January 2005

"Darwinian Gardening: Like everything else, gardening works best if you know yourself. If you are aware that you tend to be disorganized and inattentive, plan a garden that can accommodate this. Choose flowers that can survive a little abuse and neglect. If a flower can't live where you planted it, it didn't belong in your [...]

Just discovered Frog Hollow by following the link on a comment Gabrielle Adams made at Horticultural. Gabrielle's blog covers a wide range of topics, so for my maiden voyage I chose the Gardening category. Well, you know, any gardener that can actually write about what's in bloom in the garden in January provokes a twinge [...]

Just learned via A Gardener's Notebook of this online tree identification applet. It basically works like a botanical key, so you need a twig with leaves right in front of you to really take advantage of it. On the other hand, you don't have to keep your fingers marking three different spots in a field [...]

But I did organize them today, as part of a labeling project that started when my dear sister Kathleen sent me a long desired label maker for my 40th birthday. My sick 4 year old son got even bigger thrills making labels, and so the cupboards were thrown open and the labelling began. I would [...]

Ah, just what I've been waiting for. Doug Welch has posted a picture of his first daffodils for this year. But I'd like to know where our Texas gardeners are. Usually by now Zanthan Gardens has narcissus up. I know I have just about swooned over her photos of narcissus in past years. So good [...]

This morning it got so cold my wireless min-max thermometer couldn't record the temperature. It bottoms out at -22 degrees F, but all I know is it got colder than that. I am adding the following to my collection of garden quotes: "When you’re hanging on by a thread, identify that thread and do all [...]

Thanks to Don of Hands in the Dirt, I learned of The Garden State. Yes, gardening is a state of mind, but it's also what New Jersey likes to call itself, and what Suzette quite aptly decided to name her blog. A serious gardener who doesn't take herself too seriously, she manages to work " [...]

"Only I, who live in the tropic of fancy, could be under the apocalypse of snow and ice that is Iowa and not admit that winter really exists." --Tender Dirt

My previous post on this subject elicited several comments from family and friends to the effect, "What is so bad about cortisone shots?" This site discusses some of the possible drawbacks to cortisone shots, as well as their benefits. I found this balanced view reassuring. I also realized I had overcome my fear and dislike [...]