Time to check the compost
You’d think, this time of year, that all I’d be doing is sowing seeds and transplanting small and large plants. I am. But I’m also turning compost piles, getting ready to use that…
Trendy straw-bale culture is unnecessary unless your soil is diseased
People are funny, and that includes gardeners. Gardening is basically simple: You put a seed in the ground and, backed by millions of years of evolution, that seed grows. Sure, there are a…
Grape expectations
With a bit over two acres of land to play around with, I could have a woodlot. But I don’t. (I do harvest a lot of sunlight, though.) Still, because this is what…
Holy tomato!
Sowing tomatoes was the big moment in the garden last week. The sowing was actually indoors, and it was on April 1, which is six weeks before the “average date of the last…
Kale, the wonder vegetable
The season’s first peas and potatoes are such a taste treat; radishes are fun; and everyone pines for the first tomatoes. But kale, I think, is the vegetable most worthy of praise. Here…
A productive maple syrup season
Time is running out to finish pruning my kiwi and grapevines, apple, pear, cornelian cherry, filbert and chestnut trees, rose, gooseberry, currant, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, yew and fothergilla bushes. Now that I list…
Philahortica
Philadelphia should not be called the “City of Brotherly Love.” No, I didn’t get mugged on a recent trip there. It’s just that more evident – to me, at least – is Philadelphia’s…
Handy schedule for starting seeds, transplanting seedlings
There must be a converse to the saying, “Be careful what you wish for…” and if there is, I’ve realized it. I wrote, a couple of weeks ago, about the so-called hardy orange,…
Something new under the sun
Two or three people have already asked me, “Are you growing anything special this year?” Each time I had to stop and think: “Am I?” Then I feel, “Yes, I should be growing…
Ramping it up
Spring is here, in my basement. Allow me to set the scene: My basement is barely heated, and I replaced what once was a south-facing Bilco door with a wooden frame supporting two…
