Those of us in the northeastern reaches of North America are something like just past the halfway mark to spring. The days are getting longer, and even though I am thoroughly discouraged by endless applications of boots and layers of heavy clothing, there is some hope. Spring is within a reasonably foreseeable future. There are …
Seed buying and seed starting season is upon us. It won’t be long now (let’s pretend, even though the snow outside says otherwise) before we’re happily knee-deep into the growing season. Yesterday, I put out a call on Twitter for an online list or chart of garden companies (as well as makers of garden products) …
I was saving this photo, taken last May, for a larger piece on growing broom (Genista lydia), but the greyness today has really brought my energy level down to barely subsistence level. I’m practically in a coma at my desk. I need colour! And here it is.
I promise this will be my last amaryllis post of the season, if only because I am fresh out of blooming amaryllis to write about. Well, that’s not entirely true. The ‘Nymph’ (or ‘Sydney’ or who knows what anything is anymore since nearly all of my bulbs came misidentified) has a second stalk that will …
I have begun to purchase seeds for the 2011 growing season, and because I now live in an Italian neighbourhood, I have easy access to Italian edibles. The above photo represents my first, in-store (as opposed to online), impulse seed purchase of the year. Most of the seeds I bought were varieties of radicchio (Cichorium …
I haven’t done much book buying or reading recently, but it’s been ages since I’ve done a book round-up and there have certainly been books in the months since I last wrote about what I’m reading. Crazy Water Pickled Lemons: Enchanting Dishes from the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa, by Diana Henry – I’ve …
We moved a few months back. Over the last year I’ve received a few threatening emails. I’m not talking about, “You’re a jerk, I hate your stupid website” type emails. No, these threatened my person in a clearly violent manner. I knew that when we moved I’d be more protective about where we lived and …
I apologize for temporarily turning this site into You Grow Girl: The Amaryllis Story, but I promise you I have more posts on other topics on the go. Until then, as promised, here are a few photos of the ‘Green Dragon’ amaryllis. And here are the flowers with red streaks down the centre of each …
Back in November, I wrote about receiving a green amaryllis from a friend (it’s just starting to bloom) and mentioned another variety that I was coveting called ‘Green Dragon.’ Well, I went and bought that one, too. Or rather, I bought three.
It must have been the influence of that month in the Caribbean where they are as big as trees, because I haven’t craved a holiday poinsettia in ages. The last time I remember growing one was the year I published a piece on restoring a dormant poinsettia to its original glory. That must have been …
One of my goals for the 2011 growing season is to try expanding into other species of the nasturtium genus (Tropaeolum). My love of the well known and edible Tropaeolum majus is well documented on this site, and elsewhere, but I have never tried to grow, nor have I even seen any of the other …
I’ve flailed about here all morning, trying on a variety of topics for the first post of 2011. I’m feeling intimidated like this is the first post I have ever written, or worse yet, the first post ever written In the History of the World! I think they call this being melodramatic. My original plan …