Our first garden together.
It amazes me how many different ways there are to grow a vegetable garden. This year my fiance and I are growing our first vegetable garden together and we are doing it our way, along with her way, his way, the book said this way, so and so said to do it this way, the … Read more
Naked Rock Garden Ambition
My hubs, Mom, and I went on our first Open Garden Days tour of the season yesterday. Open Garden Days is a fundraising effort of the Garden Conservancy, and we are embarrassingly rich with Open Gardens in the Hudson Valley! This was the most ambitious rock garden I have ever seen: rock wall after rock … Read more
Elegant Design & New Garden Friends
Recently I did some pruning and consulting with a dynamic couple in Poughkeepsie, John and Gayle. Forty years ago they converted a red brick barn into a contemporary marvel of comfort and beauty (John’s an architect). One of the outdoor design features that really delighted me was this fantastic tiered series of perennial planters in … Read more
Beavers
Beavers have moved into the neighborhood! Usually you do not see these large rodents, just their lodges, canals, dams and lots of gnawed trees. There are two varieties of beavers that live in streams, ponds, rivers, and marshes throughout North America, Europe and Asia and the reason we do not often see them is they are … Read more
Book review: It’s a Long Road to a Tomato
If you are interested in reading about the life of an organic farmer, you may like the book entitled It’s a Long Road to a Tomato, Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life by Keith Stewart, with wonderful illustrations by his wife Flavia Bacarella. I was drawn to … Read more
Cleaning up your laundry
Wait… isn’t laundry already clean? Well, maybe. Americans do a lot of laundry. We go through pounds of clothes and towels every week. And we use a LOT of laundry products: detergent, fabric softener, dryer sheets, stain remover, bleach. And we use a ton of energy to wash and dry our clothes. And that lint … Read more
A Little Fall Garden Walkabout
I’m so glad I planted some food crops in my home garden, because the community veg garden has been repeatedly flooded since Irene, rendering all crops there unsafe-to-eat mush. My cohorts and I will be lucky if we can get in there to plant garlic before Thanksgiving! But at home I have some swiss chard, … Read more
Monarch caterpillars
Hatching monarch caterpillars is a tradition in my family and a year hasn’t gone by since we haven’t talked about seeing a monarch caterpillar or discussed how many chrysalis we have hatched. Once I moved to the Hudson Valley I was a little worried that the monarch butterflies didn’t exist here. The first couple of … Read more
Red Rocket Snapdragons
I’m looking through pictures of last summer’s glorious garden successes to comfort myself after seeing the devastation in our New Paltz community gardens, where all is lost after Hurricane Irene. The “Rocket” series of snapdragons come in red, pink, yellow, apricot, orchid … they are on long stems so make great cut flowers (don’t buy … Read more
Bulbs That Defy Critters
Soon (late September) you can start planting your bulbs for next spring’s enjoyment. My favorite supplier is BrentandBeckysbulbs.com. You won’t believe the variety available–it’s a real collector’s catalog–and the service is terrific and the prices reasonable. In the Hudson Valley, as in so many places, the deer, rabbits, and chipmunks love their bulb snacks–both the underground and … Read more
