Spring season is always a matter of logistics when you live in a cold climate. In temperate Ohio we go from cold-can’t-do-anything conditions to hot-don’t-want-to-do-anything weather with only a fleeting spring in between. We can count on two months to get soil prepared and everything planted. Some years there may be some earlier breaks and…
In Touch with the Weather
A definite benefit of gardening is being in touch with the weather. It’s a necessity, and counters the tendency of a modern life to live in isolation from nature. Of course, mankind has always been in something of a struggle with natural forces; but that is just an explanation for why we complain so much…
Big Things I’m Doing Differently in 2018
Remember “The Beverly Hillbillies”? How about “The Brady Bunch”, or “Green Acres”, for that matter? They are all TV shows that started out with a theme song that told their stories. For me, it could have been “There once was a woman who homeschooled, With her ten kids, she moved out to the country and…
National Seed Swap Day in January
Swap Seeds For A Better Garden This Year Gardener’s have traditionally loved to trade with each other: tips ad advice, seeds and plants, even tools of the trade. It is no surprise that as the seed supplies available from seed companies have been shrinking, that grassroots gardeners have stepped up to organize seed swaps. These…
A Basic Guide To Essential Garden Tools For Beginners
What, When, How To Use Garden Tools Just starting out as a new homeowner? Get the garden tools you need. Tips on which essentials a newbie gardener should buy. Hint: if it decorates a wall, you aren’t using it. | What Essential Tools Do I Need to Garden? There are an array of tools in…
Observations on an Ohio Spring
We haven’t entered springtime officially, but tell the weather that! This has been a most mild winter, and Ohio experienced all time high temperature records for the month of February in 2017. It accelerated a climate phenomenon which, as a gardener, I look for each year. Most everyone know of the “Indian Summer” and “January…
Snippets of Gardening, February’s Mercies
One of the mercies found within an Ohio winter are those small windows of dry enough conditions and relatively pleasant weather. They are almost always very short, so the opportunities need to grasped. We have a short window at this moment and I have used it to carry on the weeding and garden preparation that…
More for me than you, Garden Planning
I haven’t surfed garden blogs in forever, it seems. But today was different and I garnered some great ideas that I hope to put to work for me this year. We’ll see. It all depends on both how diligent I am and how much traveling I need to do. (Since I am the sole gardener,…
What Makes a Low Maintenance Garden?
It is increasingly the Holy Grail of garden designs: making a landscape low maintenance. For many reasons, reducing the work load of our outdoor spaces has become a priority. We are busy with many activities We are aging Viewing flowers rather than weeding flowerbeds is preferable That is not the definitive list, by any means,…
Thoughts from the Deep Freezer
It is a normal weather pattern for central Ohio to plumb the depths of single digit temperatures with little or no snow. It is equally expected for gardeners to go into planning mode during the deep freeze of January. Reviewing the last year has made me realize that I’m more prone than ever to the…