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Plants for Problem Places, Seed Catalogs, Growing Asparagus, and Norfolk Island Pine It’s a New Year with all kinds of possibilities. I appreciate you for getting this newsletter and being part of my gardening universe. I have recently changed my email server. If you happen to be getting this newsletter after you had unsubscribed, I apologize. Please just unsubscribe again so I can have a clean list or let me know and I'll unsubscribe you. Thank you. I always get excited come January because for us it's the beginning of a year long process...

Bee Friendly Lawns, Perennial Vegetables, Soil Protection and Norfolk Island Pine Houseplant Happy New Year! I hope you all had a good holiday break and New Year's celebration. Even though the temperatures haven't gone above freezing in a week in our Vermont garden, it's still time to do some garden planning for 2026. It's never too early to buy seeds and make plans for new gardens this spring. With that in mind, let's talk about a garden that most of us ignore; the lawn. Most lawns are ecological deserts with a few species of grasses and...

  Black Raspberries, Vivacious Veronica, Japanese Iris and Wild Parsnips   It's July. Happy Independence Day! We've had a wet and warm June, so our gardens continue to look colorful and lush. The warm season flowers and veggies are loving the latest heat wave especially since there is ample water in the soil. We've moved on from our honey berries and June bearing strawberries. The next fruit up is the black raspberries. This lesser known bramble is a great one in the garden. It doesn't spread like its cousins the red raspberry...

    Early Summer Flower Garden, Gardens of Sardinia, Curious Cucumbers and Jumping Worms   I've just returned from leading a Garden Tour of Sardinia, Italy. It was a fabulous trip exploring this large island off the Italian coast. Sardinia certainly has lots of Mediterranean influenced gardens but surprisingly in the interior where it's wetter and cooler, there are some familiar temperate climate trees and shrubs growing as well. We spent time with a Sardinian landscape architect exploring dry land gardens and his own...

    The Other Lilies, Brussels Sprouts and Kohlrabi, Grow Some Nasturtiums and Flea Beetles     The highlight of my day was getting my tractor back from the mechanic's shop so I can start mowing and moving wood chips and compost. It's these simple pleasures that make a gardener smile! It's just in time because with cool temperatures and rain in our zone 5 Vermont garden, everything is growing fast! The planting continues and it's time to pop in some bulb lilies. The most popular are the Asiatic and Oriental lilies, but...

 Alliums for Everyone, Saving Herbs, Vines for Fall Color, and Scotland Garden Tour Slideshow    It's October and time for our New England zone 5 garden and landscape to be ablaze in color. Because of the drought this late summer and fall, the colors aren't as dynamic as usual and many leaves have dropped from the trees already. But there still is plenty of color around to enjoy! I'm always amazed at how daily the colors of tree and shrub leaves change this time of year. The weather has been generally warmer than normal for fall, but...

    Luscious Lamiums, Let's Beet It, Strawberry Pots and What's Up North Garden Blog   I'm taking a break from racing with the weeds. It seems they're winning. With cool temperatures and lots of moisture, our zone 5 garden has exploded with weeds. I spent a day weeding out most of the gardens last week, but they're back with a vengeance this week with more rain. I'm just trying to keep up! But many of our perennial flowers are loving this weather including our lamiums. These colorful ground covers are spreading and will be...