Letting clematis self-propagate can occasionally pay off with a new variety
Letting a few clematis plants grow is the closest that I’ve come to playing the lottery. It looks like I’ve won, judging from the first flower that opened last week. Let me explain….
Time to start germinating seeds for autumnal veggies
Time to jump into the future again: It’s autumn of this year, and tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other summer delicacies are on the wane. Does the vegetable garden appear melancholy and forlorn? No!…
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,…
