Even though I edit a garden magazine, I’m not an expert gardener. My mother has a green thumb, but I was not one of those gardeners forced to pick beans or hoe weeds as a child who cannot get gardening out of their blood. For years, I refused to have houseplants because I killed them so efficiently. As a young woman, I had a small community garden plot, which I neglected. Total harvest: Three yellow beans and a melon the size of a ping-pong ball.
The first home my husband and I owned had a mature lot with beautiful trees and a dozen or more hybrid tea roses. One-by-one, the roses died, but as I learned about gardening, we were able to grow asparagus, herbs, tomatoes and a big old-fashioned rose–Sir Thomas Lipton. It still towers over the fence in that yard.
I’ve moved on to a different house and garden now, and I am still learning about gardening. I’ve learned a lot since I started editing Northern Gardener magazine in 2005. This blog is an attempt to share what I’m learning with readers of the magazine and anyone else who gardens in the north.