In case you missed last week’s column, I covered the basics of starting your own seedlings, beginning with containers, soil, and temperature. This week, we’ll continue with more tips and tools for starting your own seedlings because seedlings CAN talk; we just need to improve our listening skills. Now once seeds germinate and sprout their […]
It’s March. Now it’s time to get down to business, the business of starting seeds. Seed-starting is not only a timely topic—as people plan ahead for the growing season— but it’s
Have you ever noticed little ‘specks’ on your indoor plants? I’m talking orchids, spider plants, seedlings, hydroponic plants. Little specks? You know what I
Growing up in the rainy Pacific Northwest, spring and summer couldn’t come too quickly. I often tagged along with my mother on grocery shopping trips. As we wheeled the cart around the larger-than-life bins in the produce section, Mom would
Mom struggled with mental illness most of her adult life. Here was a woman who graduated in three years from Stanford University and binged on beef bouillon for weeks. She mastered the art of
Are you up for a celebration? If that’s a yes, then grab your calendar, locate February 21 and
Did you know that more flowers are sold on Valentine’s Day than any other U.S. holiday? When it comes to buying and keeping cut flowers fresh there are a couple of tricks
Sweet or savory? Most every evening, Marty and I discuss this topic. Translated, it means, “Shall we do a sweet or savory breakfast tomorrow?”
Now that we’re well into winter, have you ever wondered how to compost during the winter, even if you don’t have compost bins or
Last week’s assault on our nation’s Capitol by an angry mob left me feeling shocked, ashamed, and sad. For a time I, like many people, was glued to their TV sets, radios, or devices. But before long
Snow does more than brighten the landscape and encourage us to prepare for spring gardening. Snow can yield some great benefits to your soil. How’s that?
Across the nation, gardening grew by leaps and bounds in 2020. And it’s not slowing down. In fact, more than 20 million new growers picked up the trowel and pitchfork in response to the pandemic. The good news is
At the beginning of 2020, gardening was well, gardening. But these days, it’s been embraced as part of the “new normal”. I’d go so far as to say that gardening has actually become a new mandate for
I’m teaching myself how to play a 26-string harp. It’s a challenge and it’s not always pretty: My fingers aren’t as young and nimble as they used to be and I’m learning how to read music at the same time. But as the 2020 Christmas season grew near, I asked myself, what song would have
For today’s column, I dipped into my archives, mostly out of curiosity to see what I was writing about back in 2000. “Holidays are a time of joy,” I wrote, “but they can are also a time of stress.” Well, duh.
Greetings from Kodiak, Alaska. I’d like you to meet my friend Lucile. She would have been 105 years old this November. Local gardeners knew her as “Luc.” She didn’t just grow and nurture flowers, she
When I think of holiday dinners of my youth, two things come to mind: Oyster casserole (topped with crushed Saltines) and a jiggling red tower of cranberry sauce. I followed the example set by the grownups and loaded my fork with what looked like an oyster and, with extreme