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dan koshansky’s refrigerator pickles

pickle-jarsNINETEEN YEARS AGO ALMOST TO THE DAY, I ate pickles for breakfast with lovely Dan Koshansky, a retired railroad conductor and an organic gardener in suburban Long Island. I was garden editor at Newsday newspaper then, and the beat included many a recipe tasting at harvest time. It’s how I learned to garden, and to cook from the garden: from people like Dan. Today, on our second of a series of weekly Thursday Food Fests in collaboration with Everyday Food’s Dinner Tonight blog, I want to share his recipe with you. Enjoy. [Read more...]

a kousa dogwood i’m certain about

REMEMBER THE GREAT KOUSA CONTROVERSY, when I wanted to evict my nursed-from-infancy weeping Kousa dogwood? You all helped me see the error of my ways, and we’re still together. Though I’ve often waffled on the weeper, there’s one Kousa I never have regretted planting, and that’s the showy white-variegated ‘Wolf Eyes.’ That’s it beaming at you hundreds of feet beyond my back yard in the photo, shining like a beacon, even at a smallish size. Wow.

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won’t you join our thursday food fests?

ONCE YOU FIND A GOOD HABIT, STICK WITH IT. Last week’s Pesto Fest collaboration with the Dinner Tonight blog was so well-received by gardening and cooking friends that we’re throwing a series of events each Thursday through Labor Day.

This week: Cukes and Zukes, from tips for growing to how to take the bounty from garden (or farmer’s market!) to table.

Next week (Aug. 7): Beans (as in that Heftybag-ful of long green pods in my fridge).

Here’s how easy it is to participate (and what’s up in other weeks to come):

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frogboys on google page rank of 6: unanimous ‘no comment’

'no comment'WHEN NEWS ARRIVED YESTERDAY on our 4-month blog-aversary that A Way to Garden had earned its first Google Page Rank ever—a robust 6!—the staff uttered no comment. Well, the occasional “urp,” but basically nobody even got out of the pool to party. “Wow,” I told them, “Guy Kawasaki at Alltop put us on the top row among garden sites yesterday, too!” But did anybody out back care? Now perhaps you see what I’m up against. Thanks to all of you for your role in making our funny little blog a success, for reacting to our stories by sharing yours. Keep the comments coming (but please, say more than “urp,” OK?).

pesto fest! (garlicky green ice cubes)

THE LATEST HEATWAVE FORCED THE BASIL into flower, so before things go too far: pesto. Apparently, it’s in the air. My friend Deb Puchalla of Everyday Food magazine and the Dinner Tonight blog was about to make a batch, she said the other day…and then a second later, we both thought: Hey, let’s collaborate. Let’s talk pesto with our garden- and food-blog friends. Let’s have a Digital Pesto Fest. Care to join in? [Read more...]

more leaves that i love

I HAVE ALREADY SPOUTED OFF ABOUT HOW I AM NO FLOWER GIRL. Foliage rules here. Month 3, and it still looks good. What flower can say that? Oh, really?

why do you garden?

WHY DO YOU GARDEN? I keep asking myself daily as I risk sunstroke to mow and weed and drag hoses round the place. And why do you garden? Some of you have told us, I know, but yesterday when I was in for my third cold shower between rounds, I thought, “Why do I do this?” and figured maybe some of you were wondering exactly the same thing about yourselves.

I garden because I cannot help myself.

I garden because I cannot look out the window and see the shaggy bits any longer, and have to go “fix it” (as if it will ever be “fixed”). [Read more...]

scratch and sniff this cimicifuga post?


I WISH TECHNOLOGY ALLOWED ME TO TRANSMIT the scent, and not just word-and-image data, on oddly-sweet Cimicifuga racemosa (I know, it was renamed Actaea racemosa by some taxonomist guys not long ago, but ask me if I care?). I even like it when its bottlebrush-shape flowers are still mostly closed (above), in the first week or two of its month-long bloom cycle. [Read more...]

why won’t this plant die?


