Share my passion for all things gardening!
I’ve been growing microgreens for the first time this winter. It’s so much fun and a great way to eat healthy greens that I’ve grown myself indoors. I wanted to give you an update to hear what I’ve learned since the last time I wrote about this. But first, in case you’re sitting there saying, “microgreens? What in the world […]
Read more
Have you been overwintering geraniums and/or canna lilies from last year’s garden? Now that it’s early February, it’s time to pot them up. It’s so snowy and stormy outside here. This is a nice way to play in dirt inside my toasty home! Last February, I shot a video on potting up geraniums. Have a look, then I’ll discuss how […]
Read more
The last thing you want to see when looking out the window at your pond, is that it’s nearly empty! But that’s exactly what I discovered recently. Talk about your adrenaline rush. How could this happen, you ask? Well, first we got a whole bunch of snow. Then we had several visits by the “polar vortex.” It was soon impossible […]
Read more
I just learned something intriguing about planting onions and wanted to share it with you. As you know, you can grow onions from seeds, sets (little bulbs) and from plant starts. For years, I used onion sets but had mediocre results with them. The bulb size was small and their overall plant vigor was lacking. Several years ago, I was […]
Read more
This topic might seem either a little late or very early, but it’s very relevant right now. During the growing season, I’m a big fan of freezing vegetables to preserve them. It works really great for green beans, celery, diced onions, Swiss chard, and sliced leeks. The veggies I seem to freeze the most are pole and bush beans. That’s […]
Read more
I know I’ve talked about this before but crop rotation is a big deal! It’s the best tool vegetable gardeners have to cut down on insect and disease problems. And it’s free, too. Crop rotation involves keeping records of where you grew each crop in the previous 3 to 4 years. That way, you can grow them in different locations […]
Read more
Do you recall how I rescued part of my rosemary plant a couple of months ago? They aren’t hardy enough to grow outdoors year-round here. I ordinarily will dig them up, pot them and move them indoors. Well, I got busy and completely forgot about it. I didn’t help that the plant was huge so not easily dug up. Fortunately, […]
Read more
Beaks, Bones & Bird Songs: How the Struggle for Survival Has Shaped Birds and Their Behavior by Roger J. Lederer (2016, Timber Press, 280 pp., $24.95) As most folks know, I am an avid birdwatcher. I love watching them, photographing them and landscaping to attract them. I’ve also discovered that a large percentage of the gardeners I connect with are […]
Read more
We recently had some unexpected visitors: 3 moose! A cow moose and her twin yearlings came to see us. Well, they mostly came to nibble on our trees and shrubs. Fortunately, they also let us get some pretty good looks at them, while keeping to a safe distance, of course. Bill and I have been noticing that we don’t see […]
Read more
Ever on the lookout for awesome houseplants, I’m always tickled when I find one that consistently performs well in our home. And that happens to be Calathea rufibarba. I bought mine a couple of years ago from the Plant Farm in Spokane Valley and just love it. This plant has an upright growth habit with long, curvy leaves. But what really […]
Read more