February brings the excitement of the almost daily arrival of seed catalogs in the mailbox. Now is the time to plan for this year’s garden and place your order for plants and seeds. Page through the catalogs and make a list of everything that catches your eye. Then, get realistic and pare the list [Continue]
I first saw a broadfork in use many years ago when Eliot Coleman demonstrated its use on his HGTV series, Gardening Naturally. A few years later, retired DNR warden Wayne Jeidy taught one of our Master Gardener classes and he had high praise for the broadfork. I’ve wanted one ever since. A broadfork, [Continue]
Bring the natural beauty of Mother Nature indoors this holiday season with a few easy decorating ideas anyone can master. Bright red dogwood branches can be cut and placed in a clear glass vase for a starkly beautiful decoration. Or cut some interesting branches from any old tree or shrub and spray paint [Continue]
Is there a gardener on your Christmas gift list? Here are some suggestions sure to be appreciated by the gardener in your life. Most gardeners love gardening books. Not only are they good reference materials during the season, they give us something to dream about over the winter. A beginning gardener will appreciate [Continue]
Gardening for wildlife is much more fun and relaxing than gardening purely for beauty or to keep up with your neighbors’ expectations for yards in the neighborhood. A landscape with perfectly trimmed trees and shrubs and annuals lined up in rows like soldiers may be pretty, but it is rather sterile. Add some [Continue]
When I went to visit Suzette Lazotte’s permaculture garden, she gave me her address and detailed directions how to get there. But I wouldn’t have needed either. Just the name of the street would have been enough – her yard is very different from her neighbors’. The bulk of Suzette’s yard is filled [Continue]
Permaculture, coined from “permanent agriculture” may seem an obscure or unobtainable theory that doesn’t apply to the average yard or garden. But there is no need to adopt the entire permaculture philosophy to derive some benefits. Just a few of the concepts can be applied to make your yard and garden more beautiful and [Continue]
You’ve made the plans for your new flower bed and have just returned from the nursery with your trunk full of plants. You unload the car and wonder why you ever thought making a new flower bed was a good idea. How do you do this right and make it look good? Ideally, [Continue]
Gardening is a joy but if we don’t take care of ourselves, it can become a painful chore, or worse yet, impossible to do. It is important to wash your hands EVERY time you come in from gardening. Even if you stoop to pull just one weed or pick one tomato for your [Continue]
Have you heard gardeners rattle off the Latin names of plants and been awed or intimidated? There’s no need to be. You probably already know a lot of the Latin words and don’t realize it. Are any of these familiar? Artemisia, Aster, Begonia, Chrysanthemum, Clematis, Crocus, Delphinium, Geranium, Hibiscus, Hosta, Iris, Phlox and Potentilla. [Continue]