mud_season

I've been fascinated with secret gardens ever since I read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. My favorite part is when Mary finds the key and enters the secret garden for the first time. My garden isn't very secret until the trees leaf out, but it still feels secluded and special. I'm in a different world when I'm there. Come join me!

Crocuses. I bet you think you know all about them, but I have some crocuses you've never heard of. And do you grow them in the lawn? Yes, squirrels eat them for some people, but not me. They are too busy eating the bird seed I put out for the birds. This is the third in my series about planting the earliest blooming bulbs where the snow melts first. Click over and read it!

Snowdrops are tied with winter aconites for the prize of very-first-bloom. They have become quite the "it" flower and single bulbs of rare cultivars can go for breathtaking prices. But save your breath and your pocketbook and invest in the varieties that multiply quickly, such as those described in my post. Buy a few and pretty soon you'll have enough to make a patch. And a patch will be visible from inside the house. Just sayin'. Click over to my blog and read all about them.

This spring has tested the hardiness of my hardy soul. I bet it's tested yours, too, especially if you live in the Northern Plains and parts east that were bombarded by "Winter Storm Xanto". In light of what my fellow cold climate gardeners are enduring, I'm not going to complain about my weather, which seems [...]

The earliest blooming flower in my garden is a snowdrop, Galanthus 'S. Arnott'. The earliest blooming wild flower is coltsfoot. But the earliest blooming native flower? For that, you have to look up. Way up. Because the earliest blooming native flower belongs to the red maple, Acer rubrum. I am always looking down at the [...]

Hello, dear readers! I'll be speaking on Creating A Cabin Fever Bed this Wednesday, September 16th for the Manchester Garden Club at the Manchester Community Library at 1 pm. Would love to see you there! If winter starts too early and spring doesn't come soon enough, if you find yourself pacing indoors and gazing out [...]

I actually like keeping records. I can get obsessive about it, and that has gotten me into trouble in the past. So last fall, when I was frantically planting out the plants I had kept in containers--some of them for two years--I left the documenting of that planting for "later," applauding myself for not getting [...]

Dear Friend and Gardener, I have learned through my online friendships with many garden bloggers that spring comes late to my part of the world. Friends around the country (and the world) speak of snowdrops blooming when mine are buried under snow, and show off their daffodils while I am waiting for my first crocuses [...]

You could be forgiven for mistaking coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) for a dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) from a distance, especially if you didn't know that coltsfoot is the earliest blooming wildflower in northeastern North America. Can you tell them apart when I put them next to each other? Furthermore, coltsfoot flowers bloom without any foliage at all. [...]