Here in New England, snow from the recent record-breaking storm is being washed away by torrential rain as I write this. Most nights still have frost, but the dreaded nighttime temperatures in the teens (oF) seem over. Although it’s still too cold and wet to work in the garden, it’s time to start plants so […]
After a winter storm here in New England, a new layer of snow often lies deep on the ground. In the early morning, it also covers the greenhouse, providing insulation that reduces nighttime heating bills and also adds a delightful softness to the roof’s outline. But as the day wears on, the greenhouse interior warms. […]
“If the last month was so severe that little work could be done in the garden, there will be a necessity for forwarding business in this, provided the season be favorable.” Thus wrote Phillip Miller, in his 1775 edition of the Gardener’s Kalendar, setting out the “work to be done” in every part of the […]
Winters in the southwest are at best variable to say the least. It may be the cold season, but weeks of warm, spring-like warm weather can’t fool us, we know it suddenly change overnight to unseemly arctic conditions. That’s the moment we gardeners swap the spade for a snow shovel, or possibly a broom since […]
Even though I added an entire truckload of horse manure, several lawn-tractor cart loads of seaweed, and so many wheelbarrow loads of compost that my body ached from moving it, the peppers, tomatoes, and other fruiting plants in my garden had less than ideal yields this year. The lower-than-normal harvest of tomatoes especially suggested that […]
As the year draws to a close, we garden writers begin receiving notices about the fresh trends for the garden in the coming year. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s list of all that is new for the New Year arrived yesterday. For nearly 200 years the PHS, as it is commonly known, shared its top 10 […]
Before you put this little book away Please promise me that will never say: “You should have seen my garden yesterday.” It’s been my good fortune to visit a great many gardens in my career as an author of books about garden design, history and, well, gardening in general. In so doing, I have also […]
As described in a previous blog post, I built a large hoop house down the length of a pair of the raised beds in my garden, enabling me to significantly extend my outdoor growing season. All summer long the hoop house frames have been left uncovered while daytime temperatures remained in the 70s and 80s. […]
A most impressive display in your greenhouse might be this scarlet Balsam. Unfortunately the photographs cannot convey the brilliancy of flower colour, a wonderful day-glow in the flesh, and with this variety enhanced emerging from deep purple-green foliage. The Balsams or Impatiens family offer many excellent choices for inexpensive impact; easy to grow, continuous flowering […]
Silly gardener! Summer goes, And winter comes with pinching toes, When in the garden bare and brown You must lay your barrow down. So wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in A Child’s Garden of Verses, where youth (the child) admonishes an older person (the gardener) to lay aside their chores and woes, and play while the […]
Growing your own fruit trees is quite different from growing vegetables and flowers in a greenhouse or outdoors. For one thing, there’s much more waiting involved. That’s because most people who buy a fruit tree at a nursery or garden center pick a young one that will fit in their car, or if they purchase […]
Have you ever considered growing vegetables under lights during winter? It’s an excellent way to extend your current growing season or to get an early start on next spring. But before you decide to invest in creating a winter growing system under lights, some basic information about plants and light will help. Plants depend on […]
