canning-jar giveaway and pickle ideas; a buggy backyard whodunit solved

I couldn't fail to notice the rolled-up balls at the tips of ostrich ferns in the garden in June -- which is how the plot of my latest backyard whodunit began. Step 2 after asking myself, "What's that?" was asking Charley Eiseman, author of "Tracks and Sign of Insects" (and leader of my Moth Night and Bug Walk this weekend -- if you can join us!).

Asking Charley led to my "raising" my first moth, and to learning that phrases like "good" and "bad" are tricky to use when it comes to bugs. The buggy mystery tale.

pickling magic with gayla, plus canning-jar giveaway

I sowed cucumbers the other day, with the idea of late-season pickles, but Gayla Trail of You Grow Girl has already been pickling unexpected goodies like garlic scapes, radish pods and even purslane. We talked pickles, and especially homegrown pickling spices (and decided to have a canning-jar giveaway, too). All right here.

more, more, more:

Margaret Roach
A Way to Garden

P.S. -- The up-for-grab jars come in your choice of green or blue. Enter here.