Decorating Your Garden by Sandy Swegel The snow is still deep. Temperatures still below ten degrees. Seeds are ordered. Poppies and wildflowers were strewn on last week’s snow. Garden magazines are read. It’s starting to get hard to occupy the impatient gardener. My irritation with being bored is at about the same level as my […]
Winter Garden Treasures by Sandy Swegel Oh, Look. More Snow in the forecast. I’m trying to be a grateful gardener. Really, I am. I watch the weekend forecast for yet more snow and utter to myself, “Oh, it’s good. We need the moisture.” I squint to see if daffodil shoots can push their way through […]
How to Survive Winter by Sandy Swegel Oh my, what a winter. In Colorado we haven’t suffered like the Northeast has…just last week we had five glorious warm sunny days in which I cut back grasses, pruned dormant trees, and started some cleanup. Alas, today, there’s eight inches of snow on top the fence and […]
Bee Love by Sandy Swegel Nothing like Valentine’s Day to make us think about who and what we love. If we look at the huge number of Facebook “likes” we get when Mike posts about bees or wildflowers, we know our followers have a special love for wildflowers and for the bees and other pollinators […]
Indoor and Outdoor Gardening Ideas by Sandy Swegel Seeking solace from Winter and brown landscapes, I headed to the Denver Botanic Gardens yesterday. They have turned all their indoor spaces into a grand orchid show with orchids in the conservatory, orchids in hallways, and orchids tucked into every nook and cranny. A perfect winter escape. […]
How to Quickly Prepare for Spring by Sandy Swegel Even in snowy Colorado, signs of Spring are showing up. The landscape is mostly brown, but on the warm side of rocks, weeds are greening up. Who knew how happy I could get watching a weed grow! Wednesday we had five inches of snow and Thursday […]
Mini-Sweet Bell Peppers by Sandy Swegel One of the new seeds we’re carrying this year ranks number one on my cute food meter and in my top three best and fastest cute appetizers. This wonder food? The little mini-sweet bell peppers sold in grocery stores in mixed bags of red, yellow and orange. They are […]
Finding Inspiration from Others by Sandy Swegel When I was 13, I was invited to my schools’ first grownup boy-girl party. In the days before cheap clothes came from China, having the right dress could be a very expensive proposition. My mother’s thrifty response is something I remember vividly…we went to the fanciest dress shop […]
Daisy Love by Sandy Swegel Every January in the middle of some snowstorm, I find a good reason to wander the BBB Seed warehouse to marvel (and covet) huge sacks of seeds waiting to be sorted into packets. There are big sacks of grasses and tiny bags of rare alpine wildflowers. I noticed this year […]
Food Recycling Tips by Sandy Swegel Winter is going on and on. One day of sun and ice melt is followed by three days of cold and snow. I’ve been cooking a lot, trying to meet my need for gardening by preparing great food. One of the best things about cooking, from a gardener’s perspective, […]
