There is nothing subtle about a sunflower. Poke a seed into the ground and a thick stalk will zoom up, with broad leaves at the sides and a huge flower on top, a gentle giant wearing a sporty grin and sending a message of affable openness. All pollinators welcome. All birds invited to supper. Sunflowers …
It’s dark in our root cellar in wintertime. Ideally, it’s a bit clammy down there too, as the temperature hovers around 33 degrees with a humidity of 90 percent. It smells earthy and maybe a little cabbagey — not a fun place to hang out. But grab a bucket and something from every bin, bring …
Gardeners sound like warriors when they talk about their weeds. After all, a grower’s reputation rests on having an adversary of stature, a foe worthy of one’s determination and skill. Don’t tell a Californian you envy her climate. Listen to her epic tale about battling wood sorrel. The green-thumbed Vermonter might acknowledge the leg-up he …
The holidays, fun as they are, can be guilt-producing. Too much rich food, too much champagne, too many family expectations to be met. And then there are the gift plants. Your boss gives you a poinsettia, your neighbor gives you flowering bulbs, your mother gives you an azalea, covered with festive red blooms. Only a …
It’s a cook’s nightmare. The table is set, hungry diners hover, and the beans still aren’t done. They’ve been cooking for six hours, but still haven’t softened and never will. For those of us who have foresworn canned beans in favor of the real thing, the unpredictability of dried beans’ cooking time can turn a …
Summer may be the sweet season, as strawberries, melons and peaches appear in a delicious progression of ripeness. But the sweet tastes of winter are treasured too. After the first frosts, something magical happens to the vegetables that remain in the garden. It’s quite different from the sugar buildup in summer fruits, designed to entice …
How do we learn to garden? Those of us who write about the subject do our best to give useful information, just as favorite authors have done for us. We hope our pages end up dog-eared and mud-smeared, sharing shelf space not with Dickens and Proust but with pruners, and twine. Even then, we help …
Vegetable fashions may come and go, but Jerusalem artichokes have been grown on this continent for a very long time. Native American gardeners were tending this nutritious crop well before it caught the eye of Sir Walter Raleigh, who brought it back to England, and the explorer Samuel de Champlain, who introduced it to France. …
Life is not like the movies, especially when it comes to gardening. Looking after plants isn’t considered the stuff of high drama, suspense or action adventure, so the garden, in film, tends to be a setting, a symbol or an idea. The 1993 version of “The Secret Garden,” for instance, might teach you a bit …
Of all the jobs in the gardening year, digging potatoes is one of my favorite. It’s like an Easter egg hunt, except that it happens in summer and fall instead of spring. As soon as I spot blossoms on the plants, I know I can steal a few tubers from the edge of the row, …
