Linda Ly's Blog, page 11
March 10, 2018
Checklist for Your Spring Garden Tune-Up
Early spring can feel like a game of garden roulette: sunny and warm one week, tempting you to transplant all those tomatoes you’d started inside, then wet and cold the next week, reminding you that frost isn’t entirely out of the picture.
If you’re itching to get outside but the unpredictable weather is reigning you in, there’s still plenty you can do around the yard before (and aside from) sowing seeds or putting tender seedlings in the ground. The name of the game in March is “clean-up,”...
March 7, 2018
A Play Kitchen Makeover
My daughter loves to be in the kitchen. (Perhaps a budding cookbook author herself?) She loves to watch me cook and mimic what I do, whether it’s stirring up a pot or pouring liquid from one bowl to another.
She loves it so much, in fact, that we’ve had to install a gate across the opening to our kitchen because it was easier than childproofing each and every cabinet and drawer. Her curiosity and enthusiasm for pot lids, pot holders, tea towels, food containers, and mixing bowls meant they w...
March 2, 2018
Seed Starting Containers You Already Have Around the House
I started my first seeds of the season last week — tomatoes, my favorite summer crop. I like to give them a head start by sowing the seeds indoors so that come March (if I’m lucky), I can harden them off and transplant them outside.
Right now I’m starting six varieties of tomatoes, a purple tomatillo, and a shishito pepper in 16 tiny seed starting pots recycled from years past. While 16 sounds like a reasonable number, it’s not uncommon for me to have upwards of 100 pots or more, of all size...
February 22, 2018
A Tour of My New Chicken Coop
We moved a lot of things from California to Oregon when our family relocated a few months ago, from our favorite plants to our flock of chickens, but the one thing we’re glad we didn’t haul up here is our old chicken coop.
That’s not to say we disliked our tiki coop design — it served us well for six years and we were happy to pass it on to the next owners, who were hoping to raise a flock of their own. In fact, they asked if we’d leave it behind, as we had planned on disassembling the struc...
February 19, 2018
6 Simple Tips for Maintaining Your Gardening Tools
This post is in partnership with 3-IN-ONE® and Lava Soap®. All thoughts and words are my own.
When novice gardeners ask for advice on gardening tools, my response is always to buy the best you can afford. Shears and pruners can be found at your local discount stores, but these small hand tools are among the most abused in your garden. It’s worth the extra few bucks for tools that will last through many seasons and perform well under constant use.
Subsequently, you’ll want to take good care o...
February 13, 2018
The Value of a Self-Imposed Writing Retreat
Every year for the last couple of years, I’ve been sequestering myself for several days at a time, borrowing beautiful homes in beautiful places for self-imposed and self-directed writing retreats. I find myself checking off a huge number of tasks on my to-do list in just a few days, more than I’m usually able to do in a week in my own home.
And why is that?
Because there are no distractions. There are no husbands to cook for, animals to pick up after, dishes to load, laundry to fold, or err...
February 5, 2018
Surprise, Carrots Don’t Actually Improve Eyesight
As children, we’re often told little white lies or half-truths in order to be coerced or persuaded into doing something we resist. I didn’t think this was fair game until I became a parent myself, and find myself making promises to my toddler that, at her age, she easily forgets. (I’m sure this will come back to bite me in the butt in a couple of years.)
So it makes me smile when I remember the oft-repeated “motivations” (read: manipulations) by my parents to encourage me to eat more vegetab...
January 21, 2018
How to Dress Adventure Babies for Cold Winter Weather
In her first year of life, Gemma camped in the snow, hiked the Cascades, explored the Colorado Plateau, and visited a variety of terrain from sea level to 12,000 feet above. Through it all, she remained a happy, healthy baby and simply adores being outside, rain or shine.
What’s your secret to bringing a baby outdoors? other parents want to know. And while they think my answer will be one of the many pieces of gear we’ve acquired since becoming parents ourselves (we definitely don’t travel l...
January 10, 2018
The Greatest Hits of 2017 and What’s to Come
Starting the New Year always means taking a look back on the blog, finding out what worked, why it worked, then making changes and setting goals based on those findings. As a blogger, I want to learn what you like to read and share. I want you to relate, linger, like, comment, engage, come back to, and feel inspired by my content. If you did any or all of these things in the last year, then I consider that post to be a success.
When a post becomes a success, it not only validates why I love...
January 4, 2018
Named Best Cookbook of the Year by PureWow!
A few weeks ago, The New Camp Cookbook was named one of the best cookbooks of 2017 by mega lifestyle site PureWow. It was the best news with which to close out the year, especially considering how many thousands of cookbooks are published every year. Somehow, this little niche title stood out enough in a crowded cookbook market to garner such an honor!
I’m continually blown away by all love the book has received since its release over the summer. And here’s a fun fact: Despite how popular th...
