From the category archives:

Garden chores

Choose locations to plant fall bulbs now

March 10, 2010

In January, the snowdrops in the Secret Garden looked like this:
This Sunday just passed–March 7th–those same snowdrops looked like this:
Such are the vagaries of an upstate New York winter. Since then, the temperatures have been mild and the sunshine brilliant, and the snow is receding. This, my fellow cold climate gardeners, is the best time [...]

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Planting Tulips, Part 2

November 11, 2009

Yesterday I told you how I finally realized species tulips planted in the peony bed would help to bridge the bloom gap of late spring. I got the tulips chosen and purchased, and now I’m going to show you how I planted them.
The Smartest Way to Plant 150 Tulip Bulbs
But first let’s talk about the [...]

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Planting Tulips, Part 1

November 10, 2009

After the snowdrops, after the crocuses, after the daffodils, there is just about nothing blooming in the front of the house until the June show of peonies, irises, and poppies. I have not been the first person to notice this bloom gap, not by a long shot, and the traditional recommendation is to plant tulips [...]

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One Chore Begets Another

October 5, 2009

Spent 2 hours cutting dead stuff down (mostly peony foliage), revealing weeds that will have to be pulled another day. Sigh.

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A Little Bit of Deadheading

July 31, 2009

Just deadheaded for 15 min. Long overdue & makes me feel better, even though it’s the tip of the iceberg

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All Annuals Planted Now

June 28, 2009

Planted 6 Henna coleus and the last 2 Mint Mocha coleus and Midnight Lace vine. All annuals finally in the ground. Weeding next.

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Planting Coreopis and Rearranged Heucheras

June 20, 2009

Planted Redshift coreopsis and rearranged some heucheras last night and weeded here and there. The coreopsis is a trial plant from Skagit Gardens. On the tag it looks like it has a maroon ring around the center, so I planted it near the purple smoke bush. But in the accompanying literature it is pictured with [...]

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Uncovered my ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangea

June 8, 2009

I finally uncovered my ‘Endless Summer’ and ‘Forever&Ever’ hydrangeas. I had discovered that dumping a bunch of dry leaves over them in the fall was sufficient to protect them from the erratic spring freezes that we have. The old branches help hold the mulch in place, and I cut them down in the spring when [...]

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More Annuals Planted and a Bit of Weeding

June 5, 2009

Planted 2 King Tut papyrus and 3 Augusta Blue Skies nierembergia, and weeded the front bed where I put the nierembergia.

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Pruning with a Reciprocating Saw

May 12, 2009

Use a reciprocating saw for your medium size pruning jobs

Carol’s done it. Mary Ann, the Idaho Gardener’s done it. So has Mr. McGregor’s Daughter and Cindy from My Corner of Katy and M Sinclair Stevens from Zanthan Gardens. They’ve all used a reciprocating saw to prune woody plants.
Not only have they pruned with a recip saw, they raved about how easy it made pruning. [...]

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Protecting Newly Transplanted Plants

April 28, 2009

Read about protecting your newly planted treasures from the weather

I bought this little Anemone nemorosa at the post-meeting plant sale at the Adirondack Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society in Ithaca, NY last Saturday. After doing a little research, and finding out it likes shade and woodsy soil, I planted it on the shady side of the house on Sunday evening. I [...]

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Seedling light stand cleanup

April 18, 2009

Finished reorganizing the seed stand. Culled all the broken flats. Organized the cell packs. All this for the master seed starter, not me. My eldest daughter does most of the seed starting. I taught her everything I knew, and she improved upon it. So I just get everything back in order after a winter of [...]

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