DESPITE THE CONTINUOUS RAIN HERE (about 19 inches since mid-August), I still claim the tenth month as my colorful favorite. This is when the ancient maples and oaks become giant fireballs of vermilion and gold. I’ll take photographs at mid-month, the height of our Northeastern “leaf-peeping” season. In the meantime, here is my “To Do”… Read more »

SEPTEMBER isn’t for the faint-hearted gardener. This is the time to divide and reset perennials, order and plant bulbs, harvest and preserve veggies, set up a window garden, and prepare the vacationing houseplants for their return to indoor life. Feeling energetic? Good. You’ll reap great rewards later on if you accomplish all of the following… Read more »

IN AUGUST, the perennial garden winds down…and the veggie garden explodes. It’s time to pickle the cukes, sauce the tomatoes, and freeze the broccoli and beans. Then there are annuals to propagate, bulbs to order, and…anyone else need a valium? The essential chores for August: Container Plantings. These will keep their looks until frost if… Read more »

I USUALLY LET UP A LITTLE IN JULY, when soaring temperatures and oppressive humidity make most gardening jobs unbearable. The main focus now is weeding, watering, cutting flowers (like the delphinium, snapdragons and zinnias pictured above) and tending to vegetable crops: Watering. Most plants require an inch of moisture per week, provided either by you… Read more »

MARCH IS THE PROCEED-WITH-CAUTION MONTH, with warm days to tempt you to uncover everything, and winter days to wish you hadn’t. The best plan is to make haste slowly these final weeks of winter. Around here, there will be plenty to do outdoors — when the snow finally melts! Seed-sowing, of course, