A beautiful spring day

Finally, a day worthy of real spring.  Clear blue sky. Temps in the mid-70°s. Redbuds in flower and dogwoods well along.I planted sprouted fingerling potatoes this afternoon -- the woodchuck shouldn't like the above-ground parts, I hope, even though s/he seems to have snagged my collards already.I...

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Early flowering bulbs

In spite of a early spring dusting of snow this morning, and a howling wind, it was lovely to see hyacinths and grape hyacinths on my walk in the mountains this morning. a Wikipedia image of grape hyacinths:  they're everywhere in our historic neighborhoodIt felt wintry, but the visible signs...

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Native woodland gardens

It was nice this morning to share thoughts about creating native woodland gardens  with an OLLI class (check out OLLI programs if you're in the US -- a great lifelong learning initiative). It's been a lovely journey to transform lawn to woodland habitat over the last two decades, and we now...

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Spring is here

In spite of a nasty cold northerly wind today, bringing yet more freezing temperatures, spring is definitely here in the Carolinas.  It's welcome, for sure.  It's been a long cold winter for us; we're not familiar with the deep freeze (and snowy weather) that we've experienced this year.But spring is still evident everywhere -- flowering redbuds and oaks, fruiting maples, flowering blueberries,...

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The magic of gardens

I have a friend who lost her house in a fire almost two months ago.  Everything was lost, and the house is currently being "gutted" and rebuilt.  She thought she'd never return, as she lost so much, including dear animal companions.What has endured, though, is her garden.  The daffodils are flowering, the self-sowing poppies will be back, and spring is there.How renewing a story is...

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The last gasp of winter?

We have a chilly week ahead in the Piedmont (of South Carolina).  On Tuesday, the low is predicted to be 28°F --variable depending on the weather site consulted.Traditionally, our last frost date here is April 15th, so we shouldn't be surprised.But, it's been so darn wintry this year, I've been celebrating signs of spring big-time, from the daffodils, snowdrops, leucojum, forsythia, flowering...

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Harvest-directed cooking

I love this time of year because so much of what we eat comes from the garden. It's harvest-directed cooking.A dinner salad from the garden includes a rogue blooming onion*, Swiss chard, 3 types of lettuce from the chef's mix blend, romaine, curly parsley, carrots, sugar-snap peas, come-again broccoli,...

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Bloodroot is in flower!

It's such a joy to see the bright white flowers of bloodroot after a long winter.  It's one of our early spring flowering natives, along with hepatica and trout lily.It's done well in our emerging woodland garden, too.clumps of bloodroot along the front pathAfter slowly amending the soil with mulch...

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U.S. Virgin Islands and local food production

view towards St. Thomas from St. JohnA second trip to the Caribbean has me pondering (again) about local food, food self-sufficiency,  and vegetable-growing (hmm, where are they).  Not to mention supplies of anything else.Apparently, between 95-99% of food is imported in the U.S. Virgin Islands...

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Supporting pollinators

With the increase in use of neonicotinoid pesticides in "routine" propagation of garden perennials, there's definitely been a recognition that it CAN be an issue in some plants producing nectar, pollen, and/or leaf tissue harmful to pollinators. The Xerces Society has brought this forward -- how comprehensive a problem it might be remains to be seen.The bottom line is that neonicotinoids have...

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Finally, time to sow!

It's taken forever this winter to finally be time to sow.  It could have been last weekend, but I was busy doing other things, and I knew soil temperatures were still low."blank" raised beds --now sown with peas, beets, lettuce, and greensBut a beautiful weekend and signs of spring popping out...

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A trout lily adventure

The beautiful trout lilies put on quite a show,but only for a few weeks in the spring.I first heard about Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve at the 2010 Florida Native Plant Society Conference in Tallahassee when Dan Miller made a lunchtime presentation. He told about how he a few others had saved a unique,...

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