It’s always exciting to look through the seed catalogs and dream of what you want to plant in the garden this year. But with so many choices, how can you decide what to order? It can all seem overwhelming! Here are a few tips on how to approach your seed ordering in an orderly fashion. [...]
On Veteran’s Day, I want to thank my dad and all of the Veterans who have worked to keep our country safe. Thanks a lot! Eleven seems to be the magic number today. I’m celebrating 11/11/11 by providing the top 11 gardening chores for November. Here’s what I’ve been working on this past week, and hope to [...]
I thought I would spend a lot of time blogging after I broke my collar bone nearly a month ago. After all, I can’t really garden much using only one arm. And on top of that, weeks of rainy weather would seem to favor indoor pursuits like blogging and a long-planned update of my web page. [...]
I always loved this little saying from my childhood. My mom would quote it whenever we complained about a rainy day in spring. How true it is! This year we almost broke the local record for the rainiest April in recorded history, but had to settle for second place. I’ve been on vacation for the past 10 days [...]
When I went out to do some spring cleaning in the garden last week, my first task was to gather up my garden gloves. Here are all the gloves I could find. You will probably notice that there are 5 left-hand gloves, but only one for the right hand. And the right hand one is [...]
Gardening feels like a healthy occupation. You are out in the sunshine – lots of vitamin D! You are lifting and toting things around – weight-bearing exercise! You dig and make numerous trips to the compost pile, shed and house to fetch and retrieve things – aerobic exercise! You feel joy and satisfaction at your [...]
All gardeners seem to have bits of paper with notes on them stuffed into their pockets, stuck in a book, or cluttering up a desk. This is all well and good until you desperately need to remember where you put the particular scrap that has a particular piece of information. Sound familiar? If so, you [...]
Gardeners are, by nature, optimistic. We plant seeds, bulbs and transplants, fully expecting them to grow up into beautiful and useful specimens. We dig new beds and move existing plants around, dreaming about how much better the garden will look and function. We spend time looking in garden books and plant catalogs, picturing how perfect [...]
It seems like I am always taking off when my garden is in dire straights. This time, I’m off to a family event for the weekend. We’ve been having a record warm and dry spell, with temperatures up to 96 degrees this week. Things got cloudy and breezy on Tuesday, but no rain. I’ve just [...]
Sometimes, when an article about me or my garden appears in a magazine or newspaper, the writer calls me a “master gardener”. This feels good. They recognize that I am an expert who has mastered the art and science of gardening. Or at least I’m working on mastering it. It is a never-ending quest! Many [...]