cold-climate-gardening

Cold Climate Gardening Books: New Titles

– Posted in: Book reviews

Here are four gardening books where you don't have to worry if the plants will survive the winter, you don't have to mentally adjust the planting or maintenance schedule, and you'll usually get a few tips on overcoming some of our climates challenges. In other words, books for cold climate gardeners! Plus a link to the big book roundup I did a few years ago.

Mow Your Leaves and Pamper Your Plants

– Posted in: Garden chores

We are blessed to have a couple of hundred-year-old trees in our front yard. For the past two years, I have asked the family member in charge of mowing the front yard to use the bag attachment on the lawn mower for the final mowing, so that the leaves are shredded and collected by the [...]

How to Fortify Your Roses Against the Cold

– Posted in: Roses

Jack Falker is a rose enthusiast who gardens in Minnesota. Minnesota--in case you don't have the USDA Hardiness Map memorized--is entirely a cold climate state, consisting of Zone 3 and 4. (Okay, there is a teeny bit of Zone 5 in the most recent map, but still.) One can't grow roses in Minnesota without knowing [...]

Cold Climate Gardening in Franklin, NY

– Posted in: Events

Franklin, NY, a gathering spot for passionate cold climate gardeners: who knew? Deborah Banks, a frequent commenter on CCG, knew. She is a member of the Franklin Garden Club, and one of the organizers of a series of garden lectures held over the course of this spring. She invited me to see her garden and [...]

The Backyard Parables: Book Review

– Posted in: Book reviews

"A writer who gardens is sooner or later going to write a book about the subject," opined Eleanor Perenyi. Certainly there is a meditative aspect to many gardening chores that lends itself to interior dialogue. I have had conversations with myself, or with a faraway friend, as I was pulling weeds or raking leaves, "speaking" [...]