What to do this week It must be green tomato season, unless you have been as lucky as I have been and are enjoying ripe tomatoes too. Local tomatoes had a bit of a slow start this year. It was cool, and then it was dry, so the plants didn’tRead...

What to do this week It is getting to be dry-bean time, especially since we may be getting excess rain (or even frost) very soon, making it a tricky time of year for beans. You may have planted dry beans deliberately. Certain varieties of bean are specific to dry beansRead More

What to do this week The main thing I am doing now, besides harvesting, is dealing with cover crops. I’m crimping or otherwise destroying the cover crops I had planted for the summer period, and planting new ones for fall/winter. A while back, we talked about cover crops as livingRead More

What to do this week If there is one thing that is true about gardeners, it is that we are always thinking ahead. You might think we would all be busy enjoying what we have grown, or perhaps be scattered in multiple directions picking and processing everything that is comingRead More

There I was with my many questions about shipbreaking in Sydney harbor and all I had to do was ask my local member of parliament. That would Mark Eyking, MP for Sydney-Victoria, who invited me to go to Sydport last Friday and take a picture of him standing next toRead More

What to do this week Let the serious harvest begin! (Depending, of course, on what you have planted.) Many of us plant garlic, and mine is about ready. You can tell for sure when the stalk is two-thirds yellow. You might want to do a test harvest, if you haveRead More

There I was, looking for signs of shipbreaking on Sydney harbor and I forgot to mention North Sydney. Apologies to all my North Sydney readers, who must have been left scratching their heads. How did I forget about that time the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) sold Archibald’s Wharf, aRead More

If you’ve read this week’s article on large-vessel disposal in Canada, you probably think you know everything there is to know about shipbreaking and recycling in this country but let out your sheets, friend (an expression I just made up as the nautical equivalent of “hold your horses”), there’s moreRead More

This year my farm has seen a succession of middle to top predators with catastrophic consequences for the chicken population and, by extension, my livelihood. A raucous crowd of ravens was first, flying boldly into the barn and coming out with whole eggs in their beaks. I was sure they wereRead More

What to do this week Let’s talk a little about summer pruning. Most things get pruned in the spring or the fall, but then again, there is the tomato. You can’t get serious about tomatoes without getting involved with the tomato pruning controversy. People always ask me where I standRead More