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The Backyard Gardener: Rhubarb — the tangy 'pie plant'

Home and Garden

Hello Mid-Ohio Valley gardeners and farmers! Mother’s Day marked the beginning of warm season gardening. We are now setting out tomato, pepper and many other vegetable transplants. Remember, squash, sweet corn and cucumber can be direct seeded into the garden. Don’t forget about container gardening! If you have an apartment or don’t have a lot of room, many vegetables can be planted in containers including salad greens, spinach, Swiss chard, beets, radish, carrots, peppers, bush beans, tomatoes, bush varieties of summer squash, cucumbers, green onions, and many herbs. ...

A foundation of faith has eternal significance

Local Columns

Some folks cringe when Mother’s Day comes around. For them, “Mom” conjures up images of irresponsibility, insecurity, abuse and neglect. “Mom” might have played a biological role, but she had no warmth and no nurturing instinct. For these folks, Mother’s Day is a painful reminder of what they’ve missed, and they’d just as soon never remember, thank you! One friend often skips the Mother’s Day service at her church. If I’d had her mother, I might skip, too. Others, of course, believe they won the “Mom” lottery. Mom was a constant force for good in their lives, ...

Backyard Gardener: Dianthus for Mother’s Day

Features

Hello Mid-Ohio Valley gardeners and farmers! A blessed happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there in the valley. West Virginia has a special connection with Mother’s Day, as the first official celebration was held May 10, 1908, at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton. Anna Jarvis sent 500 white carnations in honor of her mother to the first formal Mother’s Day service. Over the next few years, Jarvis worked to make Mother’s Day a national holiday and President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day in 1914. Carnations became an integral ...

We shouldn’t be prompted to seek revenge

Local Columns

Brett Blair tells about a Swedish woman whose husband dumped her and took up with a younger woman after 17 years of marriage. In his divorce filing, the man claimed the downtown apartment where they had been living. His soon-to-be ex-wife agreed to give up the apartment, but asked for 3 days to pack and move out. She hired movers and cleared her things from the apartment. Then she sat down with a glass of chardonnay and a pound of raw shrimp and celebrated being rid of that jerk. After finishing her snack, she took some of the shrimp shells and put them inside the hollow core of each ...

Nothing is ever out of God’s control

Local Columns

Hi, my name is Mark and I’m a control freak. I’d like to make myself sound a little better and say that a different way, perhaps, something like, “Hi, my name is Mark and I am a perfectionist who likes to get things right. Word games, however, wouldn’t change the fact: I am a control freak. Since I’m confessing here, let me continue and admit: I’m scared. Scared of what will happen if things get out of control. Afraid that I will disappoint others and disgust myself if I don’t get everything right. Fearful of the rejection I’ll experience when people discover how ...

MOV Climate Corner: Why West Virginia’s rivers deserve a voice

Features

I’ve stood on the banks of the Ohio River at sunrise, watching the water move steadily past. In moments like that it is easy to believe our rivers will always be there for us, unchanged. But working with communities across West Virginia has shown me a different reality. Our water shapes our health, our economy, and our future. In West Virginia, water is more than a resource. It’s part of our identity. It’s where families gather, where kids learn to fish, and where generations have built their lives. It’s also the source of drinking water for communities that depend on it every ...