How-To & Techniques

I spent three springs in a row pulling the same weeds from the same six-foot strip of gravel by the side of the house. Same chickweed. Same crabgrass.

Last July I was standing in the yard at dusk getting eaten alive by mosquitoes when a dragonfly the size of my thumb parked itself on the fence post and started picking them off mid-air. Watched it for ten minutes.…

Last October I pulled my dead tomato plants out of the raised bed and stared at the soil underneath.

My three-year-old picked our first dahlia tuber off the garden center shelf because it looked, and I’m quoting her, “like a dead potato with spider legs.” She was right. It did.

I wanted raised beds. The cedar kits online started at $80. Pre-made galvanized steel troughs were $150. I had $12 in my pocket and a weekend with no plans.

My first container garden was a cherry tomato in a pot I found behind the garage. No drainage hole. Garden soil from the yard. Full shade for half the day. It produced exactly one tomato before it died.