The Weekly Gardener Volume 16: January to December 2022

By Francis Rosenfeld

Collected articles from The Weekly Gardener - January through December 2021.
For current articles visit The Weekly Gardener website.
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 in their own gardening practice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francis Rosenfeld
• Release date: Jan 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215246191

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 2022

by Francis Rosenfeld

© 2023 Francis Rosenfeld

Smashwords Edition

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Week 1 - December 27th - Pampered Skin

Week 2 - January 3rd - Preparing the Ground

Week 3 - January 10th - Improving Perfection

Week 4 - January 17th - Gardening in the Shade

Week 5 - January 24th - Sprouts

Week 6 - January 31st - Oh, Phil!

Week 7 - February 7th - Structure

Week 8 - February 14th - Sensory Gardens

Week 9 - February 21st - Crafting Landscapes

Week 10 - February 28th - March

Week 11 - March 7th - Perfume

Week 12 - March 14th - Welcome, Spring!

Week 13 - March 21st - The Woods in Spring

Week 14 - March 28th - The Edible Garden

Week 15 - April 4th - Gardening by the Moon

Week 16 - April 11th - What to Do When

Week 17 - April 18th - Long Flowering Season

Week 18 - April 25th - About Planting

Week 19 - May 2nd - Blossoms

Week 20 - May 9th - The Kitchen Garden

Week 21 - May 16th - Late Spring Garden

Week 22 - May 23rd - Herbs and Vegetables

Week 23 - May 30th - June Bloom

Week 24 - June 6th - Summer Rains

Week 25 - June 13th - The Fragrant Garden

Week 26 - June 20th - Summer Borders

Week 27 - June 27th - For the Love of Gardening

Week 28 - July 4th - Sunbright

Week 29 - July 11th - Veggies

Week 30 - July 18th - Summer Color

Week 31 - July 25th - Garden Magic

Week 32 - August 1st - August Lull

Week 33 - August 8th - Healers

Week 34 - August 15th - Summer Stories

Week 35 - August 22nd - Harvest Time

Week 36 - August 29th - Fragramt August

Week 37 - September 5th - The Craft of Fragrance

Week 38 - September 12th - In the Pink

Week 39 - September 19th - Waiting for the Equinox

Week 40 - September 26th - September Calendar

Week 41 - October 3rd - October Gold

Week 42 - October 10th - Walking in Beauty

Week 43 - October 17th - The Late Season Garden

Week 44 - October 24th - October Mists

Week 45 - October 31st - November Already

Week 46 - November 7th - Bulbs

Week 47 - November 14th - White Flower Gardens

Week 48 - November 22nd - Planning a Vegetable Garden

Week 49 - November 29th - December Spice

Week 50 - December 5th - Flowers and Fruit

Week 51 - December 12th - Trees

Week 52 - December 19th - Structure and Rhyme

WEEK ONE

December 27th - Pampered Skin

From The Kitchen Cupboard

Here are a few kitchen ingredients that may come in handy for a natural beauty regimen.

First, oils are the skin’s best friend, regardless of the type, and make effective skin cleansers, because the grime and pollutants that clog the pores are fat soluble.

Oil consistencies vary so much it is easy to find the best oil for your skin type, from the greaseless feel of light oils like grape seed, apricot, or almond to the heavy duty thick and nutrient rich hydration of avocado or olive oils.

Oats and egg yolks provide a quick helping of B and E vitamins. A blend of oat, egg yolk, heavy cream, and honey works wonders to restore bounce and moisture to dry and mature skin.

Bran, cornmealwheat germ and almond meal make nourishing skin scrubs, and acidic fruit gently dissolves the superficial layer of dead cells to reveal the youthful skin underneath and refine the pores.

Last, but not least, the ultimate scary green monster face - the avocado, yogurthoney and lemon mask, guaranteed to feed, soothe and clarify the most finicky skin.

Simply mix the ingredients, apply them to the face and relax for twenty minutes, preferably while home alone.

Caring For Winter Skin

Between being exposed to the elements or excessively dry air indoors, getting smothered by thick layers of clothing, and the cold weather diet, skin is bound to get stressed in winter, and it requires extra loving care to make up for it.

First, even if you don’t normally use creams, make an exception in winter, especially if your skin gets dry or irritated.

This is the time to forgo those lighter than air lotions that get absorbed immediately and go for the heavy cold creams, which insulate the skin with a protective layer of, yes, I’ll say it, grease, from the unfriendly elements.

Drink lots of water, which can come in the form of warm herbal teas or comforting broths, and avoid drinking and smoking.

Protect as much skin as you can with gloves and scarves, and favor clothing made from natural fibers which wick moisture and allow it to breathe.

Dry brush and sugar scrub to remove dead cells and don’t skimp on the moisturizer.

Good Nutrition

Good nutrition is essential for healthy, beautiful skin.

Vitamin C promotes a youthful glow, B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids strengthen hair and nails to make them look healthy and shiny, vitamin A benefits eye health and prevents skin breakouts and vitamin E strengthens cell walls and mitigates sun damage.

Thirsty

Nothing else will make thirsty skin happy; the best way to hydrate it is drinking plenty of water.

After that, it doesn’t hurt if you give it additional help by pampering it with naturally hydrating masks made with honey, avocadorose and hibiscus water, yogurt or cucumber.

WEEK TWO

January 3rd - Preparing The Ground

Raised Beds

Raised beds are the shortcut to an instant garden.

Build a rectangular frame, two planks high, cultivate the soil inside it to about a foot deep, and fill the frame with alternating layers of good garden soil and compost.

The ideal size of a raised bed is 4 feet wide by 12 feet long by 24 inches tall, if accessible from both sides. Borders should be 2 to 3 feet wide if placed against a fence or foundation wall. The width should allow easy reach to the middle or back of the border, and the length is controlled by standard lumber sizes.

The frame should be constructed from rot resistant wood and provided with drainage holes at the bottom.

Though convenient and affording better control over the growing conditions, raised beds require extra care.

The soil needs regular replenishing, because of rain run-off, and dries faster than regular garden soil during droughts.

Eventually, it needs to be completely replaced; it becomes impoverished or too salty from the use of fertilizers.

Planters

The planter garden is very special to a gardener’s heart, because it brings life to otherwise barren places: roofs and balconies, paved courtyards and narrow alleyways.

Its configuration is endlessly flexible; a container garden can be a few pots in a corner, but it can also be a planted wall, a clump of trees in barrels, or an arbor. The design is limited only by the green thumb’s imagination.

The location needs proper drainage and a water source. Using a watering can becomes tedious in the summer, when the containers need watering twice a day.

Use a variety of container shapes and sizes to fit the plants' characteristics and provide visual interest. Add garden art.

Because they receive fresh soil every spring, containers can sustain a lot more plants per square foot than garden borders, so feel free to stuff them to overflowing, and add trailing plants that cascade gracefully over their edges.

Don’t forget clay pots need to be emptied and stored where they won’t freeze, otherwise they will break over the winter in the freeze-thaw cycle.

Amending The Soil

If your garden soil is poor, don’t despair. Almost everything