Category: How-To Projects

  We asked Ashley English, author of Keeping Chickens,  to tell us about her experience and offer some of her chicken wisdom. Here is our exclusive interview with Ashley, and three other chicken keepers: Meet Ashley English Womanswork: What are some of the ways someone can acquire chickens? Ashley English: With the resurgence of interest in keeping a flock of backyard chickens, it's now easier to find chickens than ever. I always encourage people to look locally from resources such as feed &…

Have you noticed water pooling up in areas of your garden after a good rain? This is an all-too-common problem that can lead to the destruction and downfall of an otherwise beautiful garden. These pools of water create the perfect breeding environment for bacteria and fungus to thrive, placing your plants at risk for both disease and drowning. In addition, excessive water can erode the soil, washing away all the long hours…

We have a purple clematis that climbs up the south side of our screen porch. It's  a summer blooming variety  so I prune it in the Spring. (Spring blooming clematis are usually pruned the previous fall.) I worked my way up from the bottom, clipping off dead wood right next to emerging buds. I was wearing my Womanswork "Digger" garden gloves  (in teal blue). When working with a tangle of vines and leaves and side shoots, it's easy to make…

In This Issue: My Mother's Garden A Brilliant Orchid Show in NY Grow Stockier, Bushier Tomato Plants This Year My Mother's Garden -- Recently I spent an afternoon gardening with my mother in northwestern Connecticut, just about 30 miles north of where I live, so that I could observe first hand what her secret to a beautiful garden is. When I got there she had her shovel deep in her compost bin.  Then she dropped the compost on a screen positioned over…

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…

Fragrant Paperwhites and Amaryllis are now a part of my Christmas tradition. I like to have paperwhites blooming on Christmas day and I enjoy amaryllis throughout the winter. I stagger the planting so there's always something blooming. For paperwhites allow 3-5 weeks from planting to blooming. You can extend the bloom time by keeping them in a cool room at night. Otherwise, blossoms can be fleeting.  For Amaryllis, allow 5-8 weeks from planting to bloom time, but each blossom can last for two…

Early last Spring I woke up one morning and decided that what my yard needed was a berm.  Most berms, or mounds, are designed for privacy to block an unwanted view of the street or a neighbor's backyard. By creating a little hill and planting it with trees and other vegetation you can create a very attractive and effective screen. Fences are often used for this purpose too, but a berm is a more natural-looking solution.  …

We keep our garden shoes outside the kitchen door, just steps from the herb garden, but when it rains they can get wet inside. We also use this handy spot on our deck for hand tools and garden gloves and plants that are waiting to be put in the ground. It was always messy looking, so I decided we needed a bench to organize things. …

After letting my cement troughs cure for 3-4 weeks in plastic bags, I took them out, donned my garden gloves and planted them up this afternoon. I bought several succulents at a…

This weekend I invited a friend over to try a "recipe" for cement troughs with me. She was game. We started at 9 am and we were finished by 10:30, with our creations tucked snugly in plastic bags to set overnight. [caption id="attachment_348" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="After patting the cement mixture into the molds and poking drainage holes in the bottom, they were ready to…