Category: Gardening

Natural Light (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) by Nietnagel

The period between winter and spring always seemed the saddest time of the year. The landscape seemed so dull and muddy after the pretty snows of winter and before the flowers burst open in the spring. That was before TheGardenLady learned that there are some winter flowering plants that bloom in the “dark” of winter and that keep blooming well into spring. The plants I prefer are the hardy perennials, bulbs and shrubs. Of course, I still cannot wait for the real spring blooming flowers that always seem to be such a miracle when they open, reliably, every Spring.

Since I now know that there are winter-flowering plants, this Garden Lady has been adding more and more of these wondrous plants to my garden. This way when I go out to look in my garden, even before the last snows have fallen, there is something to delight the eye. And it is amazing to me when I discover the little bursts of flowers that distract from the barrenness of the landscape and are a harbinger of the more spectacular show of flowers that I know are just a few months away.

Continue reading “Plants that Bloom in Winter”

compost by zen

March is more the month for getting ready for gardening if you reside in the colder Hardy Temperature Zones areas such as zones 5 or 6.

You can prune all dead and broken wood on trees, shrubs and vines now or any time of the year.

This winter of our discontent the snow and ice did a lot of tree and branch damage.

Start cleaning up your gardens and lawns.

I hope you have been adding organics (garbage) to your compost bin all winter. Keep adding it.  See here.

Continue reading “Some Gardening Tips for March”

TheGardenLady just finished reading Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. I decided to read this book not only because the cover said it was voted One Of The Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review but because TheGardenLady wanted to learn what life was like on an Iowa Farm during the Great Depression. This Garden Lady grew up on a farm, but fortunately it was after that Depression. Still I felt certain that some of the things the author remembered would be similar to the way I had grown up. So here was the opportunity to be nostalgic as I read someone else’s nostalgia.

And there were many similarities. For example, the frugality of life on Mildred’s family farms was just like my family’s. We never wasted anything- just like Mildred’s family, my parents could not afford waste. We never threw out anything. For example, when we had accumulated a pile of ruined or old rags my mother cut them up and crocheted them into floor rugs (see here).  We had linoleum on the floors that was easier to clean than carpeting, but when company came, we could put down these hand made rugs to have the house look more decorative. Mildred did not mention anyone in her family making these rag rugs.

Continue reading “Little Heathens: Growing Up on a Farm and Appreciating Tomatoes”