Blog

Organic Pest Controls: Webinar, Video and Stories   July is when all those critters start catching up to me. I've been good about squishing squash bugs eggs, hand picking Japanese beetles and covering my Brussels sprouts and broccoli plants from the Swede midge and cabbage worms. But no matter how hard we try in our garden, pests still happen. So, I thought it's a good time to take a look at some pest controls you can do now to lessen the damage. These include for insect pests and diseases. I have many profiles of various pests on my...

  Lilacs and Hydrangeas: Webinar, Videos and Stories     June is a great month in our zone 5 garden. The lilacs, peonies and rhododendrons are finishing their bloom cycle and other perennials and shrubs, such as hydrangeas, are getting ready to put on a summer show. I was thinking about how popular lilacs and hydrangeas are for most gardeners, so I thought to dedicate a newsletter to both of them. Now is the time to prune your lilacs before they set flower buds for next spring. I talk about how to do that and how to do a...

    Container Gardening: Webinar, Video and Stories     May is the gardening month in many parts of the country, but for those with little space to garden the options are limited. Luckily, there is Container Gardening. With new types of pots, dwarf varieties, flowers that bloom all season without deadheading and even trees and shrubs that fit in pots, you can grow almost anything in a container. This newsletter is dedicated to those container gardeners out there who are looking for new ideas for containers, different...

  Fall Gardening & Plant Protection: Webinar, Podcasts, and Articles      It's stick season our new neck of the woods. That means the deciduous leaves and needles have dropped, but the snows have yet to show up. I was going to send this newsletter out next week, but the weather is shifting quickly to cold and snow in the North, so I thought it would be more timely to send this newsletter now. November is all about planting the last of your spring flowering bulbs and garlic, protecting a variety of tender plants from...

    All About Bulbs: Webinar, Videos, and Articles    October is spring flowering bulb and garlic planting month. Usually I'd have planted everything by now in our zone 5 garden, but because of the warm, dry fall, I'm waiting a few more weeks until the cooler weather and rains come. Plus, I'm still waiting for some of my bulb orders to arrive! So now is the time to have a plan for planting. To help, I'm highlighting my webinar, Growing Bulbs, to give you options for planting spring flowering bulbs in your yard, garden or...

        Fall Gardening Chores: Webinars, Podcasts and Stories     The calendar may have turned to September, but our warm days continue. I returned from my Gardens of Scotland tour only to find the vegetables and flowers still going strong and needing some water. Luckily my wife, Wendy, was home to keep the gardens growing. But fall is right around the corner so I thought to help us get ready for winter I'd offer a webinar and some videos and article about fall gardening. I highlight my webinar. Fall Gardening...

    Berries for the Birds, Russian Sage, Sunflower Fun, and Harvesting Winter Squash    The calendar has turned to September in our zone 5 garden, but not much else has changed. The days are sunny, we're finally getting some much needed rain, the temperatures are still warm during the day, yet cool at night, the flowers and veggies are still producing and the insects have moved on. Yes, it is one of my favorite times of the year. One of our fun activities this time of year is watching the birds. We have lots of bird friendly...

  Hardy Hibiscus, Preserving Those Tomatoes, Fall Spinach and Watering   Many areas of the country, including our Vermont garden, are experiencing abnormally dry or drought conditions. This amazes me because a month or two ago we were complaining about all the rain. Then Mother Nature turned off the spigot and we have very dry conditions. So, it's important to water your trees, shrubs, perennials and late summer planted veggies and flowers well. I talk about some watering strategies in this newsletter. Late summer can be a...