While the wild plant community is still slowly waking up from winter dormancy, there’s one urbanite who’s wide awake, in full flower, and ready to be flung on your dinner […]
Farm & Garden
What would it look like to grow, harvest, and protect our bounty?
Browse all Farm & Garden stories below or dive into a topic:
SUNNY SIDE UP
Of Avian SAD Lamps and the Hunt for Winter Eggs
As the days grow longer, local hens are laying again
Like rosebuds, like leaves, like most living things, in the absence of sunlight, hens’ eggs do not bloom. In the depths of winter, a farm-fresh egg seems like the perfect […]
SHIFTING SANDS
Cape Cod’s Beach Grass Is Farm Grown
Among the turnips and pigs, Tim Friary cultivates an erosion-stopping crop
As climate change causes more frequent, more intense, and slower-moving storms, people on Outer Cape Cod are having to adjust their ideas about how quickly its beaches are eroding. A […]
SHIFTING SANDS
Cape Cod’s Beach Grass Is Farm Grown
Among the turnips and pigs, Tim Friary cultivates an erosion-stopping crop
As climate change causes more frequent, more intense, and slower-moving storms, people on Outer Cape Cod are having to adjust their ideas about how quickly its beaches are eroding. A […]
CONNIVING IVY
Your Friend Hedera Is a Clingy Climber
English ivy is a determined escape artist. It sneaks under garden fences while no one is looking to set up house in neglected or forgotten places, then starts working on […]
SEASIDE GARDENER
Snow-Sowing in February for a Payoff in Summer Blooms
A bit of science weaves hardy annual seeds into an airy garden tapestry
The first time I walked outside on a late February morning and scattered a packet of poppy seeds on the snow I felt the same way I did the few […]
BUSHY BEARDS
Lichens Like It Here
Shrubby lichens like the bushy beard (Usnea strigosa) are sensitive enough to air pollution to be bioindicators: the bushier the beards, the cleaner the air. Judging by the robustness of […]
BLACK LOCUST
In the Grove
Once you learn to identify the black locust by its deeply furrowed, interlacing bark, you’ll start to see it everywhere on the Outer Cape — where there’s one, there are […]
ON THE BEACH
What It Means to Have Oyster Eyes
The hunt for a bivalve that’s not as sedentary as you might think
At no time of the year is oystering more challenging for those who farm them than now, when we’re on the verge of colder weather and the possibility of sea […]
YUCCA
Washashore Takes a Stab at Cape Life
Since our local ecosystem is mostly dominated by pitch pines, which keep our winter vistas green, it’s easy to forget that the roster of evergreen natives in our area is […]
BITTERSWEET
Death by Choke-a-Lot
A tendril of Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet) snakes along the boughs of a native black cherry at the periphery of a property on First Light Lane in Truro. This invasive […]
PLOTS
Putnam Farm Grows Agriculture as ‘an Ally to Conservation’
Orleans is taking applications from growers for 8 new plots
ORLEANS — Even though most of the farmers who work the land at the Putnam Farm Conservation Area have tucked their plots in, and the swooping tree swallows have gone […]
PRETTY SEEDY
Goldenrod Shows Some Backbone
A handsome line of seaside goldenrod in seed marks the height of the tidal zone at the mouth of the Herring River in Wellfleet, where the first leg of the […]
THE DIRTY WORK
The End Is Only the Beginning of a Garden’s Path to Summer Glory
Stormy Mayo and Laura Ludwig dig their not-so-visible autumn dahlia rituals
PROVINCETOWN — Stormy Mayo is kneeling in the withered remains of his dahlia garden, his hands tugging at something hidden beneath the decay. Beside him, Laura Ludwig throws down flattened […]
BARNYARD CONFIDENTIAL
On Molting and Other Losses
Animal husbandry serves up plenty of opportunities to contemplate impermanence
The recent killing frost has us backyard farmers recalibrating. After a bountiful summer with heady blooms and eggs aplenty, the hens are holding back, and tired plants are nodding their […]
