The Weekly Gardener Volume 6 January-June 2014

By Francis Rosenfeld

Collected articles from theweeklygardener.com - January through June 2014.
For current articles visit The Weekly Gardener blog

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francis Rosenfeld
• Release date: Aug 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310751493

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 6

January through June 2014

A collection of weekly articles from

The Weekly Gardener

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014

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 6, 2014 - New Year's resolutions - Part II

Week 2 - January 13, 2014 - How to pamper yourself

Week 3 - January 20, 2014 - Planning the next season

Week 4 - January 27, 2014 - Six more weeks...or not

Week 5 - February 3, 2014 - %@&*#$!

Week 6 - February 10, 2014 - Chocolate

Week 7 - February 17, 2014 - Yummy goodness!

Week 8 - February 24, 2014 - Treasures of the wilderness

Week 9 - March 3, 2014 - Bulbs

Week 10 - March 10, 2014 - Signs of life

Week 11 - March 17, 2014 - Ye gods!

Week 12 - March 24, 2014 - Thunderstorm

Week 13 - March 31, 2014 - Good riddance!

Week 14 - April 7, 2014 - Happy Easter!

Week 15 - April 15, 2014 - Rain

Week 16 - April 22, 2014 - White

Week 17 - April 29, 2014 - Really close

Week 18 - May 5, 2014 - Garden enchanted

Week 19 - May 12, 2014 - Indigo fields

Week 20 - May 19, 2014 - The garden in May

Week 21 - May 26, 2014 - Tending roses

Week 22 - June 2, 2014 - The vegetable patch

Week 23 - June 9, 2014 - Lilies and stuff

Week 24 - June 16, 2014 - Edibles

Week 25 - June 23, 2014 - Purple

Week 26 - June 30, 2014 - Chicago in July

Week 1 - January 6, 2014

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS - PART II

What actually happened

I got the plants for next year's garden and here is the comparison between dream and reality. The plants that made it from the wish list to the garden: black cohosh, Persian buttercupslavender, tiarella and all the kitchen herbs. There will be an herb garden.

Plants that weren't on the wish list but satisfy the criteria. For fragrance, blossoms and shade tolerance: chocolate vine, monkshood, goatsbeard, mignonette and Jack in the pulpit, a plant I always wanted to try.

Cooking and aromatic herbs: lavender, calendula, sagebasil and St. John's Wort. The vegetable seeds are in too, even though a little early, I'm looking forward to see how the heirloom tomatoes perform.

I'm thrilled to have found a vigorous and fragrant flowering vine for the shade, I thought this to be an unachievable dream. More summer bulbs to follow when the weather warms up.

So far so good for New Year's resolutions, as the saying goes What gets planned gets done.

Sundial

 My sundial is ready for a testing prototype. I'll have to take a cardboard model outside to make sure the month readings are correct, then figure out what material to use for the finished product.

It turned out a lot more precise than the rough idea in my mind so the materials originally envisioned will not work. The obvious solution, a stone tablet, most likely exceeds my manufacturing capabilities at this time. A wood carving would be a little easier, but not as weather resistant.

The edge of the shadow is supposed to align with the hour lines and the tip of the shadow should stop at the current month's curve.

It is custom designed for this latitude and will work with any boundary shape.

I also need to figure out some kind of support to raise it three feet off the ground, otherwise the plants will keep it in the shade all the time.

My point is this year there will be a sundial.

Monkshood

If your garden needs late summer blooming perennials, which are usually few and far between, try aconitum. It is a very resilient and spectacular plant that prefers partial shade and looks very much like a delphinium.

The only caveat is that it is poisonous. You have to handle it with gloves, keep it far from your vegetable patch and avoid planting it where small children or pets can reach. I'm having second and third thoughts...

Yes, herb garden!

One herb wheel coming right up! It is more of a semicircle in fact, due to local conditions, but it will feature thyme, sage, St. John's wort,  parsley, chives, sweet basil, lavender, marjoram and dill.

I'm still working on the layout to make sure all the plants get enough sunshine but it finally happened, sundial and all!

Week 2 - January 13, 2014

HOW TO PAMPER YOURSELF

Radiant skin

Three major factors contribute to improving the health of your skin: good nutrition and general wellbeing, good conditioning and removing dead cells and impurities.

Good nutrition and general well-being

Food that is good for the whole body will make the complexion glow too but hair and skin have some specific nutritional requirements: drink plenty of water, eat a good amount of healthy fiber, and prefer foods rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (sunflower,