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The vegetable garden at Bunny Williams’ property in Falls Village, Connecticut, where professional gardener Tricia van Oers is employed, is all about relationships. Bunny calls Tricia 'the soul of the garden' and says she has never eaten so well. Tricia is equally complimentary of her employer. “Bunny lets me feel a sense of ownership of the garden. She allows for playfulness and freedom within the established design of the garden,” says Tricia. Their paths first crossed in the summer of 2018 wh...

In the agriculture-based culture of the Oneida Nation, to which Toni House and her family belong, plants are sometimes referred to as younger sisters and older sisters. Humans and plants are often considered equals. “We learn to listen to the earth rather than try so hard to change it to fit our ways,” says her daughter Jasmine Jimerson. In this ecosystem, humans try to replicate what they observe in the natural world, and then make small adjustments.  It’s a system where human intervention is min...

[caption id="attachment_3277" align="alignright" width="257"] 'Jackmanii' cultivar, growing outside our screened porch, blooms around mid June.[/caption]   Clematis is a versatile vining plant that comes in many sizes and colors. Monty Don, the British gardening personality, said in an interview with The Guardian, “Everyone loves clematis. To dislike clematis as a matter of principle would take a degree of perversity of the same order as disliking grass, trees or coffee ice cream. If you have a...

One of the most satisfying parts of gardening for me is to take part in the miracle of plant propagation. It can be as simple as pinching off a stem and dropping it in a glass of water or as complicated as grafting a branch from one plant onto the root stock of another. Boom!  A plant is born. There are two primary ways plants procreate: sexually and asexually. Sexual propagation is through seeds, and it is the primary way plants multiply in nature.  Asexual propagation methods are manmade. Think of th...

Greenhouses come in all shapes and sizes.  A small container with seed starting mix and a clear plastic top serves as the simplest of "greenhouses" for seedlings because it provides shelter for plants.  A step up from that is a temporary greenhouse that can be assembled and disassembled each year, and sits on a deck or on a patio next to the house. It consists of a lightweight metal frame with shelves covered in clear plastic with a zippered window for entry. You can put seedlings in there during the day ...

[caption id="attachment_295" align="alignleft" width="220"] Mom's Greenhouse[/caption] Our greenhouse is moving along slowly, thank you very much. In the meantime, I have noticed that greenhouses come in all shapes and sizes.  For instance, my mother has a "greenhouse" of the type I would put in quotation marks. She lives 35 miles north of me in Sharon, CT.  This morning we visited a couple of garden centers in her neighborhood and presented the Womanswork line of garden gloves, then we went to her h...

[caption id="attachment_230" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Tom stirring tomato sauce for ziti"][/caption] Womanswork hosted another evening meal at The Lunch Box in Poughkeepsie last week. On a typical evening The Lunch Box serves 150 people who need a hot meal. They also serve lunch on week days but this has expanded to include dinners whenever they can get volunteers like us to do it. The numbers of people in need of services like this have been growing here in Dutchess County, NY, like ev...

If you received a free package of three Hyacinth 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 bulbs to bloom this Spring indoors: Fill a pot (6" diameter or more) with potting soil or a soilless mix purchased at a gard...

You volunteered to participate in your local plant sale fund raiser or plant swap, and now it's time to make good on your promise! Many plant sales that were scheduled for spring were postponed until fall, which gardeners know is one of the best times to plant! So go into your garden and dig up some perennials or bulbs, divide them, and pot them up. You can even propagate some houseplants if you leave enough time. The night before you plan to divide your plants water them well.  Organize your containers...

[caption id="attachment_4173" align="alignright" width="190"] Marianne in her Virginia garden[/caption] Like many gardeners Marianne Willburn started small. First she had window boxes and containers, then she moved to a tiny duplex where she managed to squeeze in a small vegetable garden next to the parking area. As she and her young family moved to larger properties, hopscotching from California to London to Maryland and finally Virginia, the space given over to gardens kept getting bigger. But that�...