While out plotting new vegetable plots for this year’s planting, I stumbled on this exquisite miniature garden. The tiny, fresh leaves were dotted with fresh raindrops.
From a distance, it’s easy to miss the beauty nature poured into a cement block.
But up close, it’s every bit as calming as sitting on the veranda of Nanzenji in Kyoto. If you ever make it to Kyoto, Nanzenji 南禅寺 is a temple worth visiting, though with more than a thousand temples in Kyoto, and with hundreds you just have to see, you might think of planning a very long vacation there.
Not to be outdone is the garlic patch here at a man and his hoe®. You don’t have to get on a plane and travel across the world to encounter exquisite beauty. Sometimes you just need to look down and see what’s growing at your feet.
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Popup Garden
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Living in an Outdoor Museum
No matter how busy we get, there’s always time to enjoy beauty. It only takes a second or two.
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A Shovel Worth Having – and Made in Ohio to Boot
Good tools are indispensable when it comes to farming. And this is especially true with hand tools. A few weeks ago I found a sturdy shovel made by Bully Tools of Steubenville, Ohio, where they make all their tools. What impressed me about the shovel is that the back of the shovel head is sealed. Most shovel heads are not sealed in the back so when you use them, dirt gets clogged between the handle and the head. And if you’re dealing with any clay, they are a pain to clean.Since the head of the Bully Tools shovel is sealed in the back, there is no place for dirt to clog, making cleaning a breeze. You can see in the photo of a regular shovel, how easy it is for dirt to build up on the back of the shovel head.
The head is made of 14 gauge steel which means it is strong. The handles are made of ash. This is a shovel that last for years. Keep workers in Ohio employed. Make your next shovel a Bully Tools shovel.
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Salad Recipe – Five to Ten Minutes
It’s fresh salad season here at a man and his hoe®, and I thought I’d share a simple salad recipe, one that I make nearly every day.
Step 1: Go into the vegetable garden and fill a salad spinner with leafy greens. There’s no need to pull out an entire plant. Pinch off the leaves you want and leave the plants to keep growing and producing more leaves. Today, I’m using Siberian kale and arugula leaves.
Step 2: Find some herbs, like oregano in your rockery, and add them to the pile of fresh greens.
Step 3: Add some chives to the pile of fresh greens.
Step 4: As well as a few sprigs of mint.
Step 5: Rinse and spin the greens. Chop up the herbs.
Step 6: Pile the greens on a salad plate. Top with the chopped herbs. And finish by drizzling the salad with balsamic vinegar.
There you have it. A fresh salad more delicious than any you’ll find in a restaurant, all for just five to ten minutes of your time. Food the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
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Dirt Bath
On a bright sunny day, chickens enjoy having a bath in the warm dirt. They can spend an entire hour rolling around in the dirt, and often they like to do this in small groups. This is behavior that is innate and something they seem to need to do, like pigs needing to wallow in mud.
So how do birds in these cage-free “humanely-raised” egg laying operations get to roll around in the dirt in the bright sunshine and fresh air? The next time you buy eggs, ask the grocer if the hens who laid the eggs you are buying, get to spend hours rolling around in the dirt in the afternoon sun.
