February 2007

Picture yourself in a boat on a river, With tangerine trees and marmalade skies I grew up during the Beatles era and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" has always been a fave in my top five. From the start, there was speculation that psychedelic drugs influenced John Lennon when he wrote the dreamy, trippy [...]

Not the Valentines Day love-in I was expecting, this was a storm for the record books. Under a state of emergency all day and through the night, my county was closed down and everyone was told to stay off the roads. When it was over the snow totals came in. My little, almost unknown, town [...]

Brave the snow, get out of the house, and learn something new! Here are some gardener-worthy events coming up in my neck of the woods. "CNY Blooms" --Spring 2007 will sprout up before you know it, and with it the blossoming of Syracuse's flower and garden show, now known as "CNY Blooms". Mark your planting [...]

Thanks to an eclectic garden, I learned about Value Seeds. This reminds me of Edward Hamilton Books, my favorite place to shop for gardening books. Someone else's castoffs, but still good quality, one price for shipping no matter how much you buy, get-it-before-it's-gone selection, and very low prices. I haven't ordered from them myself, but [...]

By 9 a.m. this morning about 8 inches of snow had fallen, and the weather service predicts

Snow will continue right into this evening... heavy at times.

Quite a while back I cast aspersions on the ability of a southerner to write a book about northern gardening. I take it back. Felder Rushing has done an excellent job writing Tough Plants for Northern Gardens: Low Care, No Care, Tried and True Winners. Mr. Rushing, sir, I apologize. Turns out the man has [...]

In my series on Garden Blog Pioneers, I reported in the final part that Notes From Zone 4 was MIA. Well, they're back. If you ever had doubts that a cold climate garden could look good, take one look at their banner image and doubt no more. Then, appetite whetted, browse through their gallery. A [...]

It's great fun to compose wishlists of seeds to try and plants to grow, but, you know, you have to put those plants somewhere. Figuring out where to put them is called the design process. I've come across two books lately that help. The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer by Stephanie Cohen and Nancy J. Ondra [...]

I just want you to know I am continuing my resolve to get stronger for gardening. You got that right--it's not spring training, it's training for spring!