There are more than 3,500 mint species, but peppermint and spearmint are most common. Be sure to contain mint plants or they can overtake your garden.
Pumpkin fruits range in size from miniatures weighing less than 1 pound to 1,000-pound giants. Choose thick-walled pie pumpkin varieties for cooking and baking, and varieties with thinner flesh for Halloween carving.
Cucumbers are prone to attacks from cucumber beetles, which transmit bacterial wilt. Choose resistant varieties whenever possible. Protect young plants with floating row covers but remove covers when plants come into flower to ensure ample pollination.
Butternut squash is a winter squash that is more resistant to vine borers than other squash varieties due to its thicker stem. The flesh is yellow with a sweet, nutty taste. It makes a great winter storage crop.
Acorn squash varieties have creamy, yellow flesh with a sweet, nutty flavor. It’s ideal for baking, roasting and pureeing for soup.
I had some friends over the other day and finally got to use one of my Christmas presents: a cheese knife from my husband’s aunt and uncle in Wisconsin. When I opened the gift (which also included some distractingly yummy locally produced goodies), I didn’t think much about the knife ...
I mentioned in a previous post that we have been working with a landscape-architect friend to redesign our backyard. We’ve had several meetings to chat about our "dreams” and what’s possible as far as the grading and hardscape stuff goes.
Members of the onion family can be a great addition to your garden. Why not give these exotic varieties a try?
The seed catalogs have really started rolling in, now, and it’s so exciting. I was talking with some fellow gardeners yesterday about their favorite catalogs and about some of the new varieties they are looking forward to trying this year.
I have never been a houseplant person. Although I love to garden and I love plants, I’ve never managed to fall in love with a houseplant the same way I fall in love with a perennial or a sunflower or a beet. Not sure why, but I’ve always kind of wondered.
For the past several years we have had a bit of a deer problem in our front yard and garden. When we moved into our house, I knew there was the potential for deer problems, and they seem to be getting worse as time goes on.
And so goes another year. Why is it always so hard to believe? Before I sat down to write this post, I looked at my January 2010 garden journal writings to see if I actually managed to accomplish any of the items the last New Year’s to-do list.
