From the category archives:

Native/Invasive

The brown marmorated stink bug

March 11, 2007

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 [...]

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Central and Upstate NY Horticultural Events

February 17, 2007

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 calendar [...]

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Kathy’s Autumn Picture Show

October 21, 2006

Sunday, October 8th, was a gorgeous autumn day, sunny and warm. I decided to go up the hill for a walk in the woods, camera in hand, and you get to share the results. (Be forewarned: this is an even longer than usual post.) But first, a little bit about where we’re going. Our family [...]

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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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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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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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August is yellow

August 15, 2006

The fields surrounding my house are turning yellow and I know it must be August. I experience the passing of the seasons by what plants are coming into bloom and now it is the goldenrods’ turn. Familiarity can bring indifference and my neighbors often ignore the flowers but I cannot. I can find at least [...]

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Mother’s Day Mustard Pull

May 14, 2006

The next time I doubt the depth of my gardening devotion, remind me that one of the very best Mother’s Days I ever had was spending the entire afternoon pulling garlic mustard out of the Secret Garden with my younger sons. In case you aren’t familiar with it, garlic mustard is a very invasive plant [...]

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Native Plants This Spring

May 14, 2006

May is always a busy month, what with birthdays (3 this month), Mother’s Day, a garden going to weeds, and homeschooling paperwork, but this past week had additional expected and unexpected busy-ness. It’s very easy to miss the spring ephemerals if you’re not careful. I know, because I’ve done it before. And if you go [...]

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Bending the Rules, Planting Shrubs

April 16, 2006

When we last left our gardener, she had just received her Fedco shrub order, shortly after removing one and a half pounds of dock root from the spot where she wanted to plant her Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer.’
Have you ever had a gardening project turn into a Project? Heh. If you’ve been gardening any length of [...]

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Your first native plant book

March 28, 2006

If you want to learn more about the plants native to your area, a good place to start would be The New England Wild Flower Society Guide to Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada by William Cullina. He has done a good job creating a general reference work that can help [...]

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Pondering Land Use

March 23, 2006

Question: What do you do with fifteen acres? Answer: That’s a good question! My family and I have been working on the answer for over fifteen years. This probably won’t surprise you, but we seldom come up with the same answer. I wanted the area immediately around the house to be devoted to ornamental landscaping. [...]

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