How to Keep Up Gardening in the Winter by Sandy Swegel Nothing like the first deeply freezing temperatures followed by a warm day to get people in Zone 5 areas asking if the gardening season is really over if they can still tackle their garden to do lists even though winter looms with Thanksgiving is […]
Collecting Holiday Decorations from Your Garden by Sandy Swegel I’m a big fan of multi-tasking so it’s natural that whenever there’s a garden chore to be done, I think about whether it might solve some other task that needs doing. In the Spring I schedule perennial weed digging so the roots can be thrown to […]
Collecting Fall Decor by Sandy Swegel One reason I first started gardening was so I could cut flowers to bring into the house or to bring as a gift to friends. Almost all the flowers are finished in Colorado so it’s time to be more creative. There’s still lots to do to bring nature beautifully […]
How to Repurpose Fall Leaves by Sandy Swegel Fall leaves are Nature’s parting gift from the growing season to the gardener. Tree roots run deep and wide and have collected minerals and nutrients from deep in the soil. These are nutrients that then spent the summer high in the sky at treetop collecting sun rays […]
A Tasty Garden Experiment by Sandy Swegel Do you like chili peppers? The plants are super easy to grow and tolerate a lot of droughts and benign neglect in the garden. The only problem I’ve ever had with peppers is that the seeds take forever to germinate. One year my seeds still hadn’t germinated for three […]
Use Your Own Intuition to Garden by Sandy Swegel Reading through all the garden porn…uh I mean seed catalogs…I found myself quite transported this morning. Looking at the beautiful pictures in the catalogs, I realized that when I considered getting seeds for a certain plant, my mind was quite filled with images of what the […]
Wildflower Seeds by Sandy Swegel At this time of year when we’re mired in cold and snow, I yearn for two delights of Spring: when the daffodils and tulips bloom and when the meadows burst with wildflowers. One thing about wildflowers though, especially in our suburban gardens. A few years after planting it seems that […]
Heirloom Vegetable Seeds by Sandy Swegel There are so many vegetables you can grow in your garden. If only there was enough time. If you have limited time or space for your garden, think about what is the best return on your investment of time and money as well as the best outcome of flavor […]
Why You Should be a Self-Taught Gardner by Sandy Swegel I garden and landscape for a living. I have accumulated a massive amount of information about the best ways to grow things, to take care of the soil, to encourage native plants and bees, etc. When I’m talking to people, they naturally assume I have […]
Seed Starting by Sandy Swegel Yes, most of the country has been caught up in a polar vortex. Snow and ice are on the ground and you, the gardener, are stuck with nothing to garden. There are still two flower seeds you can start outdoors now! Poppies and Calendula. A friend who has gardened “naturally” for […]
