I had been forewarned by my children that spring had already arrived in Israel. But when I got off the plane and smelled the orange trees in bloom, I knew I was in for a treat. All it took was a few hours of meandering around Tel Aviv, which is a city constantly in a [...]
Pick up just about any glossy nursery catalog these days, and it’s nothing but temptation: You simply must have the latest black-leaved elderberry and golden grass and coppery heuchera. Uh, yeah…until you finish filling out the order form and realize it’s time to take out a home-equity loan to pay for them all – whilst [...]
To cut down on watering and maintenance, I usually use nice, big slow-to-dry-out pots, maybe a 20-incher or bigger for my thriller; a 16- incher-or two or three– for my fillers; and a 12-inch or so pot -maybe three or five of them-for the spillers. The result is basically fool proof. If something grows too [...]
All of you with blogs of your own know that there’s seldom a lack of new topics to write about. But sometimes it’s worth revisiting an old topic, I think, especially when you have new information to share and new readers to share it with. Last August, I wrote a post titled Farewell to Roses, [...]
I think one of the reasons I took so long to catch on to growing vegetables is that the whole process seemed so serious. All those complicated crop-rotation plans, harvest-date calculations, and problem-solving charts seemed like way too much paperwork and worry. And let’s face it: When you’re used to growing ornamentals, most common vegetable [...]