Winter is the perfect time to begin planning your edible garden, using the onslaught of seed and plant catalogs that arrive in the mail and the inbox this time of year. There’s more time to plan in the winter, before the big spring gardening rush. Popular and new varieties often sell out fast, so you [...]

One of my winter tasks is to clean and organize my tools. I’ve been using the same pruning shears for many years – my trusty Felco F6 pruners, sized to fit a smaller hand like mine. The smaller size makes them the most comfortable pruners I’ve tried. I also like my Corona loppers. They have [...]

We finally got our first big snowfall yesterday. The neighborhood children celebrated their freedom from school by playing outdoors all afternoon. After shoveling the driveway and front walk, my husband shoveled a path from the back door to the nearby compost bin, so I could easily dump the kitchen pail. That was very thoughtful! Watching [...]

It’s been a bit silent in the Trusty Gardener blogosphere this past week. There was the expected holiday merry-making, with houseguests and travelling. But also, unfortunately, my family’s computer hard drive did a hard crash on Christmas day. We are still sorting out what is there from what is missing. We’ve been backing up the hard drive [...]