Gardening is part planning, part serendipitous and 100% rewarding – in a pick yourself up by your boot straps sort of way. I love the reliably unexpected moments of discovery. Volunteers and new comers mixing up a planting plan, traveling pollinators and crops that sometimes fail but often succeed. My best plants, like best friends, [...]
Author Archive
May 10, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, Critters, Gardens, Habitat, Inspired, Native
Social Tagging: Creating Natural Landscapes • Garden • habitat • Soaproot
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, Critters, Gardens, Habitat, Inspired, Native
Social Tagging: Creating Natural Landscapes • Garden • habitat • Soaproot
April 22, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: DISCOVER, Organic, Profiles
Social Tagging: Farm Store • Growing Food on the Honor System • Organic Strawberries • Swanton Berry Farm
Filed under: DISCOVER, Organic, Profiles
Social Tagging: Farm Store • Growing Food on the Honor System • Organic Strawberries • Swanton Berry Farm
It doesn’t look like much from the outside but when you walk into the Swanton Berry Farm store it’s a wonderful shock to the system. It’s like a perfectly dreamy flashback full of berries, treats and wish-you-had-it memorabilia. All senses are on from the get-go. The welcome sign invoking the honor system, the pie [...]
April 9, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: DISCOVER, News, Perspective, Profiles
Social Tagging: Change through Food • Food Forest • Urban Gardening
Filed under: DISCOVER, News, Perspective, Profiles
Social Tagging: Change through Food • Food Forest • Urban Gardening
Ron Finley delivers some great one-liners in his Ted Talk presentation. “Plant some sh*t… get gangsta with it” being tops on the list. But his message is bigger than that. His movement of creating a food forest out of the food desert in South Central LA is simple and yet so very powerful — human [...]
April 4, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Botanical Moment, Nature, Profiles
Social Tagging: Garden • Why do you garden?
Filed under: Botanical Moment, Nature, Profiles
Social Tagging: Garden • Why do you garden?
The art of crafting a garden is one of the most fulfilling and sometimes hair pulling endeavors to embark upon. Clean lines, starting small and including plants you love is a good place to begin. But when choosing plants count on the emotional takeover of the five f’s: flowers, fragrances, flavors, fauna and family. They [...]
March 27, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, DO, Grow, Inspired
Social Tagging: Grow Plants From Seed • Seed Geek • Seeds I love to look at...
Filed under: BEE, Botanical Moment, DO, Grow, Inspired
Social Tagging: Grow Plants From Seed • Seed Geek • Seeds I love to look at...
My early spring to-plant list always includes pumpkins. A garden without pumpkins must be like committing spring planting heresy. It’s just not right. And of course they have to be accompanied by loads of other squashes. Lupines are a hardy bunch from seed to flower. Like an independent teenager, they tend to strike out on their [...]
March 15, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Compost, Educate, Garden Love, Tips
Social Tagging: Edible Weeds • Is there such thing as a good weed? • Weeds as compost • Weeds as Mulch • What is a weed?
Filed under: Compost, Educate, Garden Love, Tips
Social Tagging: Edible Weeds • Is there such thing as a good weed? • Weeds as compost • Weeds as Mulch • What is a weed?
The thought of weeding conjures up all sorts of reactions from people. There are weeding haters, weeding lovers and an entire range of folks somewhere in between – in the toleration zone. And the basic fact, no matter how you feel about it, if you keep a garden there is weeding to be done. 5 [...]
March 9, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: BEE, Ideas, Inspired
Social Tagging: Beauty of Fruit Trees • Fruit Trees in Bloom • Spring Flowers
Filed under: BEE, Ideas, Inspired
Social Tagging: Beauty of Fruit Trees • Fruit Trees in Bloom • Spring Flowers
The contrast of a flowering fruit tree on a winters day is like a chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream. A perfect combination. The simple beauty and cheery enthusiasm of these flowers set against a cool, gray afternoon doubles up as both cozy and enlivening. Fleeting and irresistible. Bringing these flowers inside is a like a [...]
March 5, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: DISCOVER, Profiles
Social Tagging: Connecting to Nature • Even Famous People Love to Garden • Get to know others through his/her garden • The Beatles
Filed under: DISCOVER, Profiles
Social Tagging: Connecting to Nature • Even Famous People Love to Garden • Get to know others through his/her garden • The Beatles
Love it.
March 1, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: DESIGN, DISCOVER, DO, Gardens, Grow, Materials
Social Tagging: grow a garden • Urban Gardening Ideas
Filed under: DESIGN, DISCOVER, DO, Gardens, Grow, Materials
Social Tagging: grow a garden • Urban Gardening Ideas
How much space do you need to garden? What counts? It’s one of the latest questions buzzing around the garden world since NPR covered a study on urban gardening in Chicago. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign used Google Earth to find over 65 acres dedicated to food production — or at least what [...]
February 21, 2013 by Emily Murphy · Leave a Comment
Filed under: DO, Grow
Social Tagging: Grow Your Own Carrots • Winter Gardening
Filed under: DO, Grow
Social Tagging: Grow Your Own Carrots • Winter Gardening
Sweet, snappy, wake-your-taste-buds-up delicious, these carrots are unreal. A bit of sugary earth wrapped up in one perfect package. Like the tomatoes of winter only, with carrots, it’s a cold spell that defines flavor. However it could also be the challenge of growing them that makes them, each respectively, a hot commodity. *Growing Carrots: It’s always a [...]