Amy Greacen lives, eats and writes in Contra Costa County. She is tireless in the service of metaphor, bakes a mean apple pie, and is often detained on suspicion of /terroir/-ism.
Many of us garden aficionados deal with the central dilemma of wanting year-round color and interest and finding it hard to come by even in the East Bay's wonderfully accommodating climate (or climates). And when you want it...
One way to get better year-round color in your garden is to refrain from relying entirely on flowers to provide it. Flowers, for the most part, have a brief lifespan, a couple of days to a couple of weeks...
Color. It's a surprisingly tough challenge whether you're an ornamental gardener, a veggie guru, or both. With a seemingly endless palette of beautiful shades to choose from, most of us still find that year-round, cohesive color is...
Some would-be gardeners are put off by what they feel they don't know about their environemts. How do I know what kind of soil I have, and what the heck do I do about it? How do I...
East Bay plant-o-philes: this is it. We're past our frost date. Birds are out in force: my neighbor will soon make her annual offer to pay to cut down my privet tree because of the migrating circus...
You want vegetables and fruits, but you have a small yard, or an unfenced yard, or just a deck, or you have all "ornamental" space and no real room for the raised wood box you think of as...
Earlier this month, the FDA issued a wide-ranging recall of supermarket products containing possibly tainted hydrolized vegetable protein. HVP is one of those products thateveryone eats without realizing it and no one really knows what it is. It's...
To some extent, a potato is a potato and you can use any type for any purpose, according to your personal preferences. However, these simple, salt-of-the-earth vegetables are deceptively variable and those in the know tend to...
The geatest modern cautionary tale against monoculture farming ironically involved one of the most biologically diverse edible plants.Solanum tuberosum, native to South America and in cultivation for over 10,000 years, famously almost did in the entire nation of...
When I had the 1-gallons of Sambucus nigra brought in as part of my latest and last front yard revamp, my gardener was pretty sure I'd ordered the wrong shrub. "I thought these couldn't be what...