Judy Miller

While hunting up long-stemmed pansies instead of the flat pansy-colored blobs on offer nowdays in most catalogs, I came across enough re-naming of varieties to make my head swim. And enough 'Marketers Gone Bad' examples to make me laugh out loud. First, the re-naming: Bingos are now Matrix, Baby Bingos are Panache & Panolas, and [...]

hilarious to contemplate when it's 0 degrees F

I tell myself that's why I'm behind on the mowing, anyway.

I finally re-skinned the greenhouse today. Rather like changing a mammoth bed--old cover off, new one on. I had to do this because the plastic I got last fall turned out to be the kind that makes for perpetual rain inside the house. Disgusting and mildew-provoking, plus it causes wash-outs in pots. The cheapest plastic [...]

If you've ever ordered from Chiltern's, tried new basil or lettuce varieties from Europe, or have pretty hybrid plants from England in your garden (Verbascum 'Jackie', Heuchera 'Bressingham Hybrids', etc.)-------- you can forget about anything new. The USDA is slamming shut the borders on new plants. Maybe you're already aware of this. It is vital [...]

My mother and I have just done our fall pear canning, something we have done longer than I can remember, and I'm sure many other families in that house have done over the hundred years or so of the tree's life. I played under its branches as a toddler and climbed in it when in [...]

Just got a huge bag of lovely daffodils, 100 dn1 for $15. I should be able not only to finish the row along the side of the quonset barn but put in a row in the lavender field and share a bunch with Mom as well. A lady saw me loading them into the truck [...]

1. Oriental and asiatic. And species. Every form & color (except not the lollipop ones that look like little stop signs.) 2. Out here no-till means mega herbicide and slit seeding; not for me. I hand till the raised beds when I set them up and then renovate occasionally. Anyone telling you 'Nature doesn't till', [...]

Good link. But they neglect to mention that many antique roses are black spot resistant as well. I've never sprayed a rose for black spot, and my family has always grown roses. I'm under the impression that the tendency to black spot susceptiblity came into rose breeding with Chinas & thence into teas and then [...]