The Blog: Samaria Says

The sweet potato vines at my farm have spent most of the summer doing exactly what sweet potato vines do: taking over everything around them. They have spread beyond the space I gave them, disappeared underneath each other, and made it increasingly difficult to remember where one plant ends and another begins. I am getting close to harvest now, which means I have started thinking less about the vines and more about what is underneath them. Sweet potatoes feel so firmly rooted

Wondering what to plant in Virginia in September? This Zone 7b fall garden guide covers vegetables, greens, root crops, herbs, and what to skip this late in the season.

I knew I wanted structure in our homeschool day. I also knew I did not want to recreate a full traditional school day at home and have both of us irritated before lunch. So our kindergarten schedule is built around a few things I already know about Khari: he learns well through movement and hands-on activities, his mind is freshest earlier in the day, and he likes math considerably more than language arts right now. It also has to work for me. Before he wakes up, I need time

No. 3 A friend from Nigeria brought me goat, rice, and cowpeas cooked with palm oil this week. I ate the whole plate. That surprised me because I have never really been a bean person. Black-eyed peas, especially, have mostly been a New Year’s food for me. I will eat the little spoonful for luck, maybe with greens and cornbread, and keep it moving. But these were good. He called them cowpeas. I call them black-eyed peas. Same crop. Different name. So, I started looking into th

I did not plant horseweed. Horseweed did not care. When we got access to our farm plots in February, the land was mostly bare. It had been cleared, and because this is our first season, most of us were still figuring out where beds would go, laying irrigation, building trellises and generally trying to turn open ground into something that resembled a farm. Then spring came. And rain came. And apparently horseweed took that as a personal invitation. Anything we had already til

Today was technically Khari’s first day of kindergarten. And I kept him home. Our homeschool year doesn’t officially start until September 14, so there was no real schedule today, no first-day lesson plan, no cute little setup waiting for him at the table. Mondays will eventually be one of his co-op days anyway, so today was really just… Monday. Until everybody started posting first-day pictures. And then I had a moment. Because kindergarten is a big one. It’s not just anothe

I watched 1 New Ager vs. 20 Christians and afterward asked a question on Threads: Did you feel like the Christians in the conversation accurately represented Christianity? The answers were all over the place. Some said yes, and not in a good way. Citing the conversation as proof of the politics in the church and why they decided to find God on their own. Most said absolutely not—not the Christianity they felt, practiced, or understood. Some felt the conversation came across a

I learned a very expensive lesson trying to farm without a deer fence. This spring, I planted everything I had been waiting all winter to grow: watermelon, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers. These were the crops that made the farm finally feel like a farm to me. After months of preparing, starting seeds, learning the land, amending the land and planning what the season could produce, things were finally in the ground and growing. At the time, that was m

I knew echinacea as tea long before I knew it as a flower. Then I grew it myself—and learned the purple coneflower we see everywhere isn’t actually Virginia’s native echinacea.

Every August, I hear the same sentence, delivered with the same funeral-tone sigh. "I guess I missed my chance to start a garden this year." Meanwhile your neighbor's tomatoes are out here thriving like they've never heard of a drought, and the garden center clearance shelf looks like a crime scene. So yeah. It feels like it's over. It is not over. Here in Virginia, "it's too late" is one of the biggest lies gardeners tell themselves — right up there with "I'll definitely rem

No. 2 Before we get into the plant, understand this: okra crossed an ocean during the worst forced migration in human history, and the story of how it got here starts with someone deciding, in the middle of that horror, that there would be a harvest on the other side. Not because they knew for certain. Because they refused to accept that there wouldn't be. That's the plant we're starting with. The one that came off my own vines this week for the first time. Where It Started L

Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta): a native Virginia wildflower with one seed-germination rule most guides skip — plus its Indigenous medicinal history.

Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) is a native Virginia perennial that draws specialist bees, hummingbird clearwing moths, and true hummingbirds all season. Long before it was a pollinator garden favorite, it was medicine — the Oneida call it 'Number Six.' Here's what to know before you plant it.

My son came in from outside asking for a snack. I said, "Okay, let's go pull some greens." He looked at me like I had two heads. But then, he went and did it. That’s kind of how homeschooling works around here. The lesson finds you. You don’t always plan it — you just say yes when it shows up. The Joy of Cooking Together My niece was over, and they got out their plastic butter knives (courtesy of Mimi). They cleaned and cut the peppers I was going to use to season our lunch.

My son got in trouble for asking too many questions. For being curious. For interacting with stories too much. For having energy. For being exactly the kind of kid who wants to know what happened and why, then why again, and then what happens if we try it a different way. The kind of kid who doesn't sit still because his brain won't let him — and why should it? They called it a problem. So I pulled him out. Little Roots was born out of that decision. It will serve as my reco

The full history of amaranthus — from Aztec ceremony to African trade routes to Caribbean provision grounds. How this plant crossed oceans, survived erasure, and ended up on your plate.

A had a client who wanted cottage style. Whimsical. Soft whites and pastels under a shade canopy where most plants would sulk and give up. And Sweetspire walked in like it had been waiting for that exact assignment. That's the thing about natives. They aren't trying to survive your landscape. They were made for it. You're not convincing them to stay — you're just giving them somewhere to be what they already are. Itea virginica. Virginia Sweetspire. Let me tell you about this

Virginia is one of the best places in the country to grow something. That's not a hot take. Zone 7b gives you a long generous window — a spring that arrives early, a summer that runs hot and productive, and a fall that lingers longer than most people take advantage of. The soil is mineral-rich. The rainfall is mostly consistent. The biodiversity here is extraordinary. If you're willing to work with what this land already offers, it will meet you more than halfway. Native plan

There was no instruction, no manual, and no permission granted. A ship crossed an ocean that was never meant to be survived. Yet, people carried knowledge through the worst conditions imaginable. Not in luggage or carefully packed containers, but in memory and practice. They held onto something that connected them to who they were before someone tried to erase it. Now, that knowledge is here with us. What This Series Is What We Brought is a plant-by-plant cultural history. Ea

Some words show up in these posts that deserve more than a passing mention. This is where they live. The Living Index is a growing reference — added to with every series entry, every season, every new thing the land introduces. You don't need to read it front to back. Everything is in alphabetical order. Aphids Tiny, soft-bodied insects that cluster on new growth and feed by sucking the sap out of your plants. They come in green, black, yellow, and white depending on the spec