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Notes from a Virginia Beach Garden

  • Green Cuisine? From the frozen food isle?

    Number of comments: 0
    Lord, I know "green" is the ultimate cache for marketing these days but I am truly amazed at the ways in which it is showing up on products.  I don't know whether this is all pure misleading hype and manipulative marketing - or whether it is a hopeful sign that businesses are' [...]
    Posted: December 02, 2009, 5:19pm EST
    by Sybil Mays
  • Things are Looking Up

    Number of comments: 0
    During my hiatus from this vbgarden blog, I've been working on the [www.usefulgardens.blogspot.com] entries and helping with the establishment of the Hampton Roads VA Buy  Fresh Buy Local Chapter.  (Find us on Facebook.com under Buy Fresh Buy Local Hampton Roads).  It's inspiring to have so many local growers, ranchers, beekeepers' [...]
    Posted: December 02, 2009, 4:52pm EST
    by Sybil Mays
  • Transplanting and Renewal

    Number of comments: 1



    I've been out separating daylilies into new plantings. I know it seems like an odd time of year to be doing this but daylilies suffer mid-summer moves well and it is the only way I can judge the' [...]
    Posted: July 29, 2009, 7:58pm EDT
    by Sybil Mays
  • Organic Gardening Turned Me Into a Ruthless Killer

    Number of comments: 4
    Organic gardening has turned me into a ruthless killer.

    It’s true.

    Back when I used popular chemicals to ward off insect attacks, garden defense was a matter of gracefully waving my sprayer wand over my beloved plants, much in the manner of Glinda the [...]
    Posted: July 06, 2009, 7:27pm EDT
    by Sybil Mays
  • Leafblowers - The Philosophy

    Number of comments: 2
    Today I drove past a number of landscaping crews busily cleaning up business "yards" and subdivision entrances in the aftermath of a quick series of storms that brought down the last of the fall leaves. The workers were armed with safety goggles and leaf blowers, which they aimed ferociously, like [...]
    Posted: January 28, 2009, 9:06pm EST
  • New Website - Welcome UsefulGardens.com!

    Number of comments: 0
    As a response to the many questions coming in lately from friends and wonderful folks who are intending to get into gardening for the first time this spring - or who are expanding their gardens to include edible plants either for the first time or with a new emphasis - [...]
    Posted: January 18, 2009, 10:47am EST
  • Planning the Veggie Garden - Early Spring

    Number of comments: 0
    Seed catalogs rest in piles about my house. Lists, diagrams, notes from last season.... all the things that will coalesce into this year's garden seed orders. One of the difficulties for gardeners in a variable climate - like Virginia Beach's pseudo-southern, quasi-northern, rollercoaster weather - is in selecting varieties that [...]
    Posted: January 14, 2009, 6:04pm EST
  • 2009 Starts on a Welcome, Wet Note

    Number of comments: 0
    Another rather dreary, rainy day in Virginia Beach. Our ground is thoroughly soaked, puddles abound. It's a perfect day for staying well inside, happily reading the growing pile of garden catalogs scattered over the coffee table.

    The good news is that we have moved out of "Drought" status, according' [...]
    Posted: January 06, 2009, 2:39pm EST
  • End of Year Tropical Wave

    Number of comments: 1

    T-shirts! No sweater, sleeves or scarf! It is in the low 70's today - looks like we're having the January heat wave early this year. This is the east coast version of the chinook, that mid-country western wind that can melt several feet of snow [...]
    Posted: December 28, 2008, 12:30pm EST
  • Time to Spray....

    Number of comments: 3
    Weather continues to roll this season - warm one day, colder the next. From here through February it will be time to seize every warmer day for spraying dormant oil on the fruit trees and any other non-coniferous plants to smother any overwintering pests and fungi.

    There are [...]
    Posted: December 21, 2008, 6:57pm EST
    by Sybil -
  • New Roomates.... Mice, Ladybugs.... what next?

    Number of comments: 0
    This has been a relatively mild winter so far and it's surprising to see the numbers of adorable but unwanted field mice who are intent on spending the winter in the house with us. I suppose by definition this means each has "evolved" from a field' [...]
    Posted: December 19, 2008, 6:21pm EST
    by Sybil -
  • 70 Degrees and the Loquats are Humming....

