In depth gardening advice from an expert gardener
A person by the name of Ryan emailed me today and asked the following question: “I want to grow plants in my dorm room at college and was wondering whether you recommend any type of plant and whether I need to take any special precautions.”
Below are some of my thoughts on the topic –
You read this correctly. Would you throw out your old gold? I doubt that there is anyone rich enough to do that. And no one would be rich if he or she threw out gold.
So why would anyone throw out their fallen leaves? ( plus most of their garbage) This was a question going through my head as I was raking my leaves. Because that is what so many of my neighbors, and I am sure your neighbors, do. Some not only throw the fallen leaves out, or give it to their trash or city collectors, they pay to throw it out. They BUY bags to stuff the leaves in so the city can collect them easier. Now they have the extra work of stuffing leaves into bags. Unbelievable!!!!  First people are throwing out a valuable resource; going to the extra work of bagging the leaves and then paying to have this resource taken from them. Is this crazy or what?
Today when I went out to rake my patio, I was shocked and very pleased to see that for the first time a flower that I had planted a few years ago was in bloom. I was shocked because it is almost ½ way through October and we have had what seemed like two small frosts. I am pleased because the flower is really quite pretty. Â
*Start tidying up for winter – Leave seed heads for birds
*Bring in houseplants
*Bring in summer bulbs for storage
*Start digging, manuring and rotating heavy soils for next year’s planting
Today while doing some errands, I serendipitously drove into a shopping mall that was holding a very small farmers market. This market is part of the NJ Council of Farmers and Communities that ensures that farmers’ markets sell produce only grown in NJ (here is their website). The stand where I bought a number of different kinds of heritage apples was from a farm called Tree Licious Orchards in Western NJ (here is their website). The elderly farmer who sold me the fruit told me that his over 100 acre orchard is run by the 7th generation of farmers. Tree Licious Orchards specialty are peaches and apples, though they have lots of other fruit trees and produce. Right now they are so busy harvesting the trees they haven’t had the time to dig up their potatoes.
My nom de plume is Lilac. So what’s in a name? What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet” from Romeo and Juliette. But I wondered how many of my readers’s names come from flowers, shrubs or trees? Or, how many of my readers want to name their babies after flowers, shrubs or trees? Here is a fun website about names given to people that have flower, plant or tree origins: it’s a website of names with their definitions for both boys and girls. Check it out. Some of the names seem like they could be surnames as well as given names.
I was raised on a small truck farm in Southern New Jersey. My parents raised and sold produce and annual flowers on this farm. We had a small farm stand. When I grew older I became a 4H member, an organization for farm children to learn to do many farm related things, that enabled me to show what I did at the county fair.