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92816zine1

A Visit to the Denver Zine Library


I visited the Denver Zine Library a little over a year ago, during a time when I wasn’t blogging. But now that I’m back in the blogosphere, I wanted to re-cap my visit! The Denver Zine Library has been around since 2003, and is currently located in The Temple, an artist’s collective housed within a converted cathedral. Truth be told, the Library can be a little hard to find if you’re not in the know; the building doesn’t have a lot of signage, and the cathedral itself is a little intimidating! (Having not known about The Temple before I went, I expected the library to be in a storefront or house.) […]


Double Seedling

Gardening on a Dime


Between the bougie plant names (e.g.: Madame Emile Debatene, Little Miss Daisy, Abraham Darby) and a seemingly never-ending list of “necessary” tools, gardening can feel like a rich man’s hobby reserved only for those with the money to “do it right”. It doesn’t help that books such as The $64 Tomato are contending that it costs upwards of $16,000 dollars to get a garden going! That’s bewildering—16k is over half of my family’s yearly income, and we aren’t spending anywhere close to that on our garden. Here’s the truth: gardening can be dirt cheap. Sure, at first the raised beds and heirloom seeds are going to set you back a bit, but in the long-run, gardening […]


Rock Wall Beginnings

Some Spring Things


It’s finally starting to feel like spring in Kansas City… rainy, bright grey, sweet-smelling spring. While March was warmer and sunnier, the regrowth and renewal were missing. It felt like we had skipped right into the comfy days of late May, the edges of summer. The air was warm, but the ground still felt dead. All that has changed! My city has been reborn: lush, muggy and verdant, floral-scented and noisy. While my daffodils are long gone, the tulips have bloomed, as did my grape hyacinth. The family of house finches that built a nest on my patio last year have returned. Each morning I awaken to the the cackle of grackles, the song of starlings, and […]


Garden Herbie

Talking ‘Bout Raised Beds


When Tom and I moved into our home in August of 2013, we knew that we wanted raised garden beds. Our house sits on the northwest side of our property, leaving us with plenty of land in the path of the sun. We’re also lucky that we live on a hill and our backyard is relatively tree free. It’s a gardener’s dream! We are unlucky enough to have dense, rocky soil, so a raised bed where we could control the soil density made sense. Unfortunately, we had to put our raised bed dreams on the back-burner. Purchasing a house is stressful, not to mention all the painting, packing, planning and unpacking that comes with moving. As if we […]


Rareseeds1

Summer Garden 2015: Seed Selection


Sure, it might still be winter in Kansas City, but that hasn’t stopped me from working on plans for my summer vegetable garden. This year, I’m ordering almost all of my seeds from the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. Baker Creek is dedicated to selling non-GMO organic varieties, and many of their seeds are heritage breeds, to boot. Plus, they’re local to me, located only a couple of hours south of KC in the Missouri Ozarks. Here are a few highlights from my shopping list: Oaxacan Green Corn: I’m trying my hand at growing corn for the first time this year. I’ll be planting two varieties: Bedwell’s Supreme White and this […]