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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
A whole new world: Beyond the Thanksgiving myth
Before you sit down at the groaning board to tuck into that Thanksgiving feast, pause a moment.
If you’re going traditional, here’s what is probably on your table: Continue reading
Posted in animal life, fall, people, plants
Tagged Abenaki, achillea, amaranth, American persimmon, asclepias, avocado, beans, blueberry, cassava, chilis, coneflower, corn, cranberry, echinacea, elderberry, ethnobotany, fiddlehead, food groups, giant leopard plant, ground cherry, heritage seeds, holiday, Jerusalem artichoke, maize, Mashpee, milkweed, mole (the sauce), monarch butterfly, Native American, papaya, pawpaw, peanut, pineapple, pollinator garden, potato, pumpkin, quinoa, ramps, raspberry, salmonberry, Seeds of Renewal, smallpox, squash, sweet potato, teosinte, Thanksgiving, tomato, tractor plant, tribal agriculture, turkey, USDA Zone 10, USDA Zone 7, USDA Zone 8, Wampanoag, White Earth Lands, wild rice, wild turkey, yarrow
6 Comments
November miscellany
It was a grab-bag week, so this is a grab-bag post. Cold cold weather is rolling in and back, in and back, and I’ve been scrambling to get this ‘n’ that done as time and weather permitted. Now it’s urgent for me to figure out the priorities for any action that involves digging into the ground. I say priorities, because I’m afraid I’ve reached Triage Day. Today. Continue reading
Posted in fall, garden tasks, pests and problems, soil
Tagged bearded iris, cleanup, geranium, mice, mulch, peppermint oil, raised beds, Siberian iris, yard waste
6 Comments
Reconstruction, garden variety
Here it is November, edging into the middle of the month, and for a brief and lovely week, the march of the seasons hit pause-and-rewind.
The warm spell put me back on the hook, though: things I had thought were past praying for, all of a sudden weren’t. Things I thought would just have to wait till spring, now became not only possible but even, perhaps, mandatory. After all, there were (and still are) piles of mulch and topsoil in the driveway, waiting for me to do something with them. They must be dealt with, or horrors will happen…. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, fall, garden tasks, pests and problems, soil
Tagged cedar, chard, chicken wire, geranium, hardware cloth, herbs, mulch, raised beds, tarp, woodchuck
6 Comments
Division and diversity: A gardener’s tale
In the garden, diversity is the way to go.
I love peonies, but a whole yard full of them? Glory-be would break out in late May, last two to three weeks, and then… nada.
… in honor of election day, I figured it was a good time to start looking at some of the diversity in our country that spans red states and blue states. When you get right down to it, we gardeners all live in green states.
So this past Friday, while two inches of wet snow fell relentlessly on my surroundings, my friend Hillary gave me a tour of her thriving garden in Charleston, South Carolina. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, fall, plants, seasons, soil
Tagged aloe, bird feeders, butter butt, cleanup, coastal gardening, crape myrtle, hibiscus, hummingbirds, hurricanes, hydrangea, lantana, lawn signs, magnolia, Meyer lemon, papyrus, rock garden, roses, sandy soil, Siberian dogwood, snow, squirrels, USDA Zone 4, USDA Zone 5, USDA zone 9, vegetables, wild ginger, yellow-rumped warbler, zen garden
10 Comments
Things get squirrely
Lately, I’ve been wondering a lot about squirrels.
You know those busy bushy-tailed rodents, whether you have the gray kind, or the black or the red or some combination thereof. Hereabouts, they’re gray, they nest up in the trees (at least, I’ve been told those are squirrels’ nests up there, the big messy ones), they run up and down the trees and along fences and across porches and decks and tables.
Occasionally, if you have a bird feeder, they raid it. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, fall, garden tasks, plants
Tagged bees, cayenne, cleanup, coneflower, gardening websites, geranium, mulch, squirrel
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October surprises (in the garden)
It’s been raining this week. Oh my, how it rained on Wednesday! And it’s here again today, Friday.
Two days ago, cars whipped past on the road outside my workroom window, throwing up sheets of spray in artistic arcs. The birds and the bunny went into hiding. Continue reading
Posted in fall, garden tasks, plants
Tagged cardinal flower, cayenne, cleanup, coneflower, hakonechloa, mulch, rain
2 Comments
Lazier gardening is in style at last!
Fall is arriving so early this year. Too early for me, now matter which standpoint I’m looking from: how much time and effort I’ve put into getting things to grow, only to see them keel over; or the timetable of advice on fall cleanup. Every time I go out to the garden, I find evidence of demise Continue reading
Posted in fall, garden tasks, pests and problems, plants
Tagged bees, cleanup, coldframe, dahlia, dogwood, hakonechloa, heuchera, mulch, peonies, squirrel
10 Comments