Fear Not I used to find orchids intimidating to grow. Their dust-sized seeds are fairly unique in not having any food reserves so — in the wild, at least — need the help of a fungus partner to get growing. And some orchids (epiphytes) spend their lives nestled in trees so need a special potting […]
Mini-Trees for Flavor Second best to fresh-picked vegetables in winter, which are not within most gardener’s grasp with temperatures in the single digits, are fresh-picked herbs. Fresh-picked herbs — indoors — in winter are within the grasp of most gardeners, even non-gardeners. Flowering and fruiting demand lots of light energy, but it is the leaves […]
It could be spring. Now. Indoors, with the sweet fragrance from a flowerpot of pastel colored hyacinths and other spring-flowering bulbs. All it takes is a little bit of trickery. The bulbs don’t have to wait till spring. Knowing what a bulb is helps understand the trickery. But first: All that we commonly call a […]
In a Smoke-Filled Café . . . What you are about to read might have been improved upon if I had been writing with la fée verde (the green fairy) looking over my shoulder. Or better yet, if I also was writing from a smoke-filled cafe in Paris. Or even better, from a smoke filled […]
Snow Mulching Only four inches of snow fell a a couple of weeks ago but I decided anyway to go outside and mulch. And shovel snow. And shovel snow and mulch. What I was trying to do, besides clear snow from the driveway, the paths, and the doorway to the greenhouse, was to create […]
The dark green wreath was tied with red ribbons and gliding towards me, in its progress stirring up snowflakes gently floating out of the grey sky. No, the wreath was not hanging from a horse-drawn sled, but was plowing through the frigid air affixed to the chrome grille of a gleaming white Cadillac! Here […]
A Mexican Native Adapts to Pot A recent snowfall draped the landscape in magic. The white blanket settled softly on every horizontal surface to create a harmony in white. Still, I miss green. Even better than seeing some green plants would be to liven up that green with, from the opposite side of the color […]
Winterizing My carpenter friends, near the end of their projects, have their “punch lists” to serve as reminders what odds and ends still need to be done. I similarly have a punch list for my gardens, a punch list that marks the end of the growing season, a list of what (I hope) will […]
Wherefrom the Colors? Autumn is a season when New York’s Hudson Valley, and much of the Northeast, unfolds in all its glory. Not this autumn, though. What’s going on in the leaves this year? Is there anything I can do about it?. Chlorophyll is what makes leaves green, but hidden behind that green, all season […]
Happy Blueberries, Happy Me My sixteen blueberry plants make me happy, so I make them happy. (They made me happy this year to the tune of 190 quarts of berries, half of which are in the freezer.) I don’t know how much work bearing all those berries was for them, but I just finished my […]
