekend.  I took full advantage of this hiatus from snow, rain and sub-freezing temperatures to plant 1/4 of the garden with what has become one of my favorite crops, peas.  Yes, February 22 and 23rd are early enough that I am taking a small risk with these peas, but not a huge risk.  Peas like the cold.  They can handle a frost, and then some.  Besides, if a killing freeze is forecast, I can cover them.

The late winter garden is a sad, gray mess.  We have

Getting the Greenhouse Growing

It just felt like the right time to get some dry seeds into wet dirt.  My greenhouse has been dry, cold, and empty all winter.  This weekend I fired up the greenhouse heater, sorted my huge collection of seeds, and got a whole bunch of seed potted up to germinate.

Usually this involves a trip to the store for at least 3 bags of

Anonymous Comments, Social Agendas, and Karma

Ever read a news story online, then scroll down into the comment section to see that the writer's point in the story had then been totally hijacked by people making comments?  Well, it happens, and now it's happened to me.

This is a blog about gardening.  Nothing controversial; just gardening.  Waaaay back in 2011, I found and bought a cool new gardening tool.  I was