Planning to Save Your Seeds

Gardening involves a lot of planning. In fact, planning before you plant can save you many hours, if not days of backbreaking digging and hauling. It can also save you money. Good garden design and good planning that connects what you eat and what you plant will let you move those veggies seamlessly into some delicious kitchen goodies. If you’re a great planner, you’ll want to plan for next year’s garden as well. Yes, I’m talking about 2014. 2014? Yes. The vegetables that you plant this year can form the foundation for next year’s garden, but you need to plan … Continue reading →

2013: The Year We Make a Mess!

I don’t like messes. In fact, every day I spend many minutes, sometimes hours, cleaning clutter. While I’m not big on scrubbing, I am big on having clear surfaces to work on. For me, clear surfaces equal a clear mind. I also love messes. I love the tactile experience of messy things, whether it’s glitter shaking onto a wacky craft project or the sensation of mucking about in clay or mud. When it comes to my garden, I must confess that I do enjoy a feeling of order. I can be rather attracted to Zen gardens and overflowing cottage gardens … Continue reading →

Growing Greens In the Winter

After the rush of holiday eating, you may feel a deep-seated urge to go and eat something green. I know I do! But if you’re on a budget or want super local, fresh-picked greens in the middle of the winter, that’s impossible, right? Not quite. Here are a few ideas to keep you in the greens this winter. Sprouting This fall, I’ve enjoyed sprouting my own goodies for salads. For many years, I tried to sprout, only to be rewarded with mucky, mildewy, not-at-all-edible sprouts. Yes, I washed them according to all of the schedules, but they just didn’t work. … Continue reading →

Now’s the Time to Prune!

Deck the halls with loads of branches! It’s pruning time again. Actually, you can prune many different sorts of plants at many times of the year. What we’re talking about is winter pruning. Winter time is a quiet time for plants. Many deciduous plants have already lost their leaves and have gone dormant. This means that they are no longer actively growing and making food. Winter pruning means that you prune trees and shrubs while they are dormant. If you prune deciduous trees and shrubs in the winter, this will help them grow more in the spring. Winter pruning reduces … Continue reading →

It’s Fall – Time to Redesign Your Garden Space

What are you thankful for today? Today, I am thankful for my new garden up the road – a borrowed garden in someone else’s yard that is so much sunnier than my own. I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with mulching techniques and garden design. In my own small garden, I’ve had to be quite creative about space. I live in a townhouse with a tiny yard, and my tiny yard doesn’t really have room for a big garden bed. For a few years, I tried having a garden bed, but it just didn’t make sense. It was … Continue reading →

Four Not-So-Spooky Garden Helpers

Boo! It’s Halloween, and I’ve been walking into a lot of spider webs in the garden lately. This is one of the hazards of being tall: spiderwebs up the nose. Many of us are afraid of spiders, and I must admit to being a little less than friendly to them myself. Yet I love them when they’re creeping and climbing around their native environment. Their webs are beautiful, and they’re a very beneficial animal to have in the garden. Many so-called scary garden critters might seem odd to us, but I’m sure that we’d look really odd to them too. … Continue reading →

What to Do With Your Fall Leaves

Oh boy. It must be fall. There are leaves coming down everywhere, and everywhere people are raking them into piles. In our neighborhood, we have folks who come around in a big truck to take the leaves away. What? I want those leaves! What can you do with leaves, you might ask? Turn them into giant pumpkins. This might be a temporary solution, but if you have a lot of leaves they are perfect for slipping into a big orange garbage bag. Put a scary face onto the bag, and you have an instant giant Halloween decoration, no blowing up … Continue reading →

Storing Garden Seeds for the Winter

If you’re a gardener, you likely have a stash of seeds. If you’re anything like me, these seeds vary from nice, neat and labeled packages gleaned from stores and friends to roughly-made envelopes with penciled names on them. Whether the seeds are gleaned from your own garden plants or from the garden store, you’ll want to keep them safe this winter so that you can plant them in the spring. Label your seeds so that you know what you have and where it came from. If you have more details about planting and growing that plant, add notes to your … Continue reading →

How to Tell If Your Plants Are Drought Damaged

After the heat of the summer, you may feel like wilting. Chances are that your plants are feeling the same way. After all, it’s been very hot and very dry. As you move into the fall, you’ll need to take a look at your plants and evaluate them. Have they been permanently damaged by the drought? Is your plant stressed? Some plants go dormant during the summer months. Grass turns yellow or brown. Although it can be tempting to water these it, this is normal and if the fall brings moisture, grass will tend to recover. Plants can suffer from … Continue reading →

How to Water Your Plants During a Drought

Water, water. Sometimes it’s not everywhere. Sometimes there is no rain to be found, not for days and weeks. This is scary for farmers and deeply frustrating for gardeners. In a drought, plants die, and if you rely on these plants for food and shade, this can be very difficult. How can you weather drought and plan for future dry times as well? Let some of your plants go dormant. Lawns and moss will go brown. This is fine. Keep your lawn a little longer before the dry season begins so that it will make as much shade and conserve … Continue reading →