Yesterday was sunny and relatively warm with temperatures hovering around 40 F degrees, so I decided to spend an hour or so outside in the garden, puttering around and doing some light pruning.With some trepidation I slipped on a pair of my ‘gardening jeans’, jeans that I had promoted from everyday wear to gardening wear. I was concerned that between the effects of GRTH (Gardener’s Reduced Time with Horticulture) and the gravitational forces in my closet drawing the threads closer together, that … [Read more...] about Sunny, 40 F Degrees, Let’s Go Out and Garden!
fruits
Grape Jam, Kitchen Scales and Big Tomatoes
Oh my heavens, I discovered an old post a few days ago and realized that last year I did write and publish some resolutions for the new year.I could barely bring myself to read them, sure that I had probably failed on all most of them. Then tonight I finally looked at them and decided that I did pretty good. Good on some, not so good on others, but pretty good overall.One of the resolutions was to use up all the produce from the garden and not leave any hanging on the vine to be zapped by the … [Read more...] about Grape Jam, Kitchen Scales and Big Tomatoes
Grape Jam and Yes, Another Tiny Tomato
*See Monday evening breaking news below on tiny tomatoes*Look, I made a mess in the kitchen grape jam. Everything is all cleaned up now, I think, and I have nine jars of jam cooling on the counter. I'm sure some people are wondering what the big fuss is, anyone can make jam. But my family members reading this, who know I'm not much for cooking, are probably wondering what happened to me, what possessed me to make jam after all these years. Grapes, that's what happened, that's what possessed … [Read more...] about Grape Jam and Yes, Another Tiny Tomato
Purple on Purple: Grapes
Dear Garden Journal,Today, I harvested some 'Concord' grapes. You remember grapes, don't you? Sure you do! I first wrote about grapes on your pages in March 2003 when I put in the grape arbor and planted two kinds of grapes. The other kind was 'Himrod', but I wouldn't expect you to know about it. Even I forget about it sometimes because I've never seen it produce any grapes. Then I wrote about grapes on your pages in August 2004 when I harvested my first crop. That was an exciting time. I … [Read more...] about Purple on Purple: Grapes
Dawn Of Summer
Tis June, the dawn of summer, and time to change our mindsets about the garden. We hopefully move from planning what to do in the garden and long task lists of spring chores to enjoying the garden and 'getting to it when I can' type activities.The 'Endless Summer' Hydrangeas are starting to bloom. These are wonderful hydrangeas for those of us who live through what we think is an endless winter, because they bloom on new wood.My 'Endless Summer' hydrangeas all died completely back to the ground, … [Read more...] about Dawn Of Summer
How To Photograph a Robin’s Nest
Several people have commented asking how I am able to take pictures of the baby robins that I've posted a few times. I'll attempt to provide some step-by-step instructions here.First, plant a crabapple tree like this one. This is Malus 'Guinevere', one of the first ornamental trees I planted 10 years ago.Let the tree grow for a few years until it has this nice, natural "nest platform" formed where the main branches were grafted on to a standard. This platform is about four and half feet from the … [Read more...] about How To Photograph a Robin’s Nest
