garden – Caroline Mitchell Carrico

Urban Nature

My home is in the middle of a mid-sized American city. The house itself was built in 1941 on a .226-acre lot. That makes it one of the young ones in the neighborhood. I’ve been steadily and happily working to improve our small part of the ecosystem since we arrived in 2013. While it mightContinue reading “Urban Nature”

Letting him eat dirt

Spotless. Pristine. Bored. These are not words I use to describe my son. Messy. Dirty. Inquisitive. These are the ones I am more apt to employ. Never have they been more justified then yesterday. We moved azaleas from my grandmother’s house to our front yard. They will get the sun they need, and the front of our houseContinue reading “Letting him eat dirt”

Hope springs

A few bell peppers have grown up. My cautious optimism wins again.

A new garden plot

After some serious discussion and much internal debating, we decided not to get chickens like we had initially planned. Instead, we are going to use the back corner of our yard where we were going to put a coop as a kitchen garden. That area gets the most sun and is practically shaped so asContinue reading “A new garden plot”

Dirt Therapy

It’s another dreary, overcast day, which, as always, put me in a funk. This general funkiness was compounded by the fact that I was tired, the kid was screaming for lunch, and the dog was whining incessantly for whatever he didn’t have right then. I was about ready to mentally shut down and throw a blanket over my head. Not that that would have solvedContinue reading “Dirt Therapy”

BASIL

We have a bit of a basil explosion going on right now. We have three basil bushes at the garden and three plants in the raised bed at the house. Last week we managed to fill up the salad spinner twice when we pinched back the giants. I did what I always do with tons ofContinue reading “BASIL”

Kohlrabi

My last semester of college I started making it a point to eat intimidating vegetables. I started with artichokes because at the time nothing seemed weirder than that spiked veggie. Over the next few years, Greg and I worked our way through the foods neither one of us had ever cooked. We mastered the winterContinue reading “Kohlrabi”

It’s ALIVE!

Things are growing. Like the kohlrabi.And the black eyed peas, eggplant, squashes, tomatoes and baby you can see below. We went out early this morning so that I could weed and the baby could supervise before the sun got too high in the sky. Our new system: as long as he can either see meContinue reading “It’s ALIVE!”

Coming home with food

Last week we got the garden back under control. Then it rained (and rained and rained). The good news is things are growing. The bad news, it’s a weedy mess out there. I hoed and hand weeded the sweet potato patch as best I could, but the mud made it a bit challenging. There is,Continue reading “Coming home with food”

Raised Beds

Back in March, our friends Chris, Patrick and Claire helped us construct raised beds on the side of our house. Our neighborhood is full of mature trees, which makes it both beautiful and shady. The only place that gets consistent sunlight is the south side of the house. When we moved in, that area was plantedContinue reading “Raised Beds”