Share my passion for all things gardening!
I was in Chicago recently for the garden writers conference. In addition to networking, we have the opportunity to visit amazing public and private gardens. Boy, do we all enjoy that! One public garden that particularly stands out is the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park. Located between Monroe and Randolph Streets, along Michigan Avenue, Lurie Garden is actually a green […]
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While I fully intend to do a season-end review of the different vegetables I’ve grown, I just can’t wait that long to tell you about the most amazing honeydew melon! The cultivar name is ‘Ha Ogen’ and I purchased the seeds from Botanical Interests. In the past, I’ve grown a lovely honeydew melon that’s called ‘Arava’, and it came from […]
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I was in Chicago last week for a conference hosted by the Association for Garden Communicators. Chicago is an amazing place with so many green spaces and gardens to enjoy. One of the gardens we visited is the Chicago Botanic Garden. For my column today, I decided to write about their Buehler Enabling Garden because there were so many usable ideas […]
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A couple of weeks ago, I shot a video on the importance of pruning tomatoes. My goal is to get as many of them to ripen before the end of the garden season as possible. That was actually step #1 in my 3-step pruning regimen. Now that we’re nearing the end of August, it’s time for step #2: If you […]
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As many of you know, my husband and I are avid birdwatchers. Over the years, we’ve learned what will attract birds to our garden. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by adding birdbaths. Birds need to drink water and bathe — typically every day. Our bird feeders attract them, along with our landscape filled with trees and […]
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One of my favorite aspects of being a garden columnist is that I get to write about some outstanding local gardeners. Today’s column is about Andy Smith and his wife, Margaret. Here is a link to it in The Spokesman-Review: Bountiful harvests come from small city lot. (or you can read my column lower in this text) What makes Andy […]
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We all love to grow and eat homegrown tomatoes, don’t we? If you live in a short-season climate like I do, it can be a challenge getting the majority of them to ripen before the fall frosts arrive. In this week’s column, I explain my strategies for getting maximum tomato harvests. Here’s a link to it in The Spokesman-Review: Well-timed […]
Read moreAs a garden writer and a member of the professional organization, the Association for Garden Communicators, I occasionally receive seeds or product samples to test. (hey, it’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it) Last December, I received a cool package from Burpee Seeds that I wanted to tell you about. What they do is send out a type […]
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Gardening can sometimes be a challenge, can’t it? Maybe it’s the weather where you live, plants that occasionally don’t grow the way you expected, or perhaps it’s dealing with small critters that is really annoying. Well, my garden column today is about that last item because I get a lot of questions about it and have learned a few tricks […]
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If you are looking at this photo and thinking it’s a bunch of egg yolks, let me quickly clarify that’s not the case at all. What you’re seeing is a twist on my favorite sandwich to make during tomato season. Ordinarily, I make these sandwiches with larger slicing tomatoes but since we have a lot of Sungold tomatoes right now, […]
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