SOMETIME AGO, I overheard visitors to one of the country’s finest public gardens recounting their experience. “I liked it,” said one woman, who called herself a professional gardener, “but I didn’t like that all the plants touched.” I think perhaps she missed the point: That’s the best part, the making of botanical mosaics, the weaving-together of things; the part when the mulch disappears. It’s what you wait for, what you try to hurry along by planting too close at the start, or by overfeeding. One of my favorite touchy-feely plant mosaics, of Asarum europaeum, Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’, Hosta ‘June,’ Japanese painted fern and Primula kisoana, lives beside the front walk, due back above ground any month now.
touchy-feely plants
March 25, 2008
composting 101
March 24, 2008
HERE, IN THE COMPOST HEAP, is life and death and life again—proof positive of “from dust to dust.” But too many gardeners waste the raw material of future soil amendments by getting hung up on silly details, like what shape of pile or kind of bin to use, what can and can’t go in the pile, or how much work they fear composting will be. It doesn’t have to be much work at all; even without turning and other human intervention, the leaves on the forest floor break themselves down in time, don’t they? So will your pile, if it’s made sensibly. [Read more...]
sowing spinach
March 24, 2008
IT IS NEVER TOO EARLY to plant spinach, and in fact I often feel as if I am running behind on that score. Even though there are snow squalls predicted for later this week in my area, it’s time. Last September through Thanksgiving would have been even better. If I’d sown then, the little plants would have taken advantage of every thaw over these last months to put on a bit of growth, and I’d have harvested spinach in April (which is when most Northeners like me first sow theirs, much delaying gratification). In case there isn’t snow cover to insulate the babies, I put a floating row cover over the planting to tuck them in for the winter. Spinach loves the cold, and germination is patchy at best when the soil is hot. [Read more...]
zinnias, one color at a time
March 23, 2008
IT TAKES A VERY GOOD EYE to be able to arrange flowers of many colors in a single arrangement. Much easier (and often more striking) is a single-color theme. With zinnias, one of my favorite, easy summertime cutting flowers, this monochrome effect is best achieved by planting a single-color strain in the first place, such as the Benary’s Giant, instead of the usual mix. I favor orange, lime and crimson, but there is a wide range from white through several shades of pink, lilac-purple and vivid yellow.
plant labels that last
March 23, 2008
TWO YEARS AFTER FIRST MAKING it my New Year’s resolution, then failing to come through and failing again, I am finally labeling my garden with tags that will last. No more plastic strips for me; make mine metal. The answer comes in the form of the M-11 Dymo labeler, available at the best price I could find (about $195) from A.M. Leonard tools, a favorite source. Perfect to buy with a group of gardening friends and share for a lifetime. [Read more...]
seed-starting countdown
March 23, 2008
I CAN’T REMEMBER the proportions of salt, water and vinegar in my favorite pickle recipe, or any of the other formulas for things I do just once a year. Seed starting was like that—something I had to look up to refresh my memory—until I began linking the crops I sow indoors in earliest spring into three simple groups with similar needs, instead of trying to memorize the right timing for each and every one individually. You’ll need to memorize one fact to use my countdown formula for seed-starting, and that’s your local date of average final frost (mine isn’t until close to June). The illustration, by the way, is by our beloved Andre Jordan. [Read more...]
forsythia alternatives, please
March 23, 2008
HAVING COMPLAINED in various spaces including here about Forsythia (except the lesser-grown forms with gold or variegated leaves, which are at least a little worthy), I thought it time to offer alternatives. I have already praised the early witch-hazels but there are more possibilities. [Read more...]
I WAS BLESSED TO visit many of the nation’s finest homemade gardens for 15 years for ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ first as garden editor and then as editorial director. The places we published included my rural New York State home. Want to know more 
