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 […]
Share the Bounty Thanksgiving is a holiday that really touches the gardener, this gardener, me, at least. If nothing more, it’s a harvest festival, a celebration of the bounty of the season’s efforts. And the season has been bountiful, as is every season if a variety of crops are grown. Like most home gardeners, I […]
A New Exercise: Un-Rei-King A few years ago I wrote that, among the many benefits of gardening is the opportunity it offers for varied, productive exercise. At that time I highlighted rei-king (ray-KING). Now, let’s add un-rei-king to join rei-king, zumba, cardiofunk, and other ways modern humans build and maintain sleek, fit bodies. In fact, […]
Ready of Ol’ Man Winter October 31st, was slated to be the first hard frost of the season, later than ever. That afternoon, I went down my checklist of things to do in preparation for the cold. Drip irrigation needed to be shut down so that ice wouldn’t damage the lines. I opened up the […]
