Backyard Garden

Finally, I have been waiting for the nights to not be so cold so we don't have to heat an extra room to keep the seedlings going. Now just wait impatiently for the little green sprouts....

So here is another book for anyone who loves to garden, or is just curious about what it was like to garden in the late 1700s to early 1800s. This is not a historian it is a printing of this guys writings on gardening from that time. That in itself made it fascinating to me. The vegetables that he grows are interesting, and one of my favorite parts is on mustard, "Why should any man who has a garden buy mustard? Why should he want the English to send him out, in a bottle, and sell him for a quarter a dollar, less and worse mustard than he can raise in his garden for a penny?". He goes on to say that the mustard is full of unwanted fill like baked bones to make it cheaper. Can you imagine this guy out in the field with a plow?

I just finished Terry Silber's book "A Small Farm in Maine", which is the story of her and her family making the transition to a farm in Maine and living fully from their farm. The book is interesting because Hedgehog Hill Farm was in Sumner where I grew up. It was much drier than I expected, although I suggest it to anyone who gardens or is considering farming, and I believe she was a better writer when it came to teaching instructional things. I think this because I also purchased "Growing Herbs and Vegetables From Seed to Harvest" Terry & Mark Silber) which I have been pouring over and it is very thorough and well written. As a side note it is a little weird because I worked at Hedgehog Hill Farm when I was in high school. I loved it, and a combination of working there, my own love of plants, a short but full lifetime of gardening, becoming a vegetarian, and interest in medicinal quality of plants sent me in the direction of going to school for botany. I

Getting ready to start some seeds on the front porch. Here is what we have so far!