Remembering John Merrill
Last Monday, I got a call from my parents that John, my closest friend from middle and high school had died while climbing a 14er in Colorado. As the news articles came in, further...
Tom Alphin Blog
Energy Efficient Water Heater
We have needed a new water heater for a few months, since discovering that our hot water was slightly discolored with rust. (Harmless, but kinda gross and indicative of bigger problems with our nearly...
I’ve been off WAC’ing.
As you may have noticed, I haven’t been very active on the ol’ blog in the past two months. It’s not because I am bored or lazy; I’ve been extremely busy! The main culprits...
The ($) value of a Small Garden
In learning about growing potatoes (since our potatoes should arrive in the next couple days), I stumbled into an article about the dollar value of produce a small home garden can produce. Link: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Square-Foot-Gardening-Food.aspx That article...
Finally, the perfect game for my Phone.
Everybody seems to be getting a touch-screen phone these days. They are generally able to make calls, browse the web, play games and more. In my case, I have an iPhone, and I primarily use...
The three habits of highly effective tomatoes.
I didn’t really know this until recently, but it turns out Tomatoes come in one of three “Habits”. Those three habits are: determinate, indeterminate, and semi-determinate (less common.) A seething mass of indeterminate tomato...
Growing Potatoes, vertically!
This year, we are trying something new in the garden, POTATOES. Given that potatoes are cheap and readily available at the store, and they can be easily purchased from a local source year round, Why Potatoes? Amy...
A living room jungle
These enthusiastic onions under supplemental light will get planted out in March. (This flat includes green onions, walla walla onions, shallots and leeks) Our starts are doing well. We now have two shelves filled with...
Celebrating “Spring Fake” 2010
Just as the east coast has gotten pummeled with 30 inches of snow, a false spring has struck Seattle. On our walk today I saw many signs of spring including small tuliplike flowers, greener grasses and the...
Modular raised bed system for Square-Foot Gardening
I created a short post a few weeks ago with directions for building a Raised Bed using the square foot gardening approach. I wanted to expand on that article by showing the three raised...
Seeds are here…
After splitting a major seed purchase with Alicia, I have a lot of new varieties to grow this year! I am most excited about the new Heirloom Tomato varieties, the Runner Beans which should have brighlty colored...
The secret life of a board game geek…
It’s true, I am famous on the internet! To see how, you need to read further… As noted in my recent article, I love board games! One thing I didn’t have time to go into...
TOM ALPHIN builds