Sunday’s glorious sunshine found me in the boggy garden looking for signs of Spring. My bog garden of carnivorous plants is very sad looking, dormant and resting out the winter. I installed the bog last summer with help from my son, a successful carnivorous plant gardener. Having killed my fair share of Venus flytraps, I was a little apprehensive about starting a bog garden. My fears were misplaced, now several months later, most of the plants are thriving with little effort on my part. More...

Happy New Year! Where’s the sun? Winter Solstice came and went, so the daylight hours are lengthening right? I am noticing cherry trees budding out, somewhat tentatively, but it’s happening.

In the gray of winter I spend too much time reading gardening books and dreaming of spring. Over the holidays I read Diary of a Compost Hotline Operator by Spring Gillard. Hands down the most delightful book on composting and gardening I’ve read since the first Whole Earth Catalog. This fun and sassy collection of edible essays on city farming is lighthearted reading chocked full of useful information, much of which I had not known. More...

Last week’s rain created waterfalls in my rock walls and lake sized puddles at the corner of my house which resulted in a stream of water across my laundry room floor. Hunched under a torrential downpour I dug drainage ditches from my new lakes to the front slope – it worked!

Within a couple of hours the lakes were empty, even as the rain continued. This has caused me to reconsider “Rain Gardens”. The smattering I know of rain gardens makes me think I have inadequate distance between my foundation and my neighbors’ for creating one. More...