Category Archives: Annual Color

Pots & Troughs For Aging Knees

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Where soil is tired and compacted, troughs are a boon When The Third Time Is Not The Charm I recently visited a little garden that was both bare and overgrown, with scrupulously raked beds and struggling shrubs and trees leaning … Continue reading

Posted in Annual Color, Birds In The Garden, Care & Feeding, Drainage, Easy Care Perennials, Edible Flowers, Garden Design, Garden Prep, Hardy Herbs, Health & Wellbeing, Pollination Gardens, Soil, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Stay Strong, Eat Real Honey

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Avoid adulterated honey; buy local! Calming And Decluttering Like so many people, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and battered by the news lately. If breaking news is breaking your spirit, take a break and focus on something positive. While reading through … Continue reading

Posted in Annual Color, Butterfly Gardens, Care & Feeding, Garden Prep, Gardening With Children, Health & Wellbeing, Nutrition, pests and pesticides, Plant Diversity, Pollination Gardens, Pollinators, Recipes, Social Justice, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Harvesting & Heading For Autumn

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If the tomatoes are ambling, nectarines and peaches, plums and blackberries are all racing from garden to table. Neighbors have gifted us with enough to make lots of jam and desserts, but I’m also making large supplies of fruit vinegars. Delicious in dressings or drizzled over sliced avocados or watermelon, tomatoes or lettuce, homemade fruit vinegars also make excellent shrubs, combinations of vinegars and fizzy water that can be further concocted into mixed drinks. Making them at home, you can avoid the cloying over-sweetness of commercial kinds, and it’s rewarding to combine fruits, or add spices or anything else that strikes your fancy. Around here, the top favorites include a single kind of fruit with the addition of a vanilla bean, cracked peppercorns, lemon peel, or even a cinnamon stick. Here’s the basic recipe and a few favorite variations to play with, but I encourage you to start with cider vinegar, which tastes and carries flavors far better than white vinegar (too harsh) or rice vinegar (too mild). Continue reading

Posted in Annual Color, Care & Feeding, Climate Change, composting, fall/winter crops, Gardening With Children, Health & Wellbeing, Planting & Transplanting, Pollinators, Recipes, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living, Teaching Gardening, Vegan Recipes | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Refreshing The Garden

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Image by Robin Cushman Boosting Summer Color After the first ebullient rush of spring color melds into summer beauty, many gardens experience a few hiccups along the way. The best way to avoid color gaps is to make the rounds … Continue reading

Posted in Annual Color, Care & Feeding, Drainage, Easy Care Perennials, Health & Wellbeing, Pruning, Soil, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments