You can have “[your] chestnuts roasting on your [own] open fire”. American chestnut trees were decimated by blight over the past 100 years but other chestnut species or hybrids are available to fill the bill. Read about what happened to the American chestnut and its future, and what you can grow now in my latest blog post, here:
“The closing scenes are not necessarily funereal. A garden should be got ready for winter as well as for summer. When one goes into winter-quarters he wants everything neat and trim. . . garden in complete order before the snow comes, so that its last days shall not present a scene of melancholy ruin and decay.” I take these words, written 150 years ago by Charles Dudley Warner, to heart, as I describe in my latest blog post, here:
Grow the very best tasting raspberry (imho). Also beautiful. Also everbearing, from midsummer on until stopped by cold weather in autumn. What is it? Read here:
So you’re going to plant some trees and shrubs. Fall is an excellent time. In addition to the kind of tree or shrub, what kind of nursery plant do you want — b & b, bare root, container grown? And, bigger plants are more expensive, but are they better? I write about all this in this week’s blog post:
Yellowjackets are often in a garden, and they are pest. So are they garden pests? Yes, to you and me. But they also attack plant pests. What to do, to keep them at bay? What to do, once they’ve attacked? For more about yellowjackets, see:
[Even in cold winter climates, such as here on the farmden, figlets line the stems of our fig trees. Baby figs near the tops of the stems, fatter ones and riper ones lower down. The ripe figs are sweetly delectable — but only if picked dead ripe. In my latest blog post, I explore fig ripening as well as ways to hasten ripening, and what to do with the ripe fruit. Read about all this here:[Even in cold winter climates, such as here on the farmden, figlets line the stems of our fig trees. Baby figs near the tops of the stems, fatter ones and riper ones lower down. The ripe figs are sweetly delectable — but only if picked dead ripe. In my latest blog post, I explore fig ripening as well as ways to hasten ripening, and what to do with the ripe fruit. Read about all this here:
I long admired bee-balm and wanted it more close at hand also. But was it bee-balm I admired? No matter. Now it and a close relative grows happily in my garden and the field. Want to know more?
The best-tasting tomatoes are not (necessarily) home-grown tomatoes. Find out which tomatoes taste best, then go about getting them for next year and years to come. All this is detailed in my latest blog post:
I went against all my previous suggestions in planting — or should I say encouraging — the meadow here on the farmden. That was 25 years ago. How did I do it, how did I maintain it, and how has it fared? Read about all this at:
Ah, to look out on a meadow. You can have this vision — but you need to plan and prep before planting, a topic I cover in my latest blog post:
