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…

The Alien Pod--Before it becomes soup I finally used the Hubbard squash that Mary-Lynn (in charge of Womanswork shipping and receiving) gave me from her garden.  I made Hubbard squash soup! Soup should be a comforting thing to make, and there is always room for substitutions and experimentation.  This recipe would still be delicious if you substituted carrots or pumpkin for squash. Onion is obviously an important base flavor, so if you are out, use a leek or even some shallots. …

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Rosemary Harris, author of gardening mysteries and an Anthony and Agatha Nominee for Best First Novel. I had read her first book in her "Dirty Business" series, Pushing Up Daisies, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Her lead character is Paula Holliday, a cheeky 40-something woman, newly single and launching a landscaping business in a small town in Connecticut after being downsized from her…

What’s that noise?” my husband Tom asked.  “Oh that?  It’s just the cement truck backing up in the yard,” I answered.  Last week it was the jack hammer digging the hole in our yard. When I said I wanted to build a greenhouse I did not mean the kind you pick out of a greenhouse catalog and construct in a weekend if you are a “handy do it yourselfer.” I…