It's that time of year again when the leaves are changing and the garage begins to look like doomsday preppers live here. My husband complains about it and I anticipated his reaction when he came home a few nights ago to find his garage workbench temporarily "altered." Not only has it been wiped clean and the empty chip bags disposed of, but it now has everything I need to keep my houseplants alive through the winter, namely water. In my experience, especially for a man motivated by food, having a good meal waiting on the day I begin infiltrating his man space is an excellent diversion. I've become a pretty good cook. His basement workshop has been "altered" as well. He's chosen to accept it in the same way he begrudgingly accepts that he'll lose a little turf to my garden each year. In ...
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Perennial Hibiscus: Bridging the Gap Between Summer and Fall
I discovered perennial hibiscus almost two decades ago when I spotted Lady Baltimore's enormous pink blooms from across the parking lot of a local home improvement store. I wasn't looking for her, she just found me as most plants do. That happens a lot. At the time, I knew nothing about perennial hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos) other than I had to have this tropical looking beauty in my garden. She met her end that next spring when I assumed she was dead and dug her out, only to discover hibiscus is late to rise and often doesn't show signs of life until well into May here in my zone 5 garden. Oops. Perennial hibiscus resumes growth in the spring when soil temperatures reach 70 degrees F and is hardy in zones 4-9. For gardeners in colder climates, this might mean that your plant doesn't ...
What To Do With So Many Jalapenos?
I'm not going to pretend to be a canning pro. If you're looking for advice on that, please look elsewhere. For me, canning is a problem solver and, this early in the game, an experiment. I have more homegrown vegetables than I know what to do with! We should all have such problems, right? But, more specifically, I have more jalapenos than we can possibly eat. Unlike the cherry tomatoes they pop in their mouthes passing through the kitchen, the kids aren't reaching for the jalapenos. My husband, however, is a different story. You say "hot pepper" and he starts salivating much like I do when I hear "chocolate." He's a heat addict and until recently, would eat them like one would a banana. His tolerance blows my mind and I grew the jalapenos just for him. The problem is, his stomach ...
Add Butterfly Host Plants to Support Caterpillars
May and June have been for working in the garden, not writing about it. At least until now. Quite frankly, I'm exhausted and despite feeling overwhelmed at times with all the plants that need homes and the general maintenance (weeding, watering and plain 'ole fussing), there's been one thing that's slowed me down. Caterpillars. My daughter and I planted fernleaf dill and cucumbers from seed in May. Since toddlerhood, cucumbers have been my youngest daughter's favorite veg and so it's been her job to plant it every year. Only this year we added fernleaf dill nearby with the hope that the black swallowtail butterfly will find it. With this in mind, we planted enough for us and enough for them. It's been a sort of plant it and forget it thing. With so many other things to tend to like the ...
May in the Garden: A Mix of Beauty and Brawn
May has been a blur with all the clean-up and gear changing that comes with extreme temperature fluctuations, torrential rain, and the relentless march of weeds through every bed. It seems like the moment I pull a weed, three more grow in its place. Kinda like when you pull a grey hair. So I stop pulling altogether, the hairs not the weeds, and I can only imagine what that would look like if I did the same in the garden. Nonetheless, the garden is shaping up and plenty of plants are having their moment. I often imagine how beautiful it would be if it all just popped at once and remained so all season long. But then if it did, the novelty would wear off and there would be nothing to anticipate. I like knowing that no matter what, something in my garden on any given day is going to grab ...
What I Planted This Week: Standing Ovation Serviceberry
I should've known better than to think 70 degree days, two in a row as a matter of fact, would be here to stay. It's April! Just that brief taste was enough to get those garden muscles flexing. That and an early rose delivery for which I was completely unprepared. It seems that this pandemic has thrown everything off, including the shipment of roses that were expected to arrive in late April but found there way to my front porch three days ago. First world problems, I know. But a problem nonetheless when your beds aren't ready. So I panicked. Which is more of an audible experience for family and neighbors who can hear my tools being tossed into the wagon as I talk to myself, verbally working through what has to be done right now before the winter weather returns in two days, as it ...
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