June, Drink Your Veggies!
By Leslie Watkins It’s time to plant the vegetable garden. We don’t have a long growing season, but we do have some great choices when it comes to heirloom varieties. Heirloom vegetables often are more flavorful and nutritious than the grocery varieties. Those are primarily breed for uniform ripening, shipping convenience and shelf life. What we […]
May, Spring Remedies
By Leslie Watkins Root beer anyone? Not the sweet, syrupy concoction found on the grocery shelf, but the real deal a tonic made from the roots and bark of wild-sourced medicinals designed to kick start your engine in the spring. The herbal drink was traditionally made with sassafras by indigenous peoples of the Americas. Europeans […]
April, Happy as a Pig in Mud
By Leslie Watkins Mud season is that slippery, slimy time of year when winter melt starts from the surface and works its way down to produce sticky wet soil. Deep ruts in dirt roads can make them impassable and hikers are advised to stay on the trails, not the edges, to prevent further erosion. Not […]
March, Forcing the Issue
Through the Garden Gate By Leslie Watkins This time of year, most of us in the North have had about as much of snow, subzero temps and ice as we could want. For gardeners, it’s a good time to prune fruit trees and woody shrubs. If you are seriously done with winter, there are some steps […]
February, Planning a Garden
Through the Garden Gate By Leslie Watkins Winter is a wonderful time to plan and design a new garden. The stark landscape helps to envision the shapes and placement of plants, paths and views. If there’s enough snow on the ground you can thrust sticks into it to help delineate boundaries. Check out the views […]
December, Winter Greenery
By Leslie Watkins This year the astronomical first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere falls on Friday, December 21. We will experience about nine hours and 15 minutes of sunlight on this shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice. The word solstice comes from the Latin for “sol”, meaning sun and sistere, […]
November, Winter Is Coming
By Leslie Watkins Along with signs like the early migration of birds and butterflies, pigs collecting sticks and an abundance of acorns, banded woolly bear caterpillars are thought to forecast a long, cold winter when they sport a narrow band of orange and are especially fuzzy. Woolly bears hatch in the fall and eat […]
October, Thinking Ahead With Ornamental Bulbs
By Leslie Watkins Planting flower bulbs in the fall is like giving yourself a surprise present in the spring. Winter lasts just long enough to make it easy to forget exactly what and where you’ve planted. Squirrels and chipmunks add to the suspense by moving things around. No matter where the bulbs end up, […]
Through the Garden Date: September, Darling Dahlias
By Leslie Watkins Dahlias are among the darlings of the specialty cut-flower world. They are big, bold and beautiful in both gardens and arrangements, and if conditioned and cared for properly they will last five days or more in a vase. They are available in every color except blue, and flowers range in size […]
August, A Garden of Simples
Let thy kitchen be thy apothecary, and let foods be thy medicine. —Hippocrates By Leslie Watkins How nice to pinch a sprig of peppermint to add to your drink, or to collect basil and garlic from your garden for an impromptu pesto. Chives, parsley, and dill are wonderful plants to have close at hand to […]
