Under the searing summer sun, the clay soil of my farmette will grow amazing pin oaks, white oaks, and pine trees. But for a gardener like me who wants to grow  vegetables and herbs, clay soil frustrates and challenges.

Plants can be coaxed to grow in clay soil with help from the resident gardener

Before planting next year’s kitchen garden in a new area of the property, I’ll have to change the soil structure now. This will take time and a lot of effort, but it will pay huge dividends over the long term.

Here are a few things things a gardener can do to improve clay soil.

1. A few weeks before working an area, mulch the area with an eight to ten-inch layer of wood chips to help the soil retain moisture and regain structure.

2. Use a pickax to break up the soil to the depth of 10 inches and work in composted organic material.

3. Avoid working the soil after a rain or when the ground is wet because the soil will ball up into unwieldy clumps.

4. Work in sand or perlite to create more pore space for aeration and drainage. Beware of adding too much sand; the soil becomes like concrete. Ideally, the soil should have roughly fifty percent pore space with minerals and organic matter filling in the rest.

5. When not growing plants, sow a cover crop of legumes to reduce weed germination, prevent erosion, and help water penetrate deeply into the soil. A legume cover crop provides plant matter that can be turned back into the soil or mowed, leaving the plant’s bio mass  in place. Legumes fix the nitrogen in the soil that will nourish the plants of the kitchen garden.

6. Repeat all of the above steps annually and dig, turn, rake, and water. Over time, the soil should support healthy roots of plants and give you a robust kitchen garden that will provide many tasty vegetables and culinary herbs.

A healthy garden visually delights

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If you enjoy reading cozy mysteries and are interested in gardening/farming topics, keeping bees and chickens, or creating delicious recipes from heirloom vegetables and herbs, check out my Henny Penny Farmette series. All are available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other traditional and online bookstores everywhere.

Coming 9/27/17

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY  08/14/2017 noted:
“Lester’s sensitive portrayal of Abby’s struggle with her wounded psyche raises this traditional mystery above the pack.”

See more at: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hive-of-homicides-meera-lester/1125424538?type=eBook

Honeybees love foraging in Spanish lavender

If you’ve ever wondered where honey gets its color and taste, think flowers. Or, more correctly, pollen from the flower and herb blooms and tree blossoms.

In the environs that encompasses roughly five to ten miles around the Henny Penny Farmette, honeybees gather pollen from blossoms on lavender, citrus, sunflowers, cosmos, fruit trees, and other flowering trees. Bees collect pollen from cultivated gardens but also from plants growing wild on hillsides and in the meadows and fields.

The first woodland flowers and wildflowers of spring yield honey that is a pale lemon color and tastes sweet and light. Later in the season, the pollen bees collect from citrus tree blooms such as orange blossoms becomes honey with citrus notes and aroma. When certain types of eucalyptus trees bloom in September, the honey takes on a warm amber color and a strong and earthy taste.

Honey can vary widely in color and taste, depending on the type of pollen the bees have collected

Dark honey is also found in a spring hive. It can be traced to the pollen that the bees have discovered and gathered from blossoms and blooms of flowers, trees, or herbs with a strong flavor and dark color.

If you want the health benefits from honey, purchase the raw honey. Raw honey is high in antioxidants and also has immune-boosting properties, according to Dr. Tasneem Bhatia, from the Atlanta Center for Holistic and Integrative medicine.

In a December 2012 appearance on the Dr. Oz show, Dr. Bhatia recommended  people take 1 to 2 teaspoonfuls of buckwheat honey every day as a natural remedy for cold, sore throat, and flu symptoms. See, http://www.prweb.com/releases/honey/buckwheat-honey-raw/prweb10242276.htm

Raw honey means it has not been heated or otherwise adulterated by processes that reduce or compromise the healthy benefits. Beneficial enzymes, propolis, pollen, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and antioxidants are destroyed when the honey is heated.

Drink your hot tea or warm milk with honey, but don’t put the honey in the cup of liquid and stick it into the microwave. Warm the liquid first, then add the honey.

It matters not whether your taste leans toward the light honey or the dark, the liquid honey or the honeycomb, have some honey every day. It’s good for you.