Pests, Plagues, and Varmints

One thing about an old house, there are lots of nooks and crannies for creatures to find their way in. It's a fact of life. Call it sharing habitat. While we try to minimize it, there is no way we can keep everything out, especially since our house is on a stacked stone foundation and [...]

This just came to my attention. Barbara Damrosch dishes the dirt about these rodents in A Game of Whack-a-Vole: No sentiment please. No matter how reverent we gardeners may feel about the web of life there are times when the list of predators must include you. We're on the same page, Barbara.

This is one of the better reasons for trimming back all your perennials in the fall. Less hidey-holes for the resident rodents. There are probably half a dozen of these holes in the Birthday Garden alone, and there are plenty in my other garden beds, too. Where's a feral cat when you need one? Or [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Michelle Owens is right. As soon as spring has sprung, I'm already behind. I used to think, "Oh, there'll be plenty of time for that later." This kind of thinking explains why I was always planting stunted seedlings in July. And then there's the climate. Discerning when mud season ends and spring really begins--well, that's [...]