Dryland Farming – Hardly a Dry Topic!
August 27, 2026
Don't do it. Don't look at your tomato plants between 3 and 6 pm. Avoid eye contact! If you can't resist taking a peek, you will see sad wilting leaves and you will want to run for the watering can (but alas, you don't need…
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush …
July 24, 2026
The sweetest treat we offer at FECO are the drupes (berries) from our Illinois Everbearing mulberry tree. The tree not only draws crowds, it is self-pollinating and, in our experience, disease free. It produces copious amounts…
To Pea Or Not To Pea
June 22, 2026
To pea or not or pea. That is the question ... I ask myself every spring. Shelling peas, to be precise. In early March I ponder, should I torture myself again for a few handfuls of shelling peas? Spring rains can rot the seeds…
The World’s Smallest Prairie
May 12, 2026
We have a prairie at FECO! It's three feet by ten feet. (I didn't want to take on too much.) The area is a bit wet; an apple tree rotted there. My goal was a mini prairie with edible native plants. In 2024, I planted early blue…
Plants Without Borders – The Rhizomatous
April 29, 2026
Did you buy plants at our recent plant sale? If so, thank you very much for your support! In case you are new to the growing habits of certain native plants, I will share what I recently learned about reproductive advantages…
Rooting for Roots – Soil Carbon Sequestration
March 25, 2026
What could be better than increasing soil organic carbon?
What could be better than eating the plants that increase soil organic carbon?
What could be better than eating the plants native to the Pacific Northwest that increase…
Prepare for Climate Change – BIPOC Gardening Lessons
February 23, 2026
In the mid 1980s, prices for Sun Crest peaches plummeted. Fruit brokers advised farmers to dump their peaches. Aghast at the idea, Mas Masumoto, a Japanese farmer in the Central Valley of California, sold his boxes of peaches…
Will The Weeds Save Us?
January 21, 2026
Can you name the plant genus that includes a huge percentage of our cool weather food crops, and includes the third most important oilseed crop in the world? Also in this genus is an invasive weed that starves out all competition,…
Bach Or Black Sabbath – Which Concert Would The Plants Attend?
December 28, 2025
Our friend's new cat, Nora, won't come out from under the couch. I wanted to help so I gave Nora the CD, Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, hoping to reduce the cat's tension. Why this piece of music? Because in the…