Shift Your Thinking

My tomatoes have been outstanding this year. The whole vegetable garden has produced beyond my expectations. I think it’s because of the Korean Natural Farming (KNF) methods I’ve been learning to implement. But that said, a few tomatoes are having problems. I think it’s blossom end rot, but I’m not sure. It looks like a regular, almost …

Cultivating Diversity in the Garden

Continuing down the memory lane of my childhood travels this month,  I’m reflecting on the diverse cultures that I experienced growing up and how they seem to be popping up in my garden.  Of all the places we lived, my favorite was Okinawa.  We moved there right before I turned five years old and left …

It Takes A Lot of Fails to Succeed

When I was a child, my rural-Arkansas-born parents gave me and my siblings the gift of experiencing the world!  My dad was in the Air Force and we traveled, moving every 2-3 years, sometimes to foreign countries.  It all seemed normal to me then, but looking back, I realize how incredible it was.  My parents …

Growing Wild

Does chronic pain have you searching for alternative gardening methods? The methods you use are vital to your ability to continue gardening. Traditional methods are labor-intensive and hard on the back and knees.  There are many different methods that are much gentler, and a lot of them fall under the heading of Permaculture.  I’ll be …

Aesop’s Grasshopper

Aesop didn’t paint the grasshopper in a favorable light.  While the industrious ant was busy working for its winter stores of food, the useless grasshopper was frittering its time away. I share Aesop’s opinion of the grasshopper – useless. Yes, it’s grasshopper vacuuming season for me.  If you don’t know what that means, see my …

Reducing Pain Debt

It’s been years since arthritis has allowed me to sit behind a desk full-time, but my accountant brain still kicks in sometimes and has me thinking of pain in terms of debt. Like your earnings, you have a limited amount of activity to spend before you go into debt. Pain debt. What does pain debt …

A Prescription for Gardening

I have a love/hate relationship with pharmaceuticals. I don’t really hate them. They are absolute miracles in most cases.  But with chronic pain like arthritis, I think we can do better.  There has to be a better way than exposing yourself to serious long-term side effects daily. Thank goodness the anti-narcotic movement has led doctors …