Tag Archives: gardening

Helping Monarch butterflies with easy Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

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Honey bee on Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Butterflyweed, or Asclepias tuberosa, is great for pollinators and a required host for Monarch butterflies, whose caterpillars eat the toxic plant as a way to protect themselves from predators.

Many other pollinators, including native solitary bees, flock to the showy orange flowers as well.

They can be grown from seed very, very, easily. Or, if you prefer, you can grow them only moderately easily if you want to watch it grow indoors or plant in a very specific location. Continue reading →

Raspberries and coffee and raspberry coffee cake

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Coffee and old friends go together beautifully.

The recent warm winter weather provided a good opportunity to do my simple and free winter fertilization of the raspberries with coffee, and a favorite raspberry coffee cake recipe.

A few years ago, the area where these raspberries grow was little more than gravel and rubble (literally, piles of bricks and rocks). At this point the rubble was removed, the gravel is still there if you dig, but there is beautifully rich soil on top and the raspberries are thriving.
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Winter Composting

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Thermometer is frosty, but inside the bin it is a cozy 140 F.

Thermometer is frosty, but inside the bin it is a cozy 140 F.

There are two important things to know about winter composting in places like Massachusetts:

1. Winter composting is possible and requires little more than frequent additions.

2. If your compost freezes over, which is normal, that is NOT A PROBLEM! The pile will restart once the weather warms. Continue reading →

Three types of people, three types of compost

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THREE TYPES OF PEOPLE – THREE TYPES OF COMPOST

NOTE: Each year Arlington holds an EcoFest where people gather to learn about various environmentally related issues. This year I was asked to discuss compost with people. Below is a version of what I will distribute at the event.

Beautiful black gold – finished and screened compost

“The beauty of compost is that it only needs to be as much of an art or science as we wish it to be. It’s like walking. You can train for a marathon or you can simply put one foot in front of the other, and eventually you will get where you need to be.” – Wayne Morris of Bloomingdale, N.Y. Continue reading →

EcoFest in Arlington Saturday March 31

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This guy makes sure the edibles grow.

This Saturday, March 31, Sustainable Arlington will host its annual EcoFest. This year the focus is on local food. Local in the sense of buying from a local farmer, and in the sense of growing it in your yard.

Heaping bowl of cherry tomatoes from the back yard? Yes please!

I’ve been asked to present on compost – not just my fast urban compost but for people who don’t want to spend the same time/effort I do to create three cubic yards over the winter. I’ve drafted a piece for “Good Citizen” and “Garden” composters that I’ll put online soon is online now. I’ll answer questions and provide tips. Please visit and hang out for a while.
The featured speaker this year is Charlie Radosolovich, also known as the Rad Urban Farmer. Some may also know him as the guy who had a plot in my yard for three years as part of his CSA, which uses land in people’s yards to grow food which gets distributed among the CSA members. Continue reading →