THREE-HUNDRED SIXTY-FOUR DAYS of the year, he’s got me nailed: Yes, Andre, I am often seen in the wrong footwear (read: garden boots), no matter the occasion. They’re just so easy on the feet, if not the eyes. But today, as yet another glacier slid across beautiful downtown Cupcake Falls, N.Y., even I had to relent and change into crampons to go break up the ice, or at least give it my best shot. [read more…]
doodle by andre: ever fashionable
January 29, 2009 at 5:49 pm
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starting to think about starting seeds
January 29, 2009 at 3:07 pm
EVEN IF I WERE STARTING LEEKS AND ONIONS indoors from seed, two of the earliest things one might sow, it isn’t time yet here in Zone 5B. But if you live in a slightly warmer zone, or want to do a mental dress-rehearsal, I’ve assembled some of the seed-starting tips and tricks from around A Way to Garden, for easier reference. More to come as the time gets closer. [read more…]
beloved conifer: golden spreading yew
January 27, 2009 at 8:39 am
ENGLISH YEWS WERE A STAPLE of foundation planting around the house I grew up in, the darkest of green blobs with those tempting red berries we kids were warned to stay away from: poisonous. Maybe that sense of all-too-familiar put me off growing yews here when I began my garden–or at least until I discovered the spreading golden English form. The second in a series on beloved conifers. [read more…]
doodle by andre: sowing hope
January 22, 2009 at 4:01 am
WHAT BETTER WAY TO START OUR NEW ERA as a nation than by sowing seeds of hope? Thanks to a recent transplant to America, doodler Andre Jordan, for a perfect message for this historic week.
beloved conifers: weeping alaska cedar
January 19, 2009 at 7:37 pm
AS MANY BEGINNERS DO, I CREATED MY GARDEN BACKWARDS: planting herbaceous things first and trees and shrubs later, when their different time to maturity would have made the opposite strategy smarter. Worst of all, I forgot conifers almost entirely in those first years. I’ve stayed put long enough to outgrow my early mishaps, and have some favorite evergreens to share including the weeping Alaska Cedar cedar, Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‘Pendula’ (above, in my far borders to the west of the house). The first in a series on beloved conifers. [read more…]
doodle by andre: must garden gear
January 15, 2009 at 8:07 am
FOR SOMEONE WHO SAYS HE DOESN’T GARDEN, doodler Andre Jordan seems to have all the right tools on hand nonetheless. I grow suspicious; you?
the confession: what seeds i ordered
January 14, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I PROMISED RESTRAINT, right here and out loud, and if all things are relative, I demonstrated at least a measure of that virtue. On the task of seed-ordering, I stayed focused and did well, or at least “well” for me. First, the disclaimers: It is typical for me to order 20 or more packets of pumpkin and squash seeds alone in any given year. There were no such binges in 2009, at least not so far (though I did order ‘Musquee de Provence,’ above). Give me ongoing strength. [read more…]
shacked up with big, tender farfugium
January 11, 2009 at 11:44 am
ITELL EVERYONE I LIVE ALONE, but true confession: I’m shacked up here with a big hunk of a Farfugium (and yes, even though he told me his name was Ligularia when we first met years ago, I still love him). And I think I’ve finally learned how to make him happy, even though he’d prefer to live a couple of zones farther south in winter than we do. [read more…]
from andre the doodler, a memoir!
January 8, 2009 at 12:58 am
“WHEN YOU ARE STRANGE, THE WORLD CAN BE AMAZING.” So ends the illustrated memoir, “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,” published Tuesday by my friend and columnist Andre Jordan, the daydreaming doodler. Now when you’re Bambi…well, the world can be quite another story, and not so amazing, as the doodle above from the fantastic (if a little twisted) new book confirms. [read more…]
