My Journey to the Sustainable Rose Garden

  • Post published:06/26/2020
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The only roses I remember as a child, was the prickery rose bush near my grandparent’s house in Vermont. It did not hold much interest for me except that I thought it might be a place visited by fairies. Occasionally I would leave a tiny gift, but I never did see any fairies. Even so, I did not lose my belief that there are magical creatures in the world. When I was a young teenager in Connecticut I…

Three Composting Techniques for Soil Improvement

  • Post published:06/19/2020
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At our house we make use of three different composting techniques. We have two black bins for kitchen scraps and weeds, wire bins for leaves, and a compost pile for weeds and pruning trimmings. These three ways of making compost provide different ways of improving our soil. Most of us are familiar with the black compost bins. I take a pot of vegetable scraps out every day. However it takes more than just those scraps and weeds. It…

My Roses on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day – June 15, 2020

  • Post published:06/15/2020
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On this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, most of my bloomers are roses, but this sage plant is right outside the back door and I love it! I'll never use that much sage, but it is beautiful. Zaide is one of my favorite roses. I appreciate that it was more than 30 years ago that the German Kordes hybridizers were making sturdy disease resistant roses that  would not need insecticides. They were way ahead of the US in creating…

Flowers in Every Season for Pollinators and Happy Gardener

  • Post published:06/12/2020
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It is not difficult to find flowers for every season.  Many spring flowers have decided it is time to take a nap until next April. If it weren’t for the fact that summer bloomers were beginning to show their colors I’d be very depressed. Like many of us my spring garden began with bulb flowers like scillas, crocuses, daffodils and tulips of every sort. In my May garden fringed bleeding hearts and a goldheart bleeding heart showed their…

Alphabet for Pollinators – E is for Echinacea

  • Post published:06/09/2020
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Echinacea otherwise known as coneflower is a wonderful perennial. It is a sturdy plant. Echinacea purpurea is ideal for bees because they see those landing strips (petals) and right on to the nectar and pollen. There are many many new Echinacea varieties, but if you want to attract and feed the bees, simpler flowers are more beneficial. Behind the Echinacea in the photo above you can see a blossom of the Eryngium, sea holly, which looks spiky but…

Forty Years in the Garden – Chapter 3 – Book and Blogs

  • Post published:06/05/2020
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Over the years I occasionally thought about all the columns I had written since 1980. I enjoyed writing all those columns, but columns are so ephemeral. Here today, gone tomorrow. A friend suggested I write a book. After all, I had all that material. Writing a book is different from writing a column, but the idea appealed more every day. And one day I sat down and began to write. Every week I’d hand in my column, and…