My favorite garden… »
In 1995, my daughter, who was 17 at the time, established a woodland shade garden in our backyard around the base of a large Tulip Tree (Lireodendron tulipifera.) She piled up some composted sod that we had taken up, all around the base of the tree. Then she spent time over several days searching out [Read More...]
Thoughts After the Philadelphia Flower Show: A Fractured Community? »
Early last month, a few of us from Greenhouse Megastore made the trek over to Pennsylvania for the Philadelphia Flower Show. Truthfully, I had no idea what to expect, although I have been entrenched in gardening since childhood. And by “entrenched” I mean: Mom: Jordan, you see those 4,000 weeds growing up by the [Read More...]
Demystifiying Organic: 5 Simple Ways to Go Organic »
There’s a laundry list of words, sometimes awesome words, that have been rendered pretty much useless by overuse and/or misuse. You probably notice this with marketing terms the most. For example, does anything being called extreme really catch your attention anymore? And honestly, how often does something you see being touted as epic, actually end [Read More...]
Creating Organic Matter in a Garden »
Health of the garden depends on organic matter. What happens below the soil line is really more important as what happens above the soil. In gardening, many products are called organic matter. Animal manures, peat moss from bogs, leaves, straw, newspaper, sludge, yard and garden waste, kitchen scraps, and green manures or cover crops. These [Read More...]
How a Fetus Made Me Appreciate Our Vegetable Garden »
There’s nothing that can disrupt life like a baby, with the possible exception of a third baby (crazy parents of 3+ children know what I’m talking about). Just when you think you have the whole parenting thing figured out, along comes another personality to care and nurture for that is, conveniently, nothing like any of [Read More...]
Garden Planning Day – 2013 »
Thomas Jefferson loved gardening. He kept detailed records, for many years, of his garden at Monticello. In fact, you can even purchase a copy of his “Garden Book“. I read it once, years ago, and felt so inspired that I started keeping my own garden book. It was fun to do, but as with so [Read More...]
Pocket Gardens Can Be Fun! »
If you have fussy plants that just seem to grow slow or never look the best then perhaps you are ready to try a pocket bed. This is a sheltered spot in your garden or beds that you’ve designated by using large rocks surrounded by other smaller rocks that have separated certain plants for protection. Inside this [Read More...]
For Your Consideration: Valentine’s Day Edition »
So, it’s Valentine’s Day. It’s the lover of all things love related’s favorite day. And it’s the day that most flower shops love and dread. Love for the business and dread for the business. Hundreds of thousands of husbands, boyfriends, would be boyfriends, friends or creepy stalker types the world over flock to their local [Read More...]
Juicing for Better Health »
The new year always begins with proclamations of ways we can improve and promises we make to ourselves to achieve these resolutions. Many focus around personal health and weight loss. My family is no different. Recently, my brother watched the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Deadwhich demonstrates the weight loss achieved by Joe Cross through [Read More...]
A Stash of Seeds »
I received an email from a member of our CSA recently and the subject was “A Stash of Seeds”. Curious, I clicked the message to read more. A while back, her neighbor had found a couple of old cans in his garage with dried ears of corn in one and an assortment of bean seeds [Read More...]