    Number of comments: 0

    Once again the temperatures have pushed up into "unseasonal" temperatures with damp and humid weather as the warm Gulf air runs northward up the coast in front of the massive cold front to our west. Like a snowplow, it shoves the warm air up [...]
    Posted: December 10, 2008, 5:18pm EST
  • Secretary of Agriculture Post Selection 2009 - Ask Obama for Change

    Number of comments: 0
    Many of us who are or have been small farmers feel huge concern over the dismal future of small, sustainable agriculture. Despite the increasing interest in buying local and buying organic (thank you, Michael Pollan, thank you, Barbara Kingsolver), the US government support is always very pro-corporate large-scale, mass-production agriculture. [...]
    Posted: December 08, 2008, 6:42pm EST
  • Cookies

    Number of comments: 2
    I've forsworn gardening this week for holiday madness, including baking cookies for a handful of darling souls that I love. This is More than one would suspect since I actually can't bake worth a damn and only attempt it this one time each year. I [...]
    Posted: December 05, 2008, 9:22pm EST
  • Christmas Decorating Mania

    Number of comments: 0

    Okay, I admit it. I've begun really enjoying decorating for the holidays. For years I refused to "give in to the holiday hype" by putting up more than a few faux candles or some equally noncommittal decorations but over the last few years... okay, over' [...]
    Posted: December 02, 2008, 6:58pm EST
  • Winter Rains

    Number of comments: 0
    Here in coastal Virginia, we don't pile up the satisfyingly visible drfts of snow with which we measured the replenishment of water tables in the north. Here the winter rains come and soak into the heavy clay, disappearing as the moisture gradually fills the lower spaces where our water' [...]
    Posted: November 30, 2008, 10:32am EST
  • Heaven - the Loquats are fully in bloom

    Number of comments: 1
    What a soft, heavenly fragrance - the loquat trees along the fence are fully in bloom. It's one of the best moments in November. As the temperatures come back up toward sixty, the trees are vibrating with bees of all kinds. It is one of' [...]
    Posted: November 25, 2008, 9:42am EST
  • The Chicken Containment Plan

    Number of comments: 2
    Steps have been taken! Although our chickens occasionally free range about the property, most of the time they are safely within their fenced run. We've had too many sad encounters with stray dogs, raccoons, foxes and other predators not to feel better with substantial protection' [...]
    Posted: November 24, 2008, 8:05pm EST
  • First Snow

    Number of comments: 3
    Blustery day - the kind of day that defines blustery, with winds blowing in several directions at once and huge light eddys of snow swirling around the house. The snow changed from heavy wet snow,almost raindrops, over to the light, frozen, dancing flakes as the wild north winds arrived. It [...]
    Posted: November 21, 2008, 4:55pm EST
  • Warning: Persimmon Products Coming....

    Number of comments: 0
    Okay - tonight is going to be a hard enough freeze to hit even the persimmons ripening off the tree in tidy racks in the barn. That's it! The moment when all leftovers become persimmon pulp, frozen and later turned into holiday treats. Unless your' [...]
    Posted: November 17, 2008, 4:56pm EST
  • Onions!

    Number of comments: 0
    November is my time for planting onions. Even as I'm typing, I'm preparing mentally to don my planting gloves and a jacket, ready to brave the rapidly dropping temperatures and rising wind - it is coastal fall weather and a strong and wet cold [...]
    Posted: November 17, 2008, 1:54pm EST
  • Reasonable Rates of Return on Investments?

    Number of comments: 0

    At this point in 2008, we are watching our retirement portfolio evaporate. Thousands of dollars lost, thanks to the shenanigans (notice the careful edit?) of corrupt, money-hungry thirty-somethings and their bosses in the investment management business. So, as they "retire" with multimillion dollar bonuses, [...]
    Posted: November 01, 2008, 9:30am EDT
  • Fall Weather... Orange and... Purple!

    Number of comments: 0
    Asters, Verbena and Angelonia are blooming wildly, turning all the little front garden into highlights of purple. Suddenly, it's cool and blustery. A N'oreaster is piling up off the coast and we've shot down to 65 degrees. Trees are turning before our eyes, with winds' [...]
    Posted: September 23, 2008, 6:06pm EDT
  • The Cool Evenings of .... August?

    Number of comments: 0
    In a flurry of unexpected gifts, mid-August has blessed us with unseasonably pleasant nights. It makes up for the miserable smoke and heat of June. We can actually work outside early and late in the day without perishing of sweat and heat. In fact, this entire third week of August [...]
    Posted: August 16, 2008, 10:12am EDT
  • What is HOME?

