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Category Archives: seasons
Spring Fevers
Does this ever happen to you during winter? You start out with all these ideas about how you’ll make the winter cozy and/or productive and/or b-e-a-r-a-b-l-e, and before you know it, none of that has happened and the seed catalogs have piled up and there has been no knitting, barely any pickles or chutneys made, and no chestnuts roasting by an open fire. Nor has the stack of must-read books receded by one millimeter. Continue reading
Posted in garden tasks, plants, seasons
Tagged bonsai, climate change, cold stratification, daffodils, early planting, grow lights, indoor planting, Joe Pye weed, last frost date, New England aster, planting calculator, raised beds, red columbine, seed starting, seeds, snow, spring, Ukraine relief, Wild Seed Project, winter
12 Comments
Eleventh Hour
‘Tis the season, at last, for dealing with the last dead or dying scraps before wrapping up the garden for the winter. (Don’t worry: the blog will continue. And I’ll have more time for it!) Continue reading
Posted in animal life, fall, garden tasks, plants, winter
Tagged allium, aronia, Berkshire Botanical Garden, black vulture, black-eyed Susans, Butterfly bush, carrots, chard, cilantro, coneflowers, COP26, Coreopsis, Cricket Hill Garden, Festiva Maxima, foxglove, frost, garden quilt, garlic, George Orwell, Greenpeace, kale, Kousa dogwood, lettuce, loquat, lychee, mango, mangosteen, medlar, Montauk daisy, parsley, pawpaw, peonies, Rebecca Solnit, reblooming iris, salt-marsh hay, shallots, United Nations, vultures
9 Comments
Falling Behind
Every year before this one, fall has come like a kind of reprieve. All those tasks still undone turn moot. Weeds keel over and expire of their own accord. Way too late to plant more veggies; sigh of relief there. The rodent marauders have done pretty much all the visible damage they can manage, and I happily leave the overweening hosta to them. But not this year. Continue reading
Posted in fall, garden tasks, plants
Tagged aronia, beans, climate change, elderberry, frost, garlic, hakonechloa, landscaping fabric, lemongrass, lettuce, Michelle Obama, mulch, pandemic, peas, sage, seed catalog, shallots, snow peas, weeds
6 Comments
To Do Or Not To Do
In case you’re wondering why I call this blog “Inconstant Gardener,” let me give you an example. Continue reading
Posted in garden tasks, people, plants, summer
Tagged basil, beans, carrots, catmint, cayenne, chard, Charlie Nardozzi's Newsletter, cleanup, compost bin, coneflower, crop coops, cucumbers, dogwood, frost, garlic, geranium, hail, heuchera, kale, lettuce, mulch, onions, parsnips, planning, radishes, rain, raised beds, seeds, squash, to-do lists, vegetables, weeds, woodchuck
8 Comments
Exceeding Expectations
In a garden, as in life, we think we like predictability. But natural forces are not givens, and sometimes things happen that foil our efforts. And yet, the unexpected in the garden can bring zings of delight. I’ve been savoring many of those. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, garden tasks, plants, spring, summer
Tagged cornflower, crocus, daffodil, Eremurus bungei, foxtail lily, friends, garlic scapes, grape hyacinth, grasshopper, holiday, hummingbirds, mushrooms, penicillium mold, peony 'Charles Burgess', weeds
10 Comments
Spring, Sprang, Sprung
Whatever it is that spring does to the soul, it’s doing it bigtime this year. And even though I owe you a long overdue Post, full of facts and tips and musings (insight is accidental), all I feel capable of is an ode to joy. So here’s to spring! Continue reading
Posted in animal life, garden tasks, plants, spring
Tagged bees, cherry, crab apple, dandelion, forsythia, Johnny jump-up, plantain, rain, tulips, weeds
21 Comments
Getting seedy
You may recall that a couple or three posts back, I said it was way too soon to order seeds. I continued blissfully to think that. Somehow, I had myself convinced that April is when I need to think actively about gardening again.
I do consider gardening a kind of magic. But it has to start with something. Quite a few somethings, actually, but most of them were already outside under the February snow just waiting for the starting whistle. One crucial something, though, relies on me to act, and, I realized as February shazammed into March, act fast.
That something is seeds. Continue reading
Posted in garden tasks, plants, spring
Tagged Covid-19, foodscaping, grow lights, herbs, no-dig gardening, seed catalogs, seed starting, seeds, vegetables
6 Comments
New Year’s (ir)resolutions
Not all surprises are nice surprises. Case in point: 2020.
In the midst of the year from hell’s lower reaches, in which just about everyone lost something precious—mobility, jobs, close contact, sense of security, peace of mind, and worst of all, loved ones—there were still a few sweet blossoms. Possibly more of the literal ones than usual, since so many people turned to their gardens to get through.
But after the past nine months of cascading whack-a-mole disasters, are you making new year’s resolutions this year? My main resolution is not to make them.
Here’s why. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, winter
Tagged brain, cleanup, fence, geranium, holiday, raised beds, water, woodchuck
10 Comments
Your holiday grab-bag
Am I the only one who gets kind of taken over by the holidays?
I doubt it. In fact, I suspect you didn’t even realize that it’s been 11 days since my last post. Right? Because you’ve been busy: Continue reading
Posted in plants, winter
Tagged amaryllis, brunnera, Gertrude Jekyll, holiday, horse manure, narcissus, panda, snow, wormwood
11 Comments
December’s Dull Drums
Other months might spring up or creep up on you or unveil themselves.
December descends. Sometimes with a splat, sometimes with a thump. Sometimes with a whammy.
This time I’d call it a thump. Continue reading
Posted in garden tasks, plants, winter
Tagged amaryllis, bulbs, Chanukah, daylight, earthenware pots, herbs, holiday, indoor gardening, mulch, plastic pots, raised beds, rosemary, sage, salt-marsh hay, snow, solstice, sunrise, sunset
9 Comments