I enjoy visiting gardens while on vacation, but you can visit many gardens from the comfort of home through books, web sites, and DVDs. This Christmas, the man in my life gave me a trip to the gardens of Jane Austen through a just-released book by Wisconsin writer Kim Wilson. I’m a minor Jane-ite (as Austen fans are called) and…
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With the basics of container design in mind (see previous post), I set up shop in the mudroom and gathered the equipment and materials for making a holiday container. These included: the pot filled to within 2 inches of the top with compost, four kinds of greens, three decorative things that are pretty and not green (in my case, red-twig…
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I’ve always been in awe of people who are just naturally visual, who can pick the perfect color for an outfit or a room or place a knock-out plant in just the right spot in the garden. I need more guidance than that, so when I was interviewing floral designers about holiday containers for a recent issue of Northern Gardener,…
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I suspect my sister, Suzy, is among the many holiday hostesses looking at a leafy, lovely poinsettia this morning and wondering, how do I take care of this? I bought several of the gorgeous poinsettias being sold by the Northfield High School choir recently and gave a big, white one to Suzy, who hosted 26 family and friends at Thanksgiving…
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What follows: A rambling discourse written over several days about dried beans, home gardens, and the creative impulse. I was honored when this essay received a Silver Award for electronic writing from GWA: The Association for Garden Communicators. The Cherokee Trail of Tears beans I planted this summer tasted great green, but also can be used as a dried bean….
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