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Elizabeth Buchtman works at Womanswork, and on weekends she's been making and decorating holiday wreaths with Stephen Chamberlain of Dutchess Farm in Castleton, VT. She agreed to share her secret with us for producing festive bows for her holiday wreaths. Step One: Get your supplies lined up. This includes ribbon (3 in. wide with wire edges), a spool of wire, sharp scissors, and her Womanswork pocket stone to keep her scissors at peak performance for cutting the ends of the bow. Step Two: P...

I've often heard that the showy, sun loving plants we call geraniums, are actually not geraniums but are pelargoniums. It's confusing, so I asked horticulturist Ruth Rogers Clausen for some clarity. Here's what she had to say. Geraniums and pelargoniums belong to the same botanical family: the Geraniaceae. However, the common name “geranium” is often used incorrectly in reference to members of the Pelargonium genus. There are multiple species in each genus, most of which are resistant to browsing dee...

[caption id="attachment_530" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The cottage by the sea"][/caption] One of the things we love about our little island in Maine is that seemingly nothing ever changes. And yet things do change-- in subtle, positive ways. For instance it was always difficult to purchase good produce on the island because there is only one market and they tend to bring in produce that travels well, such as iceburg lettuce.   This summer we enjoyed a floating farmers market, which motore...

Reduce the Risk of Lyme Disease for you And your Pets-- Recently I met someone at a gardening symposium who is an advocate for reducing the incidence of Lyme Disease through education and planning. She outlines several areas to consider including Mouse and Deer Bait Boxes, Landscaping, Lawn Sprays and Protective clothing.  Mouse Bait Boxes: Did you know that mice (not deer) are the primary carriers of the bacteria that causes Lyme Disease? The CDC invented and developed a tick control system in a mouse ...

Cinderellas, snowballs, goblins and knuckleheads. Knuckleheads? You know them by their all-encompassing name: pumpkins. With fall arriving just last week, farm fields and farm market tables are groaning with pumpkins, those multi-colored signs of the season from the Cucurbita genus (the Latin word for 'gourd').  While orange sugar pumpkins and big jack-o’-lantern pumpkins are commonly seen in fall displays, there are many more varieties available for eating and decorating. Perhaps one of their most ap...

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...

We spent the last 6 days in New York at the Jacob Javits Center, along with thousands of other people (perhaps tens of thousands). We stayed at the W Hotel on Lexington Ave and 50th Street. How appropriate. [caption id="attachment_200" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=""W" is for W Hotel and for Womanswork"][/caption] Eve was with me as we met with owners and representatives of retail stores across the country. They were all looking for new items and many of them seemed pleased to see u...

We consulted with our friend, horticulturist Ruth Rogers Clausen, about pruning shrubs in the fall. There are primarily three reasons to prune a shrub: To get rid of any dead, damaged, diseased or dying wood (The 4 D's), or crossing branches To shape an overgrown or lobsided shrub To encourage more flowering Fall is a good time to prune away dead, damaged, diseased or dying branches. This will improve the health of the plant, and it can be done anytime of year. The advantage to doing it in ...

[caption id="attachment_2913" align="alignright" width="300"] Vernonia spp. in the Brine Garden. Courtesy gardenlarge.com[/caption] August can be a misunderstood month. As gardeners we put our energy into fighting back weeds and thinking about next year’s garden, and often miss the rich variety of flowering plants that the late season has to offer. Garden centers will tell you that most people shop for plants in the spring, and they reach for the plants that are blooming, passing over late season blo...

  The following is reprinted from the original article published last October in The Curious Gardener. Since then Jennifer has been "hard at work on a book for Timber Press - focusing on the current state of women working with plants - due in stores Fall of 2019!"  We featured Jennifer on hang tags on our gloves because we were inspired by her story. Jennifer Jewell is a gardener and writer who takes as much pleasure in the ritual of gardening as she does in thinking, writing and talking about ...