Hardy plants for hardy souls
When I first started gardening, the "proper" way to prepare a garden bed was double digging. I wouldn't recommend that for anything except really long-lived plants, like peonies and asparagus. These days many people recommend lasagna gardening or something similar. I tried that, and it didn't work too well for me. The biggest mistake I [...]
The front of our current house presents a very long surface to the road, having been added onto twice by attaching rooms to the side. It faces the most level land to be found on the entire ten acres, the front lawn. And yet, when we moved in, only a scruffy scrim of shrubbery clung [...]
Pity those gardeners in warmer climes who garden all through the winter. Scarcely are the holidays over, and their hellebores are up and crocuses are showing buds. They never get to put up their feet and completely ignore what the plants are doing outside. We cold climate gardeners, on the other hand, can fully and [...]
I've bought yet another plant after saying I was tired of my houseplants. I pounced on this forced hyacinth in bud while grocery shopping. I didn't force any hyacinths myself this year because I was short of funds and many of the bulbs I tried to force last year went moldy on me. But right now I am enjoying the fragrance of this one, and I have another hyacinth glass for my collection in the bargain.
Botanical Interests asked me to submit three tips about poppies and my photo to put in their catalog. They only used one of the tips, but there I am on page forty-five.Botanical Interests sells several kinds of poppies, including one of my favorites, 'Lauren's Grape'. One year their supplier of 'Lauren's Grape' had a crop [...]
Last August, to mark eleven years of blogging, I asked you to take a survey indicating what you liked to read on this website. Forty-six of you took the time to respond, and for that I thank you. You are a small fraction of those who subscribe by email or feed reader so although I [...]
Apprentice to a Garden: A new urban gardener goes wild by Evelyn Hadden is a collection of essays chronicling the development of Hadden's garden and her growth as a gardener. Evelyn starts out as "the omnipotent landowner," but gradually discovers that she doesn't know enough to be a totalitarian dictator. She begins observing more, and [...]
There's nothing extraordinary about buying a houseplant, except I just got done whining about how I'm sick of caring for houseplants. Go ahead, call me a hypocrite; I'll wait. Now that we've got that over with, let me tell you about this holiday plant. 'HGC Jacob' hellebore is a perennial. This is not really a [...]
I have nothing blooming for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Oops. I take that back. My African violet is blooming. It puts out flushes of bloom, despite the fact that I don't water it very consistently. I just happened to luck out this month. At least one of my three Schlumbergera should be blooming right now, [...]
Count me among the legion of Beatrix Potter's fans. I love the illustrations in her children's books, and just as much--perhaps more--I love the language of those stories. It pleased my childish ear--and still does today--that the "friendly sparrows," overhearing Peter's sobs, "implored him to exert himself." And that Mr. McGregor "came up with a [...]
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