Let’s face it, a real joy of gardening comes from buying plants. However, consider taking cuttings from tried-and-true plants in your own garden or greenhouse. It’s a game of numbers. This replication allows you to design with large drifts of the same plant, or repeat certain plants in various containers in order to visually unite […]
Dahlias have become a very popular flower to grow in home gardens, but in New England the season for them is normally quite short. It’s best to plant dahlia tubers outdoors when the ground temperature is above 55oF (12oC), which for me in Rhode Island means not until late May or early June. So if […]
Paging through the annals of Hartley Botanic’s online magazine, I came upon the headline from a piece published nearly two decades ago, titled “Use winter to read up on gardening and greenhouse techniques”. It’s not an exhaustive piece of garden know-how but is a guide back in time to a couple of worthwhile books by […]
The other day, I joined my grandchildren’s outdoor school class as they visited a nearby, but remote, Oregon nursery, The Thyme Garden. To get there necessitated an hour-and-a-half car trip, part of it on roads that twisted over the side of Marys Peak, the tallest mountain in the Coast Range of the Siuslaw National Forest. […]
If you’re reading this column, chances are you’re one of those people whose greenhouse and garden are stuffed with memories, and you can recall vividly where and how each plant was acquires be it from a nursery, a pass-along plant from a friend, or raised from seeds collected on a vacation visit to an unforgettable […]
In the summer, and often in spring and fall too, I leave my greenhouse door open to keep the interior from overheating. If I were to keep the door closed on a sunny, mid-summer day, the temperature could easily soar to well over 100o F (38oC), wilting virtually everything inside. But leaving the door open […]
Spring is in the air on the western slopes of the Rockies, which means nights can still drop to 20 degrees F, but days are warm(ish). Yet our bluebird skies are scattered with fluffy white clouds, and we’re dreaming of gardens to come and greenhouses to fill. Our gardens beckon…as do the nurseries. Yesterday, I […]
Owning a greenhouse allows you to get an early start to growing your own flowering plants for hanging baskets and patio pots that can be set outdoors in summer. Among your choices are begonias. They come in a wide range of colors, thrive in warm weather, don’t require a great deal of water, have a […]
It’s seed starting time! Whether sowing vegetables or flowers, gardeners are anxious to get seeds going. But what happens when you carefully sow seeds out in your garden—or in flats in the greenhouse—and the plants don’t show up? This month I’m following the advice of Ed Hume and his son Jeff Hume. They head up […]
What can be better than going out to your garden, picking a few sun-warmed tomatoes and enjoying them for lunch or dinner? Tomatoes are the most popular garden plant grown in America, but do you know your determinate from your indeterminate? Your heirloom from your hybrid? Or why some tomatoes have VF, A, FF, or […]
Let’s say you’ve got your greenhouse. Now, let’s figure out the furnishings. Much depends on how you plan to use it. Is this the space where you will start your early vegetables? Is it going to be home to happy houseplants and your tender tropicals in the winter? Is it a light and bright extension […]
This is not about saving electricity, or about embracing solar power to illuminate our lives, but instead it about appreciating and enjoying darkness. Luxuriating in shadows, letting the stars and the moon be the radiance that punctures darkness ever so quietly. Especially in the greenhouse and the garden. I’ve been reading and absorbing a small […]
