From the monthly archives:

September 2006

What the hay?

September 29, 2006

Often gardeners are encouraged to mulch with straw, especially for food crops like, um, strawberries. Too often, the gardener, severed from his or her agricultural roots, mulches with hay instead. In Missed stacks and mistakes: distinguishing between hay and straw and other heaps, Alan Ritch explains the difference:
Hay, of course, is fodder for the animals; [...]

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Will the real colchicums please stand up?

September 26, 2006

When I was growing up, there was a game show on tv called “To Tell the Truth.” The various contestants tried to trick the game show panelists into thinking they were the true zoo veterinarian or whatever weird occupation was featured that day.
Sometimes I think my colchicums are trying the same trick on me. Oh, [...]

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No, the other Dirt Divas

September 22, 2006

I was catching up on a few garden blogs when I happened upon a comment from one Brooke, who alluded to gardening in Alaska. Oh, goody, thinks I, another cold climate gardener. Once I get there, I realize she’s Dirt Diva One at Dirt Divas Gardening. Huh? I thought the Dirt Divas were down in [...]

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My miracle flower

September 19, 2006

Colchicums as a whole are pretty miraculous, emerging from out of nowhere and blooming without leaves, but this particular variety (Colchicum agrippinum) takes the cake. I planted it in autumn of 2004. It didn’t bloom then, and it failed to send up leaves in 2005. Not surprisingly, it didn’t bloom in 2005, either. When [...]

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Wicked Beauty

September 16, 2006

Isn’t this a stunning specimen of Polygonum cuspidatum? The generous rainfall we’ve had this season has brought it into top form. Too bad it’s on America’s Most Wanted list. Yes, this is Japanese knotweed, aka Japanese bamboo, Mexican bamboo, fleeceflower, and Fallopia japonica. (I’ve been told that it’s also known as privy weed, but I [...]

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Autumn Mornings

September 10, 2006

Autumn mornings here are foggy. It seems, on first glance, that we are in for another cloudy day. A consultation with online weather reveals that it’s supposed to be clear. Then you realize that the hillside across the street is shrouded in mystery.
By ten o’clock the fog will have burned away and the day [...]

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The Wedding Gift

September 9, 2006

Some plants are bold. They would like nothing better than to be planted in the middle of the garden, flailing their leaves, emitting impossibly sweet fragrances. Others are more secretive, more sinister, skulking in dark places and hidden ways, hoping to be overlooked by humans while they continue with their mystifying activities. And then there [...]

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A Dry Summer Means Lawn Repair

September 9, 2006

Okay, I am not big into lawns. We ourselves have what Ken Druse calls a “cropped meadow.” But to each his own. If you were affected by this summer’s drought, and your lawn has seen better days (or years), go read Yard & Garden Line News, published by the Minnesota Cooperative Extension, for some good [...]

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On a Whim, I Left It In

September 8, 2006

There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t.–Robert Benchley
When it comes to gardening, there are two kinds of weeders in the world, those who say, “When in doubt, yank it out,” and those who “On a whim, leave [...]

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Winter Reading, Courtesy Google

September 7, 2006

Carol of May Dreams Gardens made a wonderful discovery. Google has made several old gardening books in the public domain available for download. This sounds like a great project for the winter, once the seed and plant catalogs have been thoroughly marked up. The quotes she pulled from various books certainly make them sound [...]

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Is it? Could it be . . . Poison Ivy?

September 6, 2006

It was April. I had just come back from a cabin-fever-induced tramp over our field and through our woods. I had noticed this red-leafed vine growing all over:If our field is 5 acres, then this was easily growing on two acres of it. It lined the main walking path and carpeted the ground near my [...]

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Podcasts? Vlogs? Huh?

September 5, 2006

If you feel proud of yourself for learning to upload a photo or adding a few items to your sidebar, you might not be aware of what’s up-and-coming in the blogging world. Even if those two tricks have been in your repertoire for a long time, you may, like me, have been too busy to [...]

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Garden Blog Pioneers, Part 9

September 4, 2006

This is the ninth part in a series about the early days of garden blogging, written to commemorate my four years as a garden blogger. For those just joining us, the the names of the respondents to my email questions, and links to their respective blogs, can be found at the end of this entry. [...]

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