Valentine’s Day: A day of gentle sighs, pink ribbons, red roses—or a pagan festival rich with drunken revelry and young men and women being matched up by lottery—at last for the duration of the festival? The ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia was celebrated every year on February 15th. It was a festival of fertility in … Read more
One of my New Year’s resolutions for my garden was to get back in the habit of trying something new instead of sticking with the tried and true. So in keeping with that resolution, I dug through our full selection of 2018 seeds here and found some new seed varieties I’m going to try this … Read more
This coming Friday is Groundhog’s Day. So here are a few interesting facts about Groundhogs… Groundhogs are not related to hogs at all but are marmots closely related to squirrels. They are basically a giant ground squirrel. They’re widely distributed across North America from northern Alabama all the way up to Alaska. They truly hibernate … Read more
Sunday, January 21, was Squirrel Appreciation Day. What? I’m supposed to appreciate these fuzzy little things that destroy my garden? Well…Yes. The word ‘squirrel’ comes from the Anglo-Norman word esquirel with roots in the Greek word skiouros meaning ‘shadow-tailed.’ A group of squirrels is called a “scurry” (a Scurry of Squirrels—appropriate). They are native to every … Read more
I did it again. In all of this excessively cold weather, I was so obsessed with protecting the pipes that I forgot to protect my rosemary and lavender. They are, I hate to admit, dead. Again. I just went through this last winter. I know they’re more vulnerable because they are container grown and wish … Read more
Tomorrow, January 10th is National Houseplant Appreciation Day. Why do we need a houseplant appreciation day? Well, the Christmas tree has come down; we’ve swept up the last of the wrapping paper, and the poinsettia is sitting in a corner dropping leaves (because it really wants to be in front of that sunny window over there). … Read more
Did you make any New Year’s resolutions yesterday? Every year, I make New Year’s resolutions for my garden. So here is this year’s top 5… I resolve to be better about feeding my garden. Okay, it’s not exactly rocket science to sprinkle a handful of Tomato-tone or Garden-tone around the base of my vegetables. So … Read more
