The autumn foliage was quite something this year; the fact that along the Rockies, instead of going straight from summer to winter, we had a fine fall helped…in fact, it persists. The native grasses, especially the big bluestem; the one I grow, ‘Wind Walker’, went from steely blue to rusty red; a nearby golden yellow […]
Autumn in my corner of the Rocky Mountain’s Front Range arrived on the dot – October 14th – and so began the great garden clean up, starting with the windows of my ersatz Greenhouse. The space is glassed-in breezeway, but it serves a purpose adequately. But to make the most of winter’s weaker (but by […]
Some while ago visiting gardens on the east coast, I came upon a greenhouse that had a piece of seaweed hanging from its cornice. It woke a memory of my childhood in Ireland and staying at bed and breakfast near the sea. The owner would hang a long tendril of seaweed beside the back door […]
Hasn’t this been the challenging summer? Here in the Rockies, we’ve experienced cool days and regular drenching rainfall seemingly every afternoon from June to July — the garden loved it! But. Unseasonable cool days and nightime temps below 50° were not a joy for the edibles: Were I growing tomatoes in a greenhouse, the harvest […]
Delicate herbs – lemon verbena, bayleaf, rosemary, lavender, lemon balm to name few – benefit from greenhouse cultivation, because they are either not cold hardy, or the open garden is shady, so the herbs don’t receive the minimum six hours of direct sunlight they require to do their best. Given a seat in a sunny […]
Paging through the annals of Hartley Botanic’s online magazine, I came upon the headline from a piece published nearly two decades ago, titled “Use winter to read up on gardening and greenhouse techniques”. It’s not an exhaustive piece of garden know-how but is a guide back in time to a couple of worthwhile books by […]
If you’re reading this column, chances are you’re one of those people whose greenhouse and garden are stuffed with memories, and you can recall vividly where and how each plant was acquires be it from a nursery, a pass-along plant from a friend, or raised from seeds collected on a vacation visit to an unforgettable […]
Spring is in the air on the western slopes of the Rockies, which means nights can still drop to 20 degrees F, but days are warm(ish). Yet our bluebird skies are scattered with fluffy white clouds, and we’re dreaming of gardens to come and greenhouses to fill. Our gardens beckon…as do the nurseries. Yesterday, I […]
This is not about saving electricity, or about embracing solar power to illuminate our lives, but instead it about appreciating and enjoying darkness. Luxuriating in shadows, letting the stars and the moon be the radiance that punctures darkness ever so quietly. Especially in the greenhouse and the garden. I’ve been reading and absorbing a small […]
Well. Here we are. Our shiny pearl in the heavens has successfully completed another revolution around the sun, to the accompaniment, not of Richard Strauss’s Also Spake Zarathustra, (you know… 2001, Hal the Computer), but to a cavalcade of hit lists for 2023’s upcoming trends. Top of the recommendations appears to be for glass to […]
And the winner is…KHEYTI, developers of…drum roll…Greenhouse-in-a-Box. Screaming and hugging ensues. Cut to video of project installations and co-founder, Kaushik Kappagantulu in voiceover, “The world depends on its small-hold farmers and yet their lives are amongst the hardest on earth. Our Greenhouse-in-a-Box is empowering farmers in India today. The steps we have already taken at […]
In my neck of the woods, being the foothills of Pikes Peak in Colorado, the old chestnut about making hay while the sun shines, is rehearsed by me and my gardening clan as “make haste while the sun shines”. Old man winter is just around the next corner, and she who snoozes loses. Last week […]
