letters from the wilderness
Spring is the time of new beginnings. Amidst the growing uncertainty of rising prices, diplomatic crises, and the pain and suffering here and abroad, I'm taking a pause to see what's greening in my garden. Camellia We have 2 Camellias next to the kitchen window. Last year, they had a scale infestation, probably because of... Continue Reading →
Thanks to warmer temperatures this week, I've been preparing the outdoor beds for spring. Though a week behind, I planted many snap peas and a few sweet peas. I need to pick up more sweet pea seeds this weekend. Anyhoo, I'm still getting accustomed to planting snap peas in mid-February instead of mid-March like I... Continue Reading →
I am developing an amaryllis collection. I need to share some and find a permanent solution for growing them inside my home. I have 13 bulbs for 3 or 4 years, maybe longer for 2 or 3 of them. I tried throwing several that looked dead in my compost pile, and they rose from the... Continue Reading →
Late last year, work crews came through and dug up large sections of our thyme bed to put in fiber optic. We were NOT happy about the digging. They probably destroyed close to a $1,000 worth of plants, bulbs, and soil. The area is covered in straw and grass seed courtesy of the work crew,... Continue Reading →
I'm trying something new this winter - growing black cherry tomatoes indoors in my basement greenhouse. To this date, the only expenditure in this experiment is electricity and a few plant supports. Everything else was already purchased or recycled. As I mentioned in my frugal Friday post, I transplanted my tomato seedlings this week into... Continue Reading →
A few days late.... Grow cuttings from the garden for next year - I've been having some success starting cuttings from my garden for next year. Generally, I dip the cutting in rooting hormone and pop it into the soil. I saved the containers from plants I purchased this year to use for this purpose.... Continue Reading →
I'm back! My schedule got a little crazy, and then we did a 24-hour visit to see our 2 sons in Pennsylvania. October Unprocessed - I set a goal of making stuff from scratch AND using up old ingredients. One item I'm using up is chia seeds purchased from Giant way back when. I toss... Continue Reading →
After my Amaryllis bulbs bloomed last winter, I tried pollinating the flowers to produce seeds. I was successful in producing seeds and getting those seeds to grow! Once the seeds began growing in water, I put them in potting soil in recycled plant containers from Home Depot and Lowes. I decided to use potting soil... Continue Reading →
Yesterday, we took a break from our usual weekend gardening projects and visited Reedy Farm in Monroe, VA for their Open Garden Day. It was the perfect day! I had forgotten how much I love daylilies, maybe because the deer like them, too. In Pennsylvania, we only grew the common orange daylilies that grow like... Continue Reading →
This will be the first of several updates. After starting this post, I made additional changes. Such is gardening life. First of all, I decided the netting on the crop cages was too dense for sunlight, not to mention pollinators. However, I still had the deer issue to consider. I removed the netting and switched... Continue Reading →
2 dogs and a house 