    Number of comments: 0
    I went online today to find out what is home. That is, I know what "home" defines to us, to our little farm and to our lives. My question was what would appear if I went online and searched for "home". What came up was everything but that which I [...]
    Posted: July 24, 2008, 10:33pm EDT
  • Water Lilies, $80 Million and Poverty

    Number of comments: 2


    I'm not sure I know how to live in a world where the same news webpage tells me that Indonesian families are giving up their children to orphanages - not because the parents are dead, but because the parents are not able to feed' [...]
    Posted: June 24, 2008, 9:39pm EDT
  • Fava Beans

    Number of comments: 0

    You know, we never did really figure out how to make the preparation effort these beans require worthwhile but they were extremely satisfying to grow, filling the garden with rambunctious plants in the winter (yes, winter!) and with huge, fat early beans long before the [...]
    Posted: June 21, 2008, 9:44am EDT
  • Where does the time go?

    Number of comments: 0
    Amazingly, it is now mid-June and the wonderful cool spring has given way to true summer. We suffered a week of record-breaking heat at the start of June - temperatures over 100 degrees, which is unheard of here that early and rare even in the "heart" of summer, our August [...]
    Posted: June 21, 2008, 9:28am EDT
  • No Time for Spring!

    Number of comments: 2
    We continue to enjoy unpredictable spring weather. Unlike the dry heat of the last relentless drought (which started in the late summer of 2007 and continued straight through until very early this spring of 2008). Each week is a division of warm, sunny days that [...]
    Posted: April 27, 2008, 7:13pm EDT
  • Fighting for Good

    Number of comments: 0
    Over time we have become increasingly aware of animal suffering throughout our area: dogs crammed into small cages outdoors or stuffed for hours into "crates" indoors, lost and abandoned animals of all kinds left out "in the country" to survive or die, backyard animals chained and ignored. When you have [...]
    Posted: March 07, 2008, 4:28pm EST
  • February... Is it Spring yet?

    Number of comments: 0



    The weather rollercoasters back and forth. Frost in the mornings, warm afternoons. The edgeworthia blooms have finally opened -- deeeeelicious!Photo is from Smithfield Gardens, one of our best local garden centers. Although we did internet-order nursery work for a decade, I still prefer [...]
    Posted: February 17, 2008, 11:57am EST
  • Heavy Dry Winds and Fires

    Number of comments: 0

    2-11-08 A day of long, heavy winds, maintaining at 30 mps and gusting to 55, have spread brush fires across the southeaster VA/NC area. We can see columns of smoke along the horizon and the sun set fiery red in the haze. The wind brought [...]
    Posted: February 11, 2008, 6:32pm EST
  • Spring Creeping Nearer....

    Number of comments: 0

    Surely spring can no be far off. The pile of gardening and seed catalogs has taken over most of the office coffee table, threatening to fall over in a glorious heap of expectations. I pore over them each morning while sipping my coffee and impatiently [...]
    Posted: January 30, 2008, 9:26pm EST
  • Winter Respite

    Number of comments: 0

    Ah, the joys of a mild coastal winter. We are allowed these lovely episodes of gentle days that enable all of us procrastinators to get out and whack away on the projects we originally scheduled for fall... and then ignored. Southeastern Virginia is finally getting [...]
    Posted: December 28, 2007, 12:49pm EST
  • Cooking Fresh from the Mid-Atlantic

    Number of comments: 2

    You know, I get a lot of questions from gardener-cooks asking about recipes, organic foods and cookbooks. We are adding recipes back onto the little website I created for our "retirement" page,Paradise Nursery, because I heard from so many online friends who'd been using [...]
    Posted: November 25, 2007, 4:00pm EST
  • It's Fall! - no, spring.... no, it's Fall again....

    Number of comments: 0

    This Thanksgiving holiday has been a shot of "indian summer" - temperatures up to 78 F degrees (a tie with the record high in 1991). It was a lovely time to be out cleaning up garden beds, harvesting pomegranates and, surprise!, some lovely pineapple guava [...]
    Posted: November 22, 2007, 10:07pm EST
  • New Dogs at the Farm

    Number of comments: 0
    Meet the new farm residents! Oliver and Jonathan were rescued from a nearby animal control shelter on behalf of Shih Tzu & Furbaby Rescue and are sojourning with us until everything is set for their adoption by some loving home. We really love them and are delighted [...]
    Posted: November 09, 2007, 9:20pm EST
  • Oliver & Jonathan

    Number of comments: 0

    A week ago, we set out on an emergency errand to spring 9 tiny dogs (furbabies) from the Isle of Wight shelter where they had been held pending a court case on their neglect. They are sojourning at the farm as foster pups until everything [...]
    Posted: October 20, 2007, 9:30am EDT
  • Tiny Visitor from another.....

    Number of comments: 0







    It's obviously that hardship time when baby raccoons are tossed out to fend for themselves. This lost and unhappy little fellow found himself at our house and much terrified about it all. He took temporary [...]
    Posted: October 08, 2007, 11:07am EDT
  • The Transatlantic Touch

    Number of comments: 0

    Wow. I am SO glad to be back home. Visiting the UK was delightful, with stunning scenery and huge fun with old and new friends, but - alas - I am not an easy traveller and coming back to the lovely VB fall [...]
    Posted: September 29, 2007, 3:54pm EDT
  • August Doldrums

    Number of comments: 0


    T'is the season to lay in a sling backed chair on the screened porch under the gently spinning fans. Humid. Hot. Lazy.

    The first figs are ripening on the Celeste and I'm preparing to do battle with the tiny black "sugar ants". Their scouts [...]
    Posted: August 15, 2007, 3:41pm EDT
  • Dog Days of Summer

    Number of comments: 0


    It's truly the dog days of summer. Temperatures at 98 F and humidity at 90%. The entire body wilts upon contact with the outer air. We're living indoors, hopping out only to check the chickens and move some sprinklers. Yes, amazingly, we're still drought-ful [...]
    Posted: August 08, 2007, 11:36am EDT
  • Speed Racer

    Number of comments: 0

    www.niparacingpigeons.co.uk/ is the source of this photo. I could not get our winged visitor to hold quite still enought for a photo, but it was an identical bird to this one. Who knew I'd find pigeon raising so fascinating? After this, I may give [...]
    Posted: July 28, 2007, 4:05pm EDT
  • June 25 - Baby Chicks!

    Number of comments: 0
    The tiny, tiny, tiny baby banty chicks have arrived and are out of the coop. (It was two feet off the ground and blocked at the doorway by 10" of cardboard - how do they DO that????) They are hopping about the coop yard and merrily ducking in and out [...]
    Posted: June 25, 2007, 11:05am EDT
  • The Frogs Knew It....

    Number of comments: 0
    Yesterday, I stepped outside in the hot, hot afternoon (heat index 100) to hear the small toads trilling in the ditches. It was the first toad song in at least a week and I was struck that they would be singing in the afternoon and in that heat. Then I [...]
    Posted: June 20, 2007, 7:24am EDT
  • Heat Wave

    Number of comments: 0

    Temperatures in the 90's and I now spend my days watering. Even a brief pause and the poor plants wilt pathetically - not always from lack of H2O, but as their natural response to heat. (Now with the tomatoes, that afternoon wilting is important to [...]
    Posted: June 18, 2007, 4:21pm EDT
  • 6-14-07 The Peacock Returns

    Number of comments: 0

    Happy discoveries! The peacock remains - apparently our chickens are the most likely females he's found. One can't help but feel, watching him pace around the chicken run at sunset, that he'd like to be inside with the others. I don't think our pen or [...]
    Posted: June 15, 2007, 7:57pm EDT
  • June 14th - You won't believe this!!!


    Guess who arrived on the chicken coop this morning????? NO idea where it came from. It likes corn and is making goo-goo eyes at the chickens. The roosters are having heart failure. [...]
    Posted: June 14, 2007, 2:32pm EDT
  • June 6th, 2007 After the Rains....

    Number of comments: 1
    And so, in a clap of thunder and a heavy splash of rain, summer arrives in Tidewater. The drought is broken. The afternoon sky now wears that hazy dove gray that we've come to think of as Confederate Blue.... the water vapor in the air blurring all the colors and [...]
    Posted: June 06, 2007, 5:32pm EDT
  • May 30th, 2007

    The weather continues dry and beautiful - low humidity, gentle breezes - but it's a deadly beauty. Everything on the farm is gradually showing terrible drought stress. It's been several weeks since we had a truly nuturing rain, critical in this fast-growing spring season. The grass crackles when we walk [...]
    Posted: May 30, 2007, 2:47pm EDT
  • May 25, 2007

    Amazingly, for the water-dissected Tidewater area, we are still in very low humidity air - dry enough that even in the predawn there is no dew on the lawn or plant leaves. The weather service says that El Nino ended early and we will have worse hurricanes as a result. [...]
    Posted: May 25, 2007, 9:10pm EDT
  • Wednesday, May 23 2007


    The tiny frizzled banty chickens left a little egg the size of the end of my thumb in the nest I constructed for them a few days ago. Pigeon, the lovely grey, was on their ittybitty nest (hay stuffed into a terracotta plant pot and [...]
    Posted: May 23, 2007, 7:11pm EDT

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Sybil Mays

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