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 […]
Lately, I’ve given much thought to an age-old question, why do we garden? First posited by Methuselah – I jest, but my favorite essayist, Sir Francis Bacon reasoned–and rightly so–in 1625, that the garden first created by the Almighty, remains “the purest of human pleasures. [and] the greatest refreshment to the spirit of man…”. Bacon […]
Writing this on the first day of autumn, whistling a sigh of relief that we got all the tomatoes and peaches in before frost turned them to mush or the squirrels got them. I the garden is taking on the shades of fall, burnished gold, steely blue, burgundy purple, while the rugosa roses are setting […]
Once I had a kitchen garden. It was a large space, surrounded by a trellis fence so that it didn’t appear part of the “proper” garden, because it was a hard-working space, with a small glasshouse in one corner, compost heaps in another, and two long parallel rows of four-foot-wide raised beds. These were not […]
Glasshouses serve many purposes: in my experience there are three themes that stand out. Production, Relaxation and Experimentation: A productive Greenhouse is where one grows vegetables, fruit, and herbs for the ultimate “locavore” experience – your own backyard. A Glasshouse can be a personal spa-zone or a short journey to a restful staycation. You know […]
The past few weeks have been quite exhilarating for gardeners: chores to tackle like cleaning out the potting shed, waking up the garden then attacking with vigor all the prepping, planting, and sorting before summer heat sets in. Along the Front Range the weather has been mixed, to say the least, with 90 degrees F […]
