Becoming a Stronger Tomato Grower It’s time to prune your tomatoes if you live in Zone 5 and almost time in Zone 6. Sure there are great recipes (and movies) for fried green tomatoes, but you and I both know we much prefer red tomatoes ripened by the sun. So it’s time to take your pruners out […]
Capturing the Beauty of Your Garden I’m enamored of projects you can do in 15 minutes. As my hero, Fly Lady (www.flylady.net) says, “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” She’s often referring to cleaning up or decluttering, but in my busy life, sometimes I need to schedule 15 minutes to do something artsy or […]
What To Do With Your Fallen Apples by Sandy Swegel While I continue to have a good supply of huge zucchini from the four zucchini plants my neighbor is growing, the bounty and surplus this year is from apples. Talk about a windfall. Day after day there are dozens of apples that fall on the ground […]
Saving Your Garden It’s August and hot, not the most fun time in the garden, but you’ve got to get your diseased and gnarly tomatoes out and EVICT all the diseased and dying stuff out of your garden. You’re not doing for this year’s produce…you’re doing to save your garden next year. In Colorado with […]
Keeping An Open Mind by Sandy Swegel I visited a garden yesterday tended by my friend Lou. Lou has gardened for other people for many years and the heavy shade garden I visited has lots of color despite being in shade and the fact that we’ve been in high temperature, drought conditions. As we walked around and […]
Checkout These Wild Pollinators by Sandy Swegel My friend and local pollinator expert Niki fretted greatly this Spring because there weren’t any bees in her yard. She grows her native plants and large vegetable gardens in her yard that is surrounded by typical perfect looking suburban lawns. Despite her pleas with neighbors, they maintain […]
Get to Know the World of Plants Back when I was a teenager, summer reading was all about pulp fiction and romantic novels, except for the summer when I read everything Arthur C. Clarke ever published. Now that I use podcasts for pulp novels and nonfiction, I can spend summer on eccentric or unusual new […]
We Can Forage! by Sandy Swegel Sometime every year mid-summer, when the weather is hot and the weeds so darn big, I start to think gardening is just dumb. Nature creates beautiful gardens all on her own without requiring WORK from me. Why do I garden? Why does anyone garden? Can’t we just go back to hunting […]
Mid-Season Garden Report Card How is your garden faring? by Sandy Swegel Here’s the report card for my garden. June had record high temperatures and little rainfall. Lots of extra watering helped, but plants don’t grow as well without natural rainfall. Lettuces and Spinach. The heat made them bolt early and they are all bitter or […]