Elephant ears make my summer garden shine, so I immediately said yes when Dutch Grown Bulbs asked me to collaborate with them on summer bulbs. 'Maui Gold' elephant ear with red begonias at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens Dr. John Cho elephant ear varieties As longtime readers know, I don't do that many collaborative posts, but I wanted to share the newer elephant ears now on the market, and this is a great opportunity to do so. Dutch Grown Bulbs has several unique elephant ear varieties created by Dr. John Cho of Hawaii, who has worked on his breeding program for a very long time. If you see elephant ears with some aspect from our 50th state in their names, you can reliably know it is part of Dr. Cho's breeding program. Dr. Cho chooses new plants that grow in large clumps and don't run like the large Colocasia esculenta, which...

Starting Seeds is easy with a seed-starting station. Seed-starting station Bill and I built for an article for Fiskars. I still use it even though I have a greenhouse. First, obtain the following items: A metal closet rack with one-inch adjustable shelves. Mine was five feet tall, but you can definitely go shorter. Four casters for mobility to catch the sunlight anywhere in your house. Four-foot light fixtures and full spectrum LED bulbs. My bulbs aren't LED because my seed-starting station is older, but I may replace them this year. Lighting fixtures should be grounded, attached to the metal frame, and plugged into a grounded fixture in the wall to prevent shock. Water and electricity could shock you senseless. Four heat mats. Again, plug these into a grounded fixture. Recycled seed trays or new ones. You can also use seed starting blockers to eliminate the need for seed trays. Seeds....

It's a new year, which means I'm thinking about new garden plans. I also ordered new flower seeds. I thought sharing my new garden plans, and seed orders might be helpful. It's also a good record for me, which is how this blog started out 16 years ago. Can you believe I've been writing this blog for 16 years? I can't. Not really. A quickly drawn garden plan Cutting garden plan for 2023. I drew up a quick plan for the cut flower gardens because instead of my normal "sow and go" method, I'm starting quite a few seeds indoors this year, including my zinnias. In the last couple of springs, we've had a lot of rain in a very short time, and I live on a hill. I found that my zinnias were washed out of the cut-flower, raised garden beds and ended up drowned at the bottom of...

Starting in December, seed catalogs begin to arrive. By January, they arrive daily. Even though many companies have gone completely online, others like John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds send paper seed catalogs. I'm so glad they do. Seed catalogs from 2013. Seed catalogs 2014 Seed catalogs are crack for the winter weary gardener. Three views of the Chiltern Seeds catalogs. Unfortunately, I don't think they ship outside of Great Britain anymore. Like additional Christmas presents during the bleakest part of the year, seed catalogs start showing up about a week before the big holiday, and then for weeks afterward. By the end of January, I usually have a large stack of seed catalogs waiting for me beside my favorite chair. Seeds for vegetable gardening and beautiful flowers entice me, but I make myself lay the catalogs aside until I can really look and choose what I want to grow. Tomato...