By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

The other day I was walking through the gardening center and saw a plant that brought back a found memory of children, plants and Mother’s Day.

When my daughter was about 3 years old she was asked what here favorite color was.

She replied, with her little 3-year-old voice, purple, pink and blue.

Every piece of clothing, shoes, and toys needed to be one of those colors. My son was a little easier and only liked black but he could tolerate other colors.

So during the 3rd year of being a mother, my husband took the twins to the gardening center to pick out mom’s gift. Our daughter wanted everything purple, pink or blue while our son was disappointed that flowers were not black. So Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Just the other day I was talking to a woman in the grocery store about her garden.

She was describing to me some gardening problems she was having.

Tomato hornworms, bottom rot, and stink bugs were just a few of the problems she was having in her garden.

But what really concerned me was a question she asked me when we were talking about manure.

I told her how to prepare her garden for next year and offered some suggestions of things she needed to look for in the future for the garden. One of the things was manure.

I told her she needed to make sure the cow manure she was using was not “green.” She looked at me and asked was it really “green” because what she was using was brown not “green” so it was o.k. To my surprise s Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

In years past I have wrought my beloved herbs in many ways.

I have dried them and placed glass jars, repotted them in decorative containers, and made wreaths out of both dried and fresh herbs.

Below are two different types of wreaths that serve different purposes but create an olfactory spa that welcomes guests and homeowner alike.

Dried Herbal Wreath

Materials

• Straw wreath
• Floral staples or bobby pins
• Bunches of fresh herbs

Steps

1. Pick herbs in the morning and place in small bunches.
2. Lay out the herbs in a design that you would like for your wreath.
3. Starting in Read the rest of this entry »

By Michael Nolan

After Reg & I finished work on our upcoming urban gardening book “I Garden – Urban Style,” I had a lot of thinking to do.

Though I have spent decades living, loving and teaching the urban gardening lifestyle there was something I’d longed for since childhood that I wouldn’t be able to find in city life.

At the end of May I packed up and moved from Atlanta to a small 10 acre rural homestead in Alabama where I have been slowly but surely building my dream of a sustainable organic homestead farm ever since.

At first I thought this move might mean the end of my contributions to UGC but I’ve been here a long time and after spending the better part of a year working with Reggie on the book (that every one of you needs, by the way) I just couldn’t bring myself to say goodbye.

With that in mind, I plan to introduce a new angle here at Urban Garden Casual Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

This year my loofahs have set the garden on fire.

They have grown up my shed onto my fence and across my clothesline.

The secret to my success is two-fold.

One, I started my seeds indoors in February. This gave my loofahs plenty of time to grow since they require a long growing season to be exact at least 180 says of warm weather. The second secret to my loofah success is something I cannot take credit for that is Mother Nature. This year’s weather was just perfect for loofah production.

But while I am ecstatic about my loofah crop I am at the same time wondering what to do with all these loofahs. One thing I am trying this year is cooking with them. To my surprise the small ones are excellent in stir-fries and salads. The recipe below is one I created using zucchini but since I have a surplus of loofahs I substituted loofahs for zucchini and boy did it turn out great.

Mindy’s Zucchini or Loofah Stir-Fry

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 small loofahs peeled or zucchini
• 2 Tablespoons sesame oil Read the rest of this entry »