It pains me to admit it, but for once my sister is right. I am becoming wimpy in my old age. When I was growing up in a snowy slice of New York State, 30 miles east of Buffalo, it […]
Desperation
The Backyard Different thinking for container gardening
There are many great containers that are useful for container gardening. Plastic being the fastest to manufacture, the cheapest to purchase, many colours available to suit everyone’s tastes and easiest to handle makes it the most popular choice. The second […]
Celsia – Perennial Plant, How to grow
How to grow Celsia (sel-se-a) Commemorating the famous theologian and botanist Olaf Celsius of Upsala (Scrophulariaceae). A genus of perennials and biennials treated as half-hardy annuals. They have tall spikes of yellow flowers in summer and look not unlike mulleins […]
Greenfingers – The Movie
A SHORT SYNOPSIS OF “GREENFINGERS” The beauty and delicacy of a flower seem a sharp contrast to the rough exterior of a prison inmate. Yet these two images are exactly what writer/director Joel Hershman brings together in “Greenfingers,” […]
Centranthus – Perennial Plant, How to grow
How to grow Centranthus (ken-tran-thus) From the Greek kentron, a spur, anthos, a flower, alluding to the shape of the flower (Valerianaceae). A small genus of annuals and perennials, natives of Europe and the Mediterranean area. The hardy herbaceous perennial, […]
Carnation: For Greenhouse and Outdoors
Fragrant Flowers for Cutting and Garden Decoration Carnations in all their various forms are generally considered to be derivatives of Dianthus Caryophyllus, although the origin of some is not entirely clear. In North America, when referring to Carnations we immediately […]
Groundcovers are the true workhorses of a garden
There are not many plants that can be truly called a workhorse in a garden, yet many groundcovers are exactly that. Once established, they require no care, instead providing a large, weed-free mat of their vegetation and flowers. The choices […]
Gardenese – a gardener’s primer (gardening phrases)
The other day I was in the dentist’s office reading a gardening magazine where I came across the word “ubiquitous” to describe silver lace vine (Polygonum aubertii). Webster’s helped me out with that one. It means present everywhere at the […]
How to fertilize plants
Under natural conditions plants feed themselves. Water makes up 80 to 90% of their weight, and the assimilation of carbon dioxide from the air provides a high proportion of the rest of the tissue material. Three elements only—carbon, hydrogen and […]
All-American Vegtable Selection
When filling out your seed orders this winter, you may want to include some of the new vegetable varieties for 2002. This year five vegetables–two pumpkins, a winter squash, a slicing cucumber, and a sweet basil–were chosen as All-America Selections […]