I've been planning on downsizing my garden piece-by-piece, bed-by-bed, for years. Why am I downsizing? Putting together Vego garden containers. I love my containers because they make gardening easier. This land and I have had a long and fruitful relationship. I've been growing in this space for 36 years. If you give a plant nut 7.5 acres to grow, you'll end up with an extensive garden, or maybe several gardens. I had great freedom, and I ran with it. I presently have 1.5 acres under cultivation, and I need to downsize it to an acre or so. That's still a lot of garden for one person and perhaps, a helper or two, to maintain. Then, there's the meadow, which is about an acre as well. Everyone's favorite view of the back garden. I can't stand the thought of letting my garden become weedy and overgrown. It's like when people stay...

Good afternoon! Yesterday morning my part of Oklahoma saw a low of ten degrees, but that's January for you. I think we can categorize this Oklahoma winter as chilly with a side of snow. We had blowing snow, and there is a chance for measurable snow at the end of the week. About yesterday. Yesterday, I arose and made coffee, which is one of my rituals. This is my very fancy espresso, coffee and latte maker. My very fancy KitchenAid espresso, latte, and coffee maker. I love the ritual of making tea and/or coffee. My kids find it funny, but since I'm still fume reactive from Alpha-gal syndrome, I bought myself to a high-end whole-bean coffee maker. Whole bean coffee is less prone to mold. Fresh ground coffee makes my mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) happy too. My MCAS is a by-product of AGS. So, I was drinking my first...

Hello friends! For you this month, I have a bowl full of blooming amaryllises and more for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Waxed amaryllis from Costco in a Chippendale soup tureen. Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is the longest-running meme in gardening blog land. It's hosted on the 15th each month by my podcast co-host, Carol Michel. If you don't know, we host a garden podcast called the Gardenangelists. Because of Carol's heavy lifting, we are in our seventh season. An episode drops each week on Wednesdays unless you subscribe to our newsletter, and then you get the episode a whole day early. See that one little yellow flower? I'm counting these succulents in the greenhouse toward Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. There's not much going on in the garden that we can see in December. Most of the action is underground. If temperatures are above 40°F, plants are growing roots. Most insects...

As I've been garden coaching so many of you, one thing we often discuss is letting the garden grow, hopefully making it simpler to care for. At least, that's the idea. 'Oklahoma Carmine' zinnias look great, and I love their ombre color. Letting the garden grow doesn't mean letting the garden go. There's a fine line between exuberant, healthy plants and those intent on world domination. Weeds, for example, fall into that second category. Carol Michel and I discussed many plants we wish were not in our gardens on a recent podcast episode called shoulda, woulda, coulda. Baptisia in the Lurie Garden in Chicago grows behind the meadow sage with maiden grass and Amethyst sage in the foreground. As I matured as a gardener, I became inspired by gardens like the Lurie Garden which has its fair share of spreaders. I've visited twice, and I'm in love with their style,...