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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
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
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
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
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