Garden Journal

It’s long past the optimal time for pruning roses (“when the forsythia bloom”), but when roses have grown such that they’re reaching over the top of the redbud tree to get some sun, and they’re also threatening to thwap you in the face when you walk by, optimal must give way to necessity. And roses […]

Installed a gutter planter today. I’ve been interested in the idea of trying to take advantage of more vertical garden space — this is a narrow bit of wall that doesn’t do anything, and anything big there would start blocking the path down from the back deck, but I thought a gutter planter might just

Let me start with an note for locals that I’ll have a booth at What’s Blooming on Harrison today; I plan to be there from 11 – 4, spot #69, and I’d be happy to see gardeners from the group stop by and say hi! No need to buy anything, and feel free to bring

Dandelion syrup, use like maple syrup on pancakes, or like a simple syrup in cocktails, etc. and so on. If you don’t wash the flowers, the pollen clings to it, and there are all kinds of health benefit claims which I have not personally vetted. But it’s tasty, and smells of honey & spring, and

Even though I mostly enjoy puttering in the garden, there are some tasks even I don’t enjoy. Planting groundcover is one of them — it requires a sequence of slightly tedious steps, repeated: – dig up weeds in the way – plant little plugs of groundcover, spaced appropriately far from each other – spread mulch

I planted some strawberries in the ground at the edge of a bed a few years ago, and they’ve been very happy there, spreading and multiplying and making delicious strawberries. The only challenge is that it’s on the ground, which means that I need to find the ripe strawberries by lifting up the leaves, and

I’ve been thinking about labor in the garden. Often when I’m working in the front garden, a neighbor will pause as they walk by and say something like, “Lot of work!” And I’m never quite sure what to say, because the real answer is complex. I usually say something like, “Yes, but I enjoy it!”

Last night and this morning have mostly been about sorting out the hoses — I took a few hours to clear out the garage first, pulled all the hoses into the yard, and have started setting them up. It’s going to be a long process. But I got some set up to water the herbs

It’s going to be in the 80s this coming week (weird, I hope it doesn’t last, I want more spring before we get summer, please), and I think we’re pretty safely past frosty nights, so I’ve taken some time today to move all the tropicals outdoors. It’s sort of goofy to grow tropicals in this

So, these were disappointing in various ways. My dahlias from last year have basically all rotted; I tried to store them in pots in the fridge, and that just didn’t work — about half of them had rotted by the time I pulled them out a month or so ago, and the rest seem to