Gardening Tips by Sandy Swegel Wild arugula is my favorite spring green of the week and this year it’s the first thing I’ve seeded out into the garden during our warm spell. Similar to regular arugula, wild arugula has a “wilder” taste and thinner leaf. It looks quite like a mustard weed when young if […]
Wildflower Seeds by Sandy Swegel It’s looking good this year. Most of us are still languishing in winter, looking for signs of crocus sprouting or swelling buds on trees, but the deserts of the US are ramping up for their big annual show. When wildflower lovers need a dose of Spring, they don’t go to […]
by Sandy Swegel Now that’s the kind of advice I like to hear from a scientific study. Yesterday someone served me some organic “wild” blueberries (Woodstock brand, frozen) and I was immediately smitten with the intensely delicious flavor of these half-size berries. I’ve been eating more blueberries lately for health reasons…good antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, protective against […]
Wildflower Seeds by Sandy Swegel I love blue flowers so naturally I am enthused about our new “Blue Blazes” collection of seeds for eight different blue wildflowers. What really caught my attention is a little flower I’ve never seen growing that now I just have to have. Nemophila maculata is white with single blue-purple spots […]
All About Chickadees by Sandy Swegel Chickadees are out and about on warm winter days. They are the tiny white birds with black heads that are flittering and chirping vocally on sunny January days. I often see them in the top branches of evergreens. Chickadees are small birds that don’t migrate but hunker down in […]
Gift Ideas by Sandy Swegel There’s something about winter coming on that sparks the desire to garden. Suddenly we think of all the things we wish we had grown. Or we remember how nice it was to always have a vegetable or flower bouquet to give away. And now what. We want to grow and […]
Cover Crop Seeds by Sandy Swegel It’s still unseasonably warm in many parts of the country. Most but not all leaves have fallen. Tomatoes are miraculously still ripening…there won’t be many green tomatoes this year. But the easiest crop of all can be planted very quickly if you haven’t gotten it in the ground yet. […]
Gardening Tips by Sandy Swegel Unseasonably warm weather means I finally had time to get some more bulbs planted this week. It has been warm and sunny this fall but I didn’t fully realize how drought had snuck up on us until I went to dig the deep holes for the daffodils. In decent garden […]
Cover Crop Seeds by Sandy Swegel It’s that time of year when I nominate plants for this year’s Garden Awards. All Fall I’ve been admiring one plant that is a “crossover” plant able to be a contender in both the “Tough and able to handle the absolute worst soil and little water” category AND […]
Noticing Nature by Sandy Swegel Traffic jams and Mother Nature conspired yesterday to make me notice. I had to get to work early and as I reached the top of a hill I could see the traffic on the single highway was at a dead stop for miles. In my hurry that day I had […]