Room for the Snake

You asked me why I garden. I replied it is a miracle that I do. And even more of a miracle that I enjoy it. I come from a long line of gardeners who taught me about the hard work but none of the pleasures. That was left for the garden herself to teach me. [...]

Carolyn_Fall_Grass

by Carolyn Pickering How quickly the summer has passed and we are now in one of the most thought provoking times of the year for a gardener. We often think we should wait until spring to make necessary changes to the garden plan but one of the advantages of fall gardening is that you are [...]

Learn to love the Tortoise Beetle

[simage=227,200,n,center,] This is an image of a Tortoise Beetle. If you grow ipomea then you have seen these. That would include morning glory and all forms of sweet potato vine, ornamental or not. I must admit that I have horrified some people with my exuberant enthusiasm for this …pest. How could I have any kind thoughts [...]

Every Car a Picture.

Our friends Orrie and Andrea were part of the courageous group of customers who came out on Saturday to purchase plants for their garden. I gave them a bit of a tour showing them the garlic, greens and green onions we are growing. The trunk and back seat were full before they left (note; always [...]

Oh Helen they are Mother’s to!

One of my Mom’s favorite and most impassioned stories was of chasing down a red tail hawk as a small girl. Mom loved animals. She had banty hens in the hen house next to our house. She nutured them and talked to them every day. There was nothing she loved more than to bundle up [...]

Morning Serenade

This morning Ruth and I uncovered our back beds. It was a quiet morning with no wind making the job light work. The sun was almost shining, a rare event this spring making it nearly perfect. To top it all off we had a lovely accompanist singing his heart out the whole time!

Garlic

Last fall we did an experimental planting of garlic in boxes in our greenhouse. [simage=19,max,n,center,] We are able to overwinter this garlic in a greenhouse that is kept at about a minimum of -5 C. It came through the winter beautifully and we moved the boxes out to our outside beds about 3 weeks ago. [...]

Greenhouse Tour

We conducted a tour late yesterday afternoon for the second year Engineering Energy Systems Technology students from St. Lawrence College. The professor is Ian Kilbourn. Ian has organized this group on a couple of occasions to have a visit and have us yak away at these poor unsuspecting souls! Since it was such a large [...]

Fall Gardening

The fall tends to be a bit more relaxed for us. We spend our time thinking about the following year and getting things cleaned up from this year. Customers are normally not part of the equation. One exception is customers asking about what they should do with a plant that they bring in the house [...]