I HAVE KILLED MANY PLANTS in my gardening career, most of them unintentional and many of them regrettable. So why can’t I kill Houttuynia cordata, the so-called chameleon plant, despite years and years of trying? [Read more...]

get the away to garden newsletter

The Confessional

Some stuff really gets A Way to Garden-ers going. Weigh in, or just lurk while everyone else shares about these hot buttons:

Juicy Bits

name that weed I KNOW A LOT OF PLANTS by their proper names, but my “weeds,” not so much. These great weed-identification websites are helping me finally address them with the proper (dis)respect.

everything old is new VINTAGE 'GREEN' POSTERS from the WPA 1940s look fresher than ever.

shrubs to covet THE OLDER THE GARDEN and I get, the more we love these shrubs.

tomato troubles STAY AHEAD OF tomato diseases with these organic tactics.

the edible garden GROW YOUR OWN 2010: my vegetable seed order.

plants that perform 21 POWERHOUSE PERENNIALS you will love for your garden.

herb-garden help GROWING AND STORING a year of parsley.

berry peachy-keen CLAFOUTIS BATTER how-to (the solution for easy fruit desserts).

rex, rhizomatous and more FANCY-LEAF BEGONIAS, beauties for indoors and out.

crispy refrigerator pickles WHAT IS IT ABOUT refrigerator pickles that makes everybody so happy? Get those cukes ready!

winged victory THE GARDEN as bird habitat: 11 tips on what birds like.

hellebore porn SEXY, EXTRA-EARLY, evergreen shade perennials I can’t garden without.

forum

success with heirlooms CAN GRAFTING TOMATOES help insure a bountiful harvest?

the garden is a showoff 375 VISITORS, 1 BIG RHODIE: spring garden open day, in a virtual visit. How it looked, and also what they all asked.

keeping deer out DEER FENCE: I tried every anti-deer potion and trick till I got real and fenced. Strategies for every garden.

secrets to great tomatoes TOMATO TIPS, seed to harvest: Dozens of tricks for a better crop.

yes, even in dry shade MY 4 TOUGHEST GROUNDCOVERS perform even in the worst spots, like dry shade.

5 great small trees GARDEN-SIZED TREES can’t just be the right scale; they need to have multi-season interest, too. Have room for one of my favorites?

10 underplanting do’s and don’ts MAKING MOSAICS—that’s what I call good underplanting of trees and shrubs with a tapestry of plants. Here’s how.

a ribbeting bullfrog whodunit LET BULLFROGS BE BYGONES? No way. Where did all my biggest frogboys go?

stars of the spring shrubbery BEYOND LILACS (and forget forsythia!), a slideshow of some fine spring shrubs you may not grow (yet).

speeding up the compost DRIVE BY, HIT-AND-RUN composting speeds up the decomposition process while making good mulch quickly. Here’s how.

making a 365-day garden THINK FALL (YES, FALL): Don’t get sucked in by spring-bloomers only at the nursery. A great garden happens 365 days: Shop smart to make it so.

the facts about bulbs SOMETHING UP with a flower bulb? Paltry bloom, or wondering when to feed or cut off the foliage? It’s all here.

must-read garden poem MY FAVORITE POEM celebrates loss, one of gardening (and life’s) realities. It does it with humor: "Why Did My Plant Die?” is a must-read.

12 steps to sanity? HELP FOR GARDENERS: Hi, my name is Margaret, and yes, we operate a 12-Step program here.

orchid rebloom made easy I REBLOOMED MY FIRST ORCHID recently (finally!) and it turns out to be pretty easy going. Here’s how.

my seed-starting 101 WHAT ABOUT SEED-STARTING in general? The A Way to Garden method.

hail the stewartia I LIKE PLANTS THAT EARN THEIR KEEP, that do more than a week or two of showing off. The small-ish to medium trees in the genus Stewartia are a good bet if it’s multi-season interest you crave.

can-do pruning REPEAT AFTER ME: I can prune. I can prune. If you follow this simple method for starters, your woody plants will thank you.

the ‘other’ peonies JUNE IS PEONY TIME, the big raucous kind of peony time, but just before that another kind of peony does its subtler, wonderful thing.

which lilac to plant? SO MANY LILACS, so little space. Browse a glossary of some of my favorites before you shop.