From the monthly archives:

March 2006

Your first native plant book

March 28, 2006

If you want to learn more about the plants native to your area, a good place to start would be The New England Wild Flower Society Guide to Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada by William Cullina. He has done a good job creating a general reference work that can help [...]

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Homemade EarthBoxes(TM)

March 28, 2006

Thanks to Reading Dirt, here are instructions to make a Homemade EarthBox(TM), which is a type of self-watering planter.

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‘Tis the season for phenology

March 25, 2006

According to the UK Phenology Network, “phenology is the study of the times of recurring natural phenomena especially in relation to climate.” It’s something gardeners tend to practice at this time of the year, as we’re all anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring. (Well, us northern gardeners are still waiting, even if the rest of [...]

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Greengirl is Back!

March 24, 2006

Greengirl, the newbie gardener writing for a Minnesota newspaper, has started her 2006 gardening season. Actually, she can’t be labeled a “noob” anymore if this is her second season. She gets an awful lot of comments on some of her entries, and they are almost as much fun to read as her entries.

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Pondering Land Use

March 23, 2006

Question: What do you do with fifteen acres? Answer: That’s a good question! My family and I have been working on the answer for over fifteen years. This probably won’t surprise you, but we seldom come up with the same answer. I wanted the area immediately around the house to be devoted to ornamental landscaping. [...]

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Testing Seed Germination. . . what do you learn?

March 22, 2006

Not much.
As is my habit every spring, I test my seeds to see whether they’re still any good, or if I need to buy new ones. This is a very easy thing to do–you stick half a damp paper towel in a little plastic bag, drop in ten seeds (5 if you’re starting to run [...]

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Let’s Go Native!

March 15, 2006

If you live within a day trip of Syracuse, NY, you might be interested in the Spring Gardening Seminar hosted by The Men’s Garden Club of Syracuse and Phoenix Flower Farm. Entitled “Going Native,” it’s being held at the Craftsman Inn in Fayetteville, NY on April 1st. William Cullina, author of The New England Wild [...]

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Soil Survey Map

March 14, 2006

What kind of soil do you have? If you’ve gardened in the same spot for any length of time, you probably already have a pretty good idea. If you’re shopping around for a piece of property, especially if you’re new to to the area, knowing what the soil is like before you buy might help [...]

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Snowdrops!

March 12, 2006

This time of the year, it’s amazing what a difference a day can make. Thursday, snow on the ground. I couldn’t have taken these photos on Thursday because these plants were still buried under snow. Friday, snow had melted, but nothing had bloomed. Yesterday (Saturday) the sun was shining and I had snowdrops blooming in [...]

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Build a Garden Bench

March 10, 2006

There are lots of spots on our property that need a bench that don’t have one yet. The most I’ve done so far to rectify this is to collect plans for building garden benches. Yesterday I got the latest issue of Lowe’s self-published magazine, The Woodpost. (You can sign up here if you’re interested.) In [...]

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New York Gardening Books

March 7, 2006

Ralph Snodsmith lives in Suffern, NY. He worked for Cornell Cooperative Extension. I have no doubt that he is a knowledgable gardener. But this book reads more like an instruction manual for beginning gardeners than a regionally specific reference work. Sure, you’ll find a map of USDA Hardiness zones by county. Occasionally he makes [...]

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Bookend Snowstorms

March 5, 2006

On Thursday, March 2, we got 7 inches (18cm) of snow. Some of you are probably fainting in your chairs: “Seven inches of snow! In March!” but my cold climate readers are surely not surprised. Actually, in March, no weather is surprising, and there have been plenty of winters when we would be saying “thank [...]

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Garden Voices

March 4, 2006

I know at least some of you know about Garden Voices, because I can see in my stats that you’re coming from there. For those of you who haven’t yet gone there, you should. It is what is known as a reblog. It’s a website, started by GardenWeb (which is now owned by iVillage) that [...]

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