letters from the wilderness
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 →
May was a lot. Lots of stuff going on in our family including losing a young cousin who could have been an Olympic hopeful; he was that good. For therapy, I spent a lot of time in the garden which I'll be sharing about here. First of all, the mother of all digs. Behold the... Continue Reading →
While my husband dug up the roots of the trees we had removed last fall, I started working on our fountain. When we moved in a few years ago, the fountain didn’t appear to be operational. The top piece had broken off. The bottom part was filled with irises and leaves. Last summer I moved... Continue Reading →
While I've been quiet here, I've been very busy in the garden. Some projects, some planting, some setting up new things for future plans. One of my favorite plants is geraniums. When I was a little girl, I was given a book about Carl Larsson, a Swedish painter. The paintings in the book focused on... Continue Reading →
One of the projects I've been working on this spring is the drainage issue for our yard. All of the gutters go into the ground where black plastic pipe carries the water away from the house. Two areas where these underground black pipes drain down hill are a bit of a mess. Unfortunately, we have... Continue Reading →
One thing I had in abundance in my Pennsylvania garden was beneficial insects. Ladybugs, praying mantises, spiders, dragonflies, bees, earthworms, you name it, we had it in our 1/4 acre yard. When I first started gardening, I didn't plant to attract bugs. But, as I learned more about organic gardening, I started planting to get... Continue Reading →
Recently I decided to try growing my own amaryllis from seed. Thanks to advice from a friend, I pollinated the amaryllis I bought at Home Depot after Christmas for half price. Then I waited and watched. I saw these bulbs begin to swell on 4 plants. If the bulbs continued to increase in size beyond... Continue Reading →
This past winter, I decided to try winter sowing. I have lots of beds to fill, and I also wanted to get back into vegetable gardening in our new home. Putting plants in can be an expensive proposition. I wanted to get the most bang for my buck by doing traditional indoor sowing and winter... Continue Reading →
In the morning before the kids get up for school, my hubby and I hang out in the living room drinking our coffee. He watches Northern Exposure while I surf Pinterest looking for ways to protect my plants from marauding deer or improve heavy clay soil. In one of my searches, I ran across ways... Continue Reading →
Last fall, we had extensive tree work done on our property and kept the woodchips for our flower beds. The same company returned 2 weeks ago with more free woodchips which I've been spreading around the yard. I took advantage of the windfall to start a rain garden. But first, a brief tour of my... Continue Reading →
2 dogs and a house 