Nothing really need be said about this. If you go away for 10 days and it’s a 100 degrees the whole time and you make no provision for the care of your vertical garden, this is what happens. Turns out that rain or pests aren’t really the problem. Seems I’m the biggest garden threat of […]
Urban vegetable gardening: Progress (or lack-thereof)
June 29, 2012 by
I stumbled on a fun new blog this week called “Pintester,” wherein the author tries out Pinterest pins and shares the results, good bad, and ugly. It’s very funny. I wasn’t really setting out to be a Pintester with my urban vegetable garden projects, but I have indeed produced a Pinterest fail with my gutter […]
Urban vegetable gardening: Progress report
May 29, 2012 by
We spent Mother’s Day weekend in the garden, finally executing some of the urban and vertical gardening ideas I had planned out in March. Here’s an update on our garden progress. The second level on the raised beds look great and add a lot of usable space. I got the leaning trellises for zucchini and […]
How to make fairy and gnome gardens
May 24, 2012 by
Last year my then-three-year-old took several trips to the greenhouse with me and loved to play with the huge and elaborate fairy garden display there. (You know, the one that is extremely breakable and says ‘please don’t play with the garden.’ That one.) So we decided to make one for him at home. We bought […]
Guest Post: Photos on the wall, not your hard drive, from Anna Mayer
May 14, 2012 by
We are so pleased to be giving away a custom mother-and-child photo session with Anna Mayer Photography to one Borealis reader’s mom, sister, friend, cousin, daughter, or loved one. Anna is an amazing children and family photographer who captures the beauty of babies, children, and families exactly as they are (though, Mom, she’ll make sure […]
Garage sale season
May 7, 2012 by
Every year I lovingly look forward to my neighborhood’s garage sale. I’m very firm on my routine: I get up early. I go on foot. I buy breakfast from some kid selling food, but it has to be real food, not just Costco stuff. I walk fast. I am very efficient and business-like. One year […]
How to set up a family recycling center
May 4, 2012 by
I remember a long time ago at some college party someone asked the group to answer: “what progressive cause don’t you care about?” (This may have been what passed for a drinking game in my crowd. Good progressive-activist, triple-majoring, newspaper-editing students, we.) That was easy: the environment. I just couldn’t get my back up over […]
Urban vegetable gardening: Waiting to Plant
May 2, 2012 by
It is so, so hard to wait. In St. Paul, Minnesota, the last-frost date is May 15, and that’s how long you’re supposed to wait to plant your garden. Generally, I’ve taken this to mean Mother’s Day, and my mama’s day fun usually begins with a trip to the greenhouse and ends with me covered […]