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 are great places to go to let others have some of your abundance … [Read more...] about National Seed Swap Day on Saturday
January
Inspiration: getting seeds started
I recall some of the many types of containers I experimented with in starting seedlings. One of the first attempts(and I always seemed to have beginners luck with my gardening) was with empty egg cartons. Each little egg holder was filled with soil, the top closed to keep in moisture and then opened as the seeds emerged. Sometimes I topped the half carton with clear film like Saran Wrap. Depended … [Read more...] about Inspiration: getting seeds started
My Ohio Winter
It has been a snowy and cold winter, the present season broke records for cold temperatures. I like the picturesque snow covered landscape and several mornings I awakened to hoar frosts that transformed the garden into white traceries of laced branches and stems against the sequined, white velvet snow. The Cinderella winter season has given way to the morning after of mid-January's thawing, now. … [Read more...] about My Ohio Winter
January- The Month of Two Faces
January, being named for the Roman god Janus, is something of a two way street in time. The name Janus means "archway" and he was a god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings [Janus. I sit and think of this pagan mythology early on Sunday morning.I, too, look backward and forwards at the same time while ensconced in the icy white shrouds of winter frost, cold snow strewn winds, and … [Read more...] about January- The Month of Two Faces
In the Deep Freeze
Deep freezeWhile we are in the deep freezer here in Ohio, I have been setting up (ever so slowly) my new computer. I find myself planning my garden season in the year to come, and am hopeful that my husbands newly mentioned interest comes to fruition. He seems most interested in the vegetable garden, which is the part that has languished most in my gardens. We will have to try and till up the old … [Read more...] about In the Deep Freeze
Gardening in January
We've had some beautiful weather here, although it is now turning cold. I enjoyed the sunshine while it lasted! Normally January is full steam blogging, but I will be setting up a new computer system and that means blogging will be slow until that is over.Reminders for this month:Late January is a good time to get out there and prune, if the weather permits. Check out my article on pruning.Get … [Read more...] about Gardening in January
The Gardener’s Starting Block
That is how I look at the month of January. Some things have a new year's start in September, such as the school year, some in October, such as the holiday season, but January is the starting block for a gardener; this gardener, anyway.November and December have been ending points for us in the Northern gardens, and while we are in the depth of winter the first stirrings of our gardening desire … [Read more...] about The Gardener’s Starting Block
I was going to garden…
but I thought better of it. Not too many days ago I was musing a bit about doing some of the January pruning, because normally there is January thaw about now. The season being what it is, we are in the throes of freezing temperatures which nip in the bud any ideas of spending time outdoors with cold steel pruning implements. I've been going to the Curves place to build up my strength to work … [Read more...] about I was going to garden…
Winter’s Second Entrance
After everyone has talked about the insertion of spring in January's notes for the year, now comes the reappearance of winter. It has been steadily chilling, until today when early this morning I looked out upon diamond frost. That is when a veil of frost covers the ground with its netting of white, but overhead the clear and frigid Nordic blue skies allow the maximum of sunshine to sparkle and … [Read more...] about Winter’s Second Entrance