Manage light for flavor and tenderness
Some of my vegetables blanched at what I did to them. Not from embarrassment, but from lack of light.To make a vegetable more tender and less bitter, consider blanching it. Plants blanche when they...
View ArticleEat fruit at peak flavor
Pick up an apple and hold it to your ear. Can you hear it breathing?Of course you can’t. But that apple, like any other harvested fruit or nut, is breathing, taking in oxygen and giving off carbon...
View ArticleUsing a coldframe is like moving your garden south
In one weekend, you could effectively move your garden — or at least part of it — a few hundred miles south. If you’re handy, you could do it in less than a day.Do this by building a coldframe — a...
View ArticleLuscious fruits come from timely harvest, good storage
“Ripe” is a term that’s used much too freely when it comes to fruits.A plum is not supposed to taste sour like a lemon; that lemon-y plum is not ripe. Nor — and this is important — will it ever be.read...
View ArticlePlan, plant now for spring-flowering bulbs
It’s nearly that time of year when gardeners think of spring — of planting bulbs that are going to bloom then.Bulbs are “pre-packaged” flowers, so a green thumb isn’t necessary to get those first...
View ArticleGardening: growing blackberries without the blood
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been picking and eating what are arguably the best fruits I have ever tasted (a belief I often hold when a particular fruit is ripe). They are blackberries, but not...
View ArticlePreparation, planning make for a successful meadow
Weeks of lawn mowing can make a backyard meadow — a carefree carpet of flowers and grasses — seem like an especially appealing alternative.Even small yards can accommodate a patch of meadow.Although a...
View ArticleStrawberry beds get a boost from renovation
If you saw my strawberry bed, you might think I don’t like strawberries. The leaves have been lopped off, some plants were ripped out of the ground, and those that remain are partially buried in...
View ArticleDogwoods' beauty continues into summer
The last of the “hounds of spring” is in its glory. Dogwood.The flamboyant show began back in late winter when cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), a kind of dogwood, swathed its branches in a veil of small,...
View ArticleStaking trees: Do it only if needed, and do it right
To stake or not to stake?Too many gardeners answer this question in the affirmative. Who doesn’t want to lend support to a wispy, young tree?And there are situations when a tree can use some mechanical...
View ArticleVegetable gardens can be pretty as well as functional
Considering the superior flavor of fresh-picked vegetables and the choices you get when you grow your own, it’s a wonder that more people don’t have vegetable gardens.Even a local farm or farmers...
View ArticleDon't ignore forsythia just because it's gone green
The warm glow of forsythias cools down as their flowers fade and green leaves start to unfold. For the next 11 months, this plant that displays such cheerful color on the drab heels of winter will be...
View ArticlePruning: Get the right cut for the growth you want
In the short space that follows, I think I can guide you on how to prune any plant, from a midget marigold to a mighty oak.That’s because all plants respond similarly to pruning. Once you understand...
View ArticlePlant for posterity: Replace a giant tree with a giant-to-be
Nothing like some strong winter winds to remind one of mortality — tree mortality.No tree lives forever. Nothing does. But we humans sometimes don’t appreciate trees’ mortality, especially trees that...
View ArticleAutumn Joy sedum is a plant that lives up to its name
For some visual joy in autumn, plant Autumn Joy sedum.The plants’ domed flower clusters now smile skyward like heads of pink broccoli. Autumn Joy is, understandably, a stalwart of the late summer and...
View ArticleClothe your soil: Cover crops help enrich it
Cover crops are plants that gardeners and farmers have, since the beginnings of agriculture, grown not to eat but for the good of the soil.Blanketing the ground to hold soil particles in place, a cover...
View ArticleKeep composting simple
Look on the shelves of almost any store or in any catalog selling plants and gardening equipment and you’ll find “compost activators” offered. These mixtures contain beneficial microorganisms,...
View ArticleUse durable wood to make a great gate for garden
Visitors always admired the entrance gate to my vegetable garden, more than I ever did.Built from cedar branches, it did have rustic charm. But it really was too flimsy for its size and, as it sagged...
View ArticleCatalpa in bloom is like a tree full of orchid blossoms
I stopped to stare at some buckets of flowers at a farmers market last Sunday. The white flowers, their throats speckled purple and yellow and grouped together on stalks like a candelabra, looked...
View ArticleHelping plants grow up by staking them
“Grow up.” That’s what I tell some of my plants.Upright plants, bathed in air, are less apt to get fungal diseases, and those bearing fruits — tomatoes, for example — are less likely to have their...
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