The Weekly Gardener Volume 2 January-June 2012

By Francis Rosenfeld

Collected articles from theweeklygardener.com - January through June 2012.
For current articles visit The Weekly Gardener blog

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francis Rosenfeld
• Release date: Jun 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476005195

Francis Rosenfeld

I started learning about gardening from my grandfather, at the age of four. Despite his forty years' experience as a natural sciences teacher, mine wasn't a structured instruction, I just followed him around, constantly asking questions, and he built up on the concepts with each answer.As I grew older I applied this knowledge, experimented with new plants and learned a few things from my mistakes. That was fifteen years ago, and since then I was blessed with a thriving perennial garden. Half way through the journey, the micro-farm concept developed, a yearly challenge to figure out how much produce twenty square feet of dirt can yield.I started blogging in 2010, to share the joy of growing all things green and the beauty of the garden through the seasons. Two garden blogs were born this way: allyeargarden.com and theweeklygardener.com, a periodical that followed it one year later. I wanted to assemble an informal compendium of the things I learned from my grandfather, wonderful books, educational websites, and my own experience, in the hope that other people might find it useful it in their own gardening practice.The blogs contain many stories (I am a writer and couldn't help myself), but also practical information about plant propagation, garden maintenance, working with your site, making preserves and keeping the yard welcoming for beneficial insects and local wildlife.

Book preview

The Weekly Gardener

Volume 2

January through June 2012

A collection of weekly articles from

The Weekly Gardener

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012

Smashwords Edition, License Notes.

Thank you for downloading this free eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to http://smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

The Weekly Gardener is a live blog, for current articles please visit the website.

I would like to thank my blog readers whose continued interest gave me the confidence to keep writing. The Weekly Gardener started in June 2011, with Week 23.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Week 1 - January 9, 2012 - And so it begins

Week 2 - January 16, 2012 - Winter cozy

Week 3 - January 23, 2012 - Essence

Week 4 - January 30, 2012 - For the love of gardens

Week 5 - February 6, 2012 - Roses and snow

Week 6 - February 13, 2012 - Happy Valentine's Day!

Week 7 - February 20, 2012 - A garden of hellebores

Week 8 - February 27, 2012 - Finally!

Week 9 - March 5, 2012 - Bluetiful

Week 10 - March 12, 2012 - Daffodils

Week 11 - March 19, 2012 - Bleeding hearts and such

Week 12 - March 26, 2012 - Mary, Mary, quite contrary

Week 13 - April 2, 2012 - April's fool

Week 14 - April 9, 2012 - Planting time

Week 15 - April 16, 2012 - Raindrops on tulips

Week 16 - April 23, 2012 - April purples

Week 17 - April 30, 2012 - First roses

Week 18 - May 7, 2012 - Butter-cream blush

Week 19 - May 14, 2012 - Beginning harvest

Week 20 - May 21, 2012 - Growing in the shade

Week 21 - May 28, 2012 - Waiting for bloom

Week 22 - June 4, 2012 - Green summer

Week 1 - January 9, 2012

AND SO IT BEGINS

Brr, it's cold!

The year begins, cold as January is expected to be. Feathered creatures fluff up much as they can to keep precious heat around their little bodies.

Today it snowed, a dainty dusting of powder with bright green grass blades poking through. I finally gave in and bought the first daffodils of this year, a little cheerful preview of spring.

Daffodils on the table next to the laptop, I plan next year's garden. It always seems wise to plan until the first heart melting primrose or wallflower grabs hold of me at the plant nursery and forgets to let go.

Afterthoughts make the garden special. For instance, last year I grabbed the crunchy rock-like bulbs of liatris that now grace the front garden and almost forgot to plant them. The year before that I stumbled upon lovage and rescued a little lilac that was waiting sad and lonely in the clearance corner after the end of year sale.

Two of my favorite roses, Blue Girl and Morden Blush, joined the shopping cart one very hot day in August at the worst possible time to plant.

I bought a bleeding heart once and planted it where it didn't thrive. Touched by the obviously tormented growth, I dug it up literally at the last moment, divided it and planted it in five different places. Now I have a mass planting.

There is also the endless entertainment of itinerant snapdragons: last year they were five feet away from their current location. They are not the same snapdragons, of course, they just reseed easily, but they look the same, so it's fun to watch them move around the garden as the years