How to Determine the Day in Your Area The gardener’s mantra in winter is, “how many days until the last frost?” But if you ask three gardeners you know what the last frost date is in your area, I’ll bet you get three different answers. That’s because determining “average” last frost is a lot like betting. Scientists can’t […]
Seed Starting Tips Are you insecure about seed starting? Or uncertain if your old seed is still good? The easiest, fastest way to germinate seeds is one actually developed by a scientist and involves a paper towel and a baggie. Not very hi-tech…but very reliable and easy. Dr. Norman Deno used this method to document […]
How To Make The Right Choice Yesterday was a glorious snow day. There was light fluffy snow falling steadily all day. It gathered about three inches on the car, but this morning, winds have reduced what’s on the ground to a rather negligible half inch. That great day of snow is going to amount to almost […]
Our Favorite Wildflower Seeds More color. More flowers. These are the most common requests I hear from clients and friends who have lovely gardens full of perennials but whose gardens at certain times of the year still look a bit too green. Annuals planted in large drifts or patches is an easy and very colorful answer. And with certain annuals, […]
How To Still Grow Outside It’s still too early to start seeds indoors in Colorado, but I’m yearning for fresh growing things instead of the brown stubble of winter that greets me outdoors. My growing space is an unheated solarium that dips down to 40 degrees at night but warms up to the 70s and […]
How To Dramatically Improve Your Gardening Space This is now the amazing third year I’ve written twice a week for this blog and I’ve heard the question before: how do you come up with ideas for so many posts? One answer is that I simply look at what I am doing in one of the […]
Winter Sowing to the Rescue! I remember when I first started gardening. As I recall, I went to the hardware store and bought three packets of seeds which I planted that afternoon. I’m not sure how I followed my lust for seeds until today when my saved and leftover seeds now require two shoe boxes….and that’s after I […]
Gardening is the New Meditation by Sandy Swegel Over the last few months, I’ve recommitted myself to a meditation practice. It’s a simple practice of Centering Prayer, sitting 20 minutes twice a day, although most days I’m lucky to manage one session. The fruits of a meditation practice (like those of a garden) come over time. […]
The Ins and Outs of Freezing Your Produce by Sandy Swegel The avid vegetable growers on my gardening email list have noted that alas, despite trying to plan well, their freezers and pantries are almost bare despite the fact that there’s still snow on the garden. We’re fortunate to live in times with well-stocked grocery stores. […]
Add a Pop of Color To Your Garden Every year, there’s one packet of seed I always spread. More important than tomatoes or basil, my two favorite vegetables, I never forget to sow a pack of poppies. I use the Parade of Poppies mix liberally in a couple of different areas…one is a long fifty foot long, […]
