August 2006

Today is the first day of autumn if you garden in a cold climate in the Northern Hemisphere, that is. Just as spring comes much later than the supposed first day of spring (the vernal equinox), so the first day of autumn comes much earlier than the first day of autumn (the autumnal equinox). You [...]

It's funny. What Rundy saw as futility, I see as preventing futility. There's an old garden maxim, "One year's seeding yields seven years' weeding." Well, the worst "weed" in this particular bed was one of the original flowers I planted here myself: Malva alcea 'Fastigiata', also known as hollyhock mallow. Wonderful pink flowers, and lots [...]

We all have our preferences in futility. I have at various times made different forms of this observation, but today it struck me again as I watched my Mom weed her flower garden. I wouldn’t do that, I thought. It wasn’t because I thought weeding was too hard–weeding is easy. It wasn’t because I hate [...]

The Minnesota Extension Service produces an informative newsletter called Yard & Garden Line News. Since all of Minnesota is in USDA hardiness zone 4 or lower, most, if not all of the information should be relevant to cold climate gardeners in North America, at the very least. I found a nice variety of topics in [...]

Back when I was first hunting down information on cold climate gardening on the internet, I came across a website called "My Adirondack Gardens." The Adirondacks, as you may know, can be quite cold, and the photos of the gardens were beautiful. But I was also frustrated, because that particular cold climate gardener never provided [...]

This spring, I had the most beautiful peonies in the world. I was especially taken with the foliage of 'Bev,' the one on the far right. It was a smoky purple. The flowers were spectacular, too, but I never managed to get a photograph this year. You can see them, here, though. One of the [...]