Everyone's mind and searches are on vegetable gardening right now. Those seed catalogs are like the Sirens' song, aren't they? Before you start a vegetable garden, ask yourself a few questions beyond which vegetables are easiest to grow. Sometimes, long-time gardeners act as though you should know exactly what to do right out of the starting gate, or they pretend that gardening takes some kind of magic potion to be successful. While magic happens from the very act of growing things, learning how to grow is like learning any other craft. Rarely, does someone know how to knit, crochet, cook or even keep their homes without learning some of it beforehand. Here are some questions that should be asked before you ever buy that packet of seeds or potting soil. What do you like to eat? The Ruby Red Swiss chard, shown below, is one of the most beautiful vegetables you can grow. However, if you...

Why do you want to garden? People plunge their hands into the soil for a variety of reasons. Are you following in your grandmother, grandfather, or parents' footsteps? Did your mother ever build a sunflower house just for you, or did your father let you play in the garden next to him? Then, again, maybe you don't have a mentor. If not, I want to help. My passion for gardening knows no season. Spring is nearly here, and all I can think about are seeds. From favorite flowers that make up the bulk of my garden and new varieties of vegetables I want to try, each day is an adventure. Even though it's winter, on those days that it's warmish and sunny, I'm outside cutting back perennials and adding more shredded leaves to the soil. Soon, I'll be starting seeds indoors and sowing cold crops outside too. My joy is complete on that first, warm spring day when the Earth is green and growing. It...

It's good and bad when seed catalogs show up in our mail boxes just before Christmas. The good part is they give gardeners something to do when everything outdoors is brown and gray. If you're lucky and live where you get snow, at least it's pretty. Here, everything is rather ugly this time of year. Even our grass is brown until April or May. Don't believe me? Winter potager and greenhouse Still don't? Another view of the winter landscape in the back garden. The only green thing is that stupid Eastern redcedar that my husband insists on keeping, but that's a subject for another day. I get sassy in winter when there's no sun for days on end. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program: buying seeds. The bad part? I probably don't need to belabor it, but.... Since we gardeners are feverishly waiting for spring, our eyes can overwhelm our pocketbooks. Does...

Good morning friends. It's 18F degrees outside, but in my log cabin, all is cozy and warm. I hope that all of you are doing well in this brand new year. By the way, doesn't Tap look like king of all he surveys? I caught him gazing off in the distance yesterday. My family is changing again. With children, it seems that the teens and twenties are all about rapid life changes. Getting driver's licenses; moving out; going to college; moving back in again--you get the picture. Bear--I still protect her name on the blog as she's not yet grown--is now driving with me as her navigator every morning on the way to school. She must travel a long way in morning traffic, and we want her fully ready for this big step when she turns sixteen in the spring. The children, Ashley, Megan, Bear and Brennan. Can you believe Bear will be sixteen? Remember when I...