The Art of Doing Stuff

1 week ago | theartofdoingstuff.com | Karen Bertelsen

You know the moment. When the trimmer is put away, the garden hose is curled, and you look out to your yard thinking, Yes. This is exactly perfect. For most people, that moment lasts roughly 14 seconds. The cottage garden is 8 years old this year. The fence is 27 and looks it. Exactly perfect is no longer an aspiration for my front yard, moderately upright is. If the actual garden is a dewy ingenue running through a meadow, the picket fence is her grandfather in his housecoat yelling at a raccoon.

2 weeks ago | theartofdoingstuff.com | Karen Bertelsen

This week I reveal who Maureen ate last week, made my first big flower arrangement of the season, and picked my first 3 strawberries, an act that doesn’t sound like much, but felt as triumphant as summiting Everest in flip-flops. I picked the first three strawberries of the season, all of which were shockingly still attached to the plant with no bite marks in sight. This is thanks to the wire cage I built years ago to keep the birds and voles out.

2 weeks ago | theartofdoingstuff.com | Karen Bertelsen

This week I replaced a broken tool handle with... the same broken tool handle. It was for my stirrup hoe, and I would now like to know why this has never occurred to me before. Garden tool handle repair is surprisingly simple—especially when you skip the math and let desperation take over. I have no fewer than four tools that slice weeds off at soil level, because I take personal satisfaction in dandelion decapitation. My stirrup hoe (Hula Hoe, scuffle hoe ...

2 weeks ago | theartofdoingstuff.com | Karen Bertelsen

I grow vegetables in a 40' x 40' plot in an organic community garden that's been pesticide-free since 1978. That sounds quaint. It's not. What it actually means is forty years of disease buildup, no pest control, and super-sad soil. Gardening here has made me a better gardener the same way being lost at sea makes you a better swimmer. I've dealt with corn smut, vine borers, and so many plants that just disappeared overnight.

3 weeks ago | theartofdoingstuff.com | Karen Bertelsen

When I wrote about Maureen last week, my Venus flytrap and accidental horticultural science experiment, I assumed the update would be something simple like “she’s still alive.”Instead she’s out there catching her own food and doing great - if your definition of “great” includes mainlining bugs until your heart stops. If you're just joining this very niche botanical drama, you’ll want to start here with Maureen’s origin story and Venus Flytrap care guide.