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In This Issue: The Hunger Moon and Other Moons New Study Pinpoints Lyme Disease Risk Areas The Hunger Moon and Other Moons-- In The Old Farmers Almanac there is a name given to each full moon of the year. These are mostly adapted from early Native Americans who kept track of the passing seasons and tied their calendar to the full moons.   I was reminded of this last week by a friend who told me we were in “The Hunger Moon”.  He was helping me understand why one of our hens had been taken earli...

In this issue Learning Seed Propagation at NY Botanical Garden Make Your own Maple Syrup Welcome Spring with a Farm-To-Table Brunch Learning Seed Propagating at NY Botanical Garden-- I am taking a plant propagating class at The New York Botanical Garden with one of their best instructors and a lifelong plantsman, Michael Ruggiero.  It’s a treat to learn from him. Last month in “The Curious Gardener” I talked about selecting seeds from mail order seed catalogs. In this article I will take ...

In this issue: Tips on Navigating Mail Order Seed Catalogs Feeding the Hungry: Just Do It! Gardeners Make Their Resolutions for 2011: The Winners Are… Navigating Mail Order Seed Catalogs-- A seasoned mail order gardener will tell you that the gardening year begins in the dead of winter when seed catalogs start arriving, long before local garden centers open their doors for spring.  I have finally joined the ranks of those who will be growing from seed this year – in the new greenhouse ...

When my husband Tom asked me why I wanted a greenhouse I said that I wanted to be able to can and pickle and preserve vegetables and fruits. He replied that those are not exactly things you do in a greenhouse. He has a point. I realized at that moment that I had constructed in my mind an elaborate fantasy that involved growing things from seed to transplant to harvest to preserving.  I pictured a factory production line in my kitchen, with canning jars being boiled and cute little labels being printed o...

  Five stories up, a rooftop garden is a retreat from the lively streets of London below. The L-shaped garden, full of fragrant plants and cozy seating, wraps around the top floor of the triplex apartment which writer and garden historian Catherine Horwood shares with her husband Paddy Barwise. When the garden was created they installed wood trellises, a pergola and side rails with built-in plant troughs. The garden faces due south so the hardscaping structures provide a break from the element...

My mother is a vigorous lifelong gardener with varied and naturalistic gardens on her property in northwestern CT, and a small pond which provides a focal point behind the house. She also has a raised bed vegetable patch which produces broccoli, brussel sprouts,  lettuce, tomatoes and beans.  She finds that the rule in her garden is ‘one for me and one for the rabbits.’  Sometimes it’s two for the rabbits to her one. Recently I spent an afternoon gardening with my mother. When I got there she h...

It’s hard to put down roots when you’re a military family that moves every couple of years. But that didn’t stop Tagen Towsley Baker from searching for a sense of community in each town or base she and her husband relocated to. Growing lavender has helped her find that community, and adopting her 14-year-old daughter Mila from an orphanage in China 3 years ago has added a sweetness to the endeavor she never thought possible. On Mother’s Day Mila and Tagen make lavender sachets “to celebrate ...

Queen Anne's Lace is the common name used for a variety of plants that share similar characteristics: flowers with a flat-topped, lacy white umbel and delicate foliage. Its foliage makes it a favorite in floral arrangements as a filler. The wild species, daucus carota, is growing everywhere in parts of the US at this time of year, and has been labeled invasive in many States. Although I still find it pretty growing by the roadside (and even in parts of my garden), I thought it was time to learn about so...

[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...

Watching the hummingbirds at my feeder is always a joy. Being in the Northeast I get ruby-throated hummingbirds, the most common here, and last year three females vied for the nectar in two feeders, one in front and one in back of my house. This year there is at least one male among the females. The hummingbirds are just one of the pollinators I try to support. In spring I don’t mow the dandelions, ajuga or the buttercups to allow the bumblebees to forage. A little later, my apple blossoms attract more...