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Forcing bulbs to bloom indoors in late Winter is a way to enjoy the magic of Spring flowers a little early. If you received a free package of our pink Foxtrot tulip bulbs, they are ready to be potted up indoors as soon as you get them. This is because they have spent the winter in a cool warehouse in Pennsylvania. (For other Spring blooming bulbs, you need to put them in a cool, refrigerated location for 6-8 weeks before potting them up indoors.) Follow these instructions for forcing your bulb...

My stepdaughter Eve asked me if I would like to do the flowers for her Vermont wedding last August. Of course I said "Yes!" Then I proceeded to learn a few things about floral arranging. [caption id="attachment_1706" align="alignleft" width="201"] Farm table set for wedding guests[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1709" align="alignright" width="150"] Pot et fleur with lavender[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1703" align="alignright" width="150"] Lavender with lisianthus, monarda, hydrangea[/...

[caption id="attachment_2319" align="alignleft" width="300"] Daffodils from my garden, with little white Snowflakes (Leucojum)[/caption] Where I live in Dutchess County NY, daffodils are one of the few bulbs deer do not graze so gardeners are planting more varieties of daffodils to get variation in their early spring gardens. After your bulbs are finished blooming, remove flowers so they won't put energy into producing seeds. For naturalizing, however, leave flowers and allow reseeding. At the N...

This year it was Thanksgiving weekend before I had a chance to start tidying up in my garden. I'm not exactly a "neatnik" but I do like it to look nice and garden hygiene is important too. Be careful to clean up any dropped leaves beneath roses for fear of spreading black spot spores when the spring rains come next year. The  spores overwinter in organic mulch (I like to remove the mulch) and will be splashed up onto new growth and re-infect the bushes. Spent annuals go on the compost pile, but there are a...

Growing Flowers For A Wedding--  Our daughter Eve is getting married in August and she asked me if I would bring flowers. She favors yellow and white flowers, so I went to work figuring out the best home grown flowers for an August wedding. First I looked at what Maria Iannotti had to say about her favorite flowers for cutting and generated a list by visiting her About.com Gardening site.  I immediately zeroed in on annuals because they are reliable bloomers. The perennials blooming in my garden rig...

[caption id="attachment_3478" align="alignright" width="200"] Eric from Harlem Valley Homestead. This North Georgia Candy Roaster Squash yielded more than 2 pies.[/caption] I first learned about North Georgia candy roaster squash at our farmers market last November. A local farm, Harlem Valley Homestead, grows them and had them for sale. They suggested I try making a 'pumpkin' pie with it. Since pumpkin is a type of squash too, in the same genus-- cucurbita -- it's a reasonable suggestion. I liked t...

[caption id="attachment_2957" align="alignright" width="300"] Spring bulbs blooming at White Flower Farm in Morris, CT[/caption]   Order Spring Bulbs-- Bulb catalogs arriving in our mailboxes in September are the equivalent of seed catalogs arriving in January. They are fun to look at, fun to dream about, and a great tool for planning ahead. I buy from Brent and Becky’s, which is a third- and fourth-generation flower-bulb company in Virginia. I’ve always been happy with my purchases, and t...

We're all houseplant gardeners at this time of year. Some of our houseplants are outdoor plants during the warmer months and they're brought indoors when the weather turns frosty or just plain chilly, and some seem happiest indoors all year long. I keep my clivia miniata indoors year round because the one time I put it outdoors on a hot sunny day the leaves got burned and discolored. For the same reason I keep my fiddle leaf fig tree and my jade plant indoors. And of course my African violets. My agaves and...

It is time to think about putting your garden to bed, harvesting your crops and preparing for next year’s garden. Here are some of my fall tips for the edible garden. Be Safe—The Society of American Hand Therapists recently announced that wearing gardening gloves was at the top of their list for preventing gardening injuries. Womanswork has a pair to suit every hand, task and season. In this month's Martha Stewart Living, she features the Womanswork Goatskin Glove as one of her "Finds" for fall ...

Here are 7 tips to help you with your garden now, as summer is winding down.  I follow every one of these practices in my garden. #1: Watering Tips: Remember to give your plants enough water. The water needs to reach the roots or it will lead to shallow root systems. This will prevent plants from absorbing and storing enough water to support them. For annuals, lawns and perennials, most roots are 4 to 6 inches below the soil surface. For trees they can be down as far as 18 to 24 inches.  Running the sp...