One day a few years ago, while I was busy preparing a meal for dinner guests, I walked out into the yard to see what flowers were blooming. When we have company for dinner, I usually just pick flowers from the garden for the table centerpiece. Well, it was July and, as you may know, […]
Archive for the ‘Aha! moments’ Category
Capillary Action Magic
If you have ever had to go away for a while, but were afraid your plants would die in your absence, here is one way to avoid coming back to face a bunch of withered sticks. I had heard about this watering method, but then actually tried it for our last two-week vacation. The process […]
To Bee or Not to Bee
Years ago, when we lived in an upper flat in Milwaukee, I tried growing tomatoes on the upstairs deck located on the south side of the house. It seemed like the perfect place for tomatoes, sunny most of the day except for a little shade from the curbside tree. I had a wooden planter […]
Pollarding or Lollipop Trees
When we first moved into our new home, the neighborhood had a lot of stately old weeping willow trees. In fact our next-door neighbor’s willow sported a large tree house close to our lot line and we first thought it might on our property. I was a bit disappointed to find out that it belonged […]
Potato Going Rogue
I have been faithfully composting my kitchen scraps and a lot of the garden waste from our yard for a few years now. Usually, the contents in my compost bins just perk along and eventually look sort of like soil, at which time I remove the compost and distribute it around the yard. This harvesting […]
Strawberries on Acid!
My childhood memory of picking strawberries, both the wild variety and the ones that grew in our family’s strawberry bed, made me want to grow some in my own yard. I purchased starter strawberry plants and set them into my raised garden. The plants did really well. I got a lot of strawberries and the […]