Not My Mother's Vegetable Garden
I’ve recently noticed a pattern in our home-buying habits. Each time we buy a house, and we are on our 5th now, our yards get smaller. On one hand that seems like a plus — much less space for routine maintenance chores. On the other hand, there’s much less space for planting. That’s where …
The Sounds of Silence -- In Your Own Backyard
The Sunday before Easter was beautiful here — an absolutely perfect day for working leisurely in the yard. About ten minutes into our afternoon, the peace and quiet of the day was shattered by the the deafening roar of a neighbor’s leaf blower running full blast. The first hour was unpleasant but tolerable. The second …
Gifts from the Cutting Garden
The crocus, grape hyacinths, daffodils and tulips all bloomed at once this year, turning my yard into an absolute work of art. That is, until the grandkids decided they needed to pick bunches of pretty flowers for their mothers. Two and three-year-olds do not have a great grasp of how to cut flowers for a …
Add Fragrance To Your Garden
As I mentioned last week, I am determined to recreate an heirloom flower bed. Not finding heirloom seeds in stores here, I spent much of the past week browsing through and making lists of potential purchases from online heirloom seed company catalogs. Although my initial sheet had over thirty varieties on it, I was able …
Remembering Grandma’s Garden
My husband and I just returned from a ten day vacation in Virginia. The weather was perfect the whole time we traveled; spring was emerging and everywhere we visited the surroundings were bursting with color. Since we both love American history almost as much as we love gardening, both Monticello and Colonial …
The Not So Secret Lives of Bees
Originally published in September 2018, our two part series on native and non-native bees adds important information to our current discussion of native pollinators. Two years ago, when we moved into this house, I planted the beginnings of a butterfly garden. Last summer it didn’t amount to much — the perennials were small and it …
Preparing for Pollinators
With all the Buzz about pollinators in the news lately (sorry, just couldn’t resist it), I thought that this might be a good time to think about adding a pollinator garden to the landscape. For the past few years, flower and gardening magazines, websites and even home improvement television shows …
Plant A Patch: Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)
Whether used as a divining rod to find water, a cure a broken heart or to ward off evil, the native shrub witch hazel has held a noteworthy spot in American folklore for centuries. Better known today for its offering rare “golden blooms in the dead of winter,” witch hazel deserves a …
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