Satisfying Seed Starting & Seed Swap Sunday

  • Post published:02/10/2013
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Seed catalogs are full of seed starting supplies. There are all kinds of seed trays and flats, peat pots, cow pots, coir pots, tools for making soil blocks,  soilless growing mixes, heating mats and grow lights.  Where to start? If you have never started seeds indoors the real question is what do you need? You need to buy very little because you can use your kitchen recycling of clear plastic salad and vegetable containers, yogurt containers and cardboard…

Jono Neiger – Mimic Nature in Your Garden

  • Post published:02/02/2013
  • Post comments:8 Comments

  Jono Neiger of the Regenerative Design Group which has its office in Greenfield, spoke to the Greenfield Garden Club a couple of weeks ago. His inspiring talk explained how gardeners could mimic nature, and require less work and inputs to create a garden that would give us what we desire out of our garden and what wildlife and pollinators require. He gave some very specific advice beginning with the suggestion that vegetable gardens, and gardens that need…

New Vegetables for 2013

  • Post published:01/26/2013
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  What is a hybrid vegetable? Hybrids are compatible plants that have been intentionally cross pollinated to create a plant that will combine the best attributes of both parents. This thoughtful work by plant breeders or hybridizers has brought us hundreds of new vegetable varieties that have more disease resistance, heat resistance, different coloring, or some other desirable trait. Hybrids have been created over the eons when plants naturally cross pollinated because pollen had been carried by the…

New Flowers for 2013

  • Post published:01/19/2013
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  Everything is new in January. New plans and new plants and new flowers. Even those of us who say we can’t fit another plant into our garden, and love all the plants we already have, can be really tempted when we see all those bright catalog photos. Last year I added Gaillardia Arizona Sun to my garden and I just loved it. It just glowed in the garden for a really long season. I am hoping it…

Variegated Plants for Shade

  • Post published:01/12/2013
  • Post comments:2 Comments

Some people think that the palette of plants for deep shade provide little visual diversity in color and texture but this is not true. Variegated plants can alter that perception. First I have to say that there are all kinds of shade, from the deepest shade that you would find in a coniferous woodland, to the gay dappled shade or high shade beneath deciduous trees. It is important to remember that if you want flowers in your shade,…

More Christmas Gifts for the Gardener

  • Post published:12/17/2012
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  I’m not saying gardeners are greedy, but it is true that it is easy to choose Christimas gifts for gardeners. When I wander through Shelburne Farm and Garden or Greenfield Farmers Coop I have all I can do hold myself in check. There are so many bright and sturdy items that will please and be useful to both novice and expert gardeners. The Shelburne Farm and Garden Center has a wonderful collection of pots. So many of…

Gifts for the Gardener

  • Post published:12/08/2012
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This post is a reprise from last year and has some really good ideas, so I am repeating, but I will have some new ideas next week. What gifts for the gardener are on your list? In the ‘olden days’ garden catalogs did not arrive until after the new year, the first sign that spring will eventually return. Now my mailbox is already full of garden catalogs describing all kinds of plants, books and tools, every company hoping…

Beautiful No-Mow Yards by Evelyn Hadden

  • Post published:12/05/2012
  • Post comments:8 Comments

What has your lawn done for you lately? That is the question asked by Beautiful No-Mow Yards by Evelyn J. Hadden and published by Timber Press ($24.95). My husband would answer “Not much.” He was happy to find a strong boy to give the lawn a final mowing just before Thanksgiving. The lawn requires a fair amount of time and equipment to keep it mowed, even on the irregular schedule we manage to keep. We never fertilize or…

How to Give a Gift Plant

  • Post published:12/02/2012
  • Post comments:2 Comments

A living plant can be a wonderful holiday gift whether it is chosen for its flowers or for its foliage. However, before you give a plant think about the recipient. Will she accept the plant as a long lived bouquet and then let it go to its eternal reward in the compost pile? After admiring the plant will she feel overwhelmed by the necessity of caring for the plant? Will she weep because she wanted to keep it…

What Does Prosperity Look Like

  • Post published:11/24/2012
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One beautiful day this fall I was driving around doing my errands when I passed a farmhouse shaded by trees. I was forcefully struck by the beauty of the well kept house in a peaceful shade. I was also struck by the thought that this is what prosperity looks like. As we have traveled through the political campaign season, and the harvest season on our way to Thanksgiving I cannot help thinking about what it means to be…