Spring is in the air
Out of all the months, May has to be the most optimistic. It’s as fecund with the season’s potential as it is lush and fragrant. Even the word “may” is a verb used to express the possibilities. I am powerless to resist its pull and I actually can’t imagine not wanting to be outside this [...]
Read More →Friends don’t let friends plant impatiens
I have bad news and good news. The bad news is there’s a fungus among us. Impatiens downy mildew (Plasmopara obducens), the mysterious ailment that denuded and killed almost every busy Lizzie (Impatiens walleriana) back in July or August of last year, is here to stay. It’s in our soil now and unlike other downy [...]
Read More →Time to appreciate, dig, and divide spring’s tinies
As much as enjoy a wide angle view of daffodils on parade, and trees beginning to leaf out in colors that echo fall, I prefer to look at spring up close. My magnolia has even burst into a thousand supernova stars, but I find myself focusing on spring’s tinies instead. My flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) [...]
Read More →Down to earth: It’s time to make mulch of winter
I’m always a little nervous before cutting the garden back in spring. I worry about exposing delicate and tender new growth to this diabolical season that’s likely to shift within a day from mild and lovely to frigid and nasty. After all, “April is the cruelest month”, according to T.S. Eliot and most gardeners I [...]
Read More →Down to earth: Plan for snowdrops, not snow, to herald spring
I don’t think of myself as a plant snob. I love plants, probably almost enough to qualify as a true geek, but I’m not very particular. Plants like sweet allysum and lavender make my heart pound as much as the most complicated orchid or hellebore. I tend to shy away from becoming overly attached to [...]
Read More →Down to Earth: Hope Springs In March
I am desperate to get back out in the garden. This time last year I lamented about not getting a proper winter break. This year, the opposite. Maybe gardeners are never content. But I’m pretty sure that nothing would make me happier right now than to spend one non-rainy, non-snowy, calm-wind weekend day outside. I [...]
Read More →Lessons from the Blizzard of 2013
Winter is not supposed to be easy. It’s meant to test the fortitude of gardeners and plants just as spring, summer, and fall do. This winter more than most perhaps. As I write this most of my garden is still under a thick clot of snow and I feel extra silly for ever sulking about [...]
Read More →Avoid marketing shtick when plant-shopping
In between staring out of windows dreaming about my garden and scraping scale off my houseplants, I have spent time lately reading catalogs cover to cover. Seed catalogs, plant catalogs, tool catalogs … If it’s about the garden and they’re selling stuff, I want to know all about it and I might even order something. [...]
Read More →Gardeners have serious dreaming to do before spring
I know it’s too soon to be wishing for spring but when our first snowfall parked on my garden like a Mack truck and flattened everything standing, I suddenly lost patience with winter. Most of the seedheads that might have poked prettily out of the snow topped with hungry birds, crashed to the ground. Others [...]
Read More →Classes help gardeners keep learning
With the outdoor gardening season on hold for the winter and the holidays behind me, my evenings and weekends feel like they’ve been blown wide open. And although I’m tempted to fill the time by curling up on the couch to read a good book with a dog on my feet, I’m feeling slightly more [...]
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