Last summer, I wrote two posts (here and here) on how to build a raised garden bed for a deck, based on the one created by my sister and her husband. They hosted a barbecue on the 4th of July this year, and I got a chance to see how the deck garden is doing in its second year. The…
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The ‘Spitfire’ nasturtiums I’m growing as part of the bloggers’ Seed GROW project have really taken off in this container area near my front door. I love nasturtiums for their big showy foliage, but these also have vibrant orange blooms that stand out in my otherwise green, pink, and purple garden. I planted the Spitfire nasturtiums in three different areas…
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Despite heat and humidity Saturday and intermittent storms Sunday, attendance at the Northfield Garden Tour was high this past weekend. I managed to visit four of the six gardens on the tour and came away with three great garden design ideas to apply at home. Mixing vegetables and flowers. Vegetables can be attractive, so why stick the vegetable garden in…
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It’s hard to imagine more than 40 years back when saving seeds was something only misers and old folks did, and heirlooms were special serving platters and diamond jewelry, not tomatoes and peppers. But it was in 1975 that Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy founded Seed Savers Exchange with two types of heirloom seeds passed on to Diane by…
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When do volunteer plants go from being a welcome volunteer in the garden to a dreaded weed? I remember the moment — early in my gardening life — when I discovered that if you left tomato fruits in the garden over winter, they might grow the next year. Amazement! Thrill! Whether the tomato grew to produce the same tomatoes it…
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