VOICES. VISITS. VARIABILITY. That’s how I can tell it’s March. A few feathered musicians are practicing in the pit the last week here, warming up while they wait for everyone else to show up and get in tune. As if on cue, the Eastern chipmunks—light hibernators—are suddenly fully awake and at their antics, trying to remember where the heck they stashed that last cache of goodies. Hungry! Yes, it’s March: Time to “be up, be doing,” as my mother used to say. Time to get at the garden cleanup—or at least anytime the highly variable (chaotic?) weather permits, that is. [read more…]
Search Results for: seed viability
the march garden chores: 2013
February 28, 2013 By 15 Comments
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the february garden chores: 2013
January 31, 2013 By 14 Comments
I AM STIFLING URGES over here—and maybe that’s what February is about, especially in the Northern garden. Keep calm—but don’t carry on, at least not until the signals are all aligned, please. I blame the expert seduction performed on me by seed catalogs for most of my fidgeting right now, that and the noticeably longer days and strengthening angle of the sun. Those big teases are combining to make me want to start seeds, but let’s think about that and other possible to-do’s carefully together, shall we? [read more…]
the january garden chores: 2013
January 1, 2013 By 9 Comments
I’M LIKE A KID UNDER A CHRISTMAS TREE, though what I can’t wait to sit down on the living room floor and open aren’t gifts, but all the 2013 seed catalogs. Their arrival ushers in another garden year—and with the browsing comes dreaming (maybe not of sugar plums, but oh, all those “new” varieties) and also concrete planning involved in getting ready for the season ahead. That’s what fills our little list of January garden chores, and yes, I promise, a couple of other tasks—like pruning, weather permitting—will involve time outdoors. Shall we begin again then officially, together? Happy New Year, friends, and here we go: [read more…]
the top 50 stories of 2012
December 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
SO WHAT CAUGHT YOUR ATTENTION most of all in 2012, among the 1,200-ish stories on A Way to Garden so far? Well, apparently it was these, the 50 stories you clicked on most during the year, A Way to Garden’s fifth online:
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how fresh are leftover seeds? viability, and vigor
December 10, 2012 By 10 Comments
THE SEED CATALOGS are arriving, and I’m getting organized. Step 1: taking inventory of what’s on hand. But how many of the seeds I have left over are still not just viable, but also have sufficient vigor to perform well start to finish? That’s the sort of “advanced” question I’m wondering about now, after a little episode with a packet of leftover collard seeds that I was feeling so smug about—a feeling that quickly changed to dismay a couple of weeks into their sorry time outdoors. [read more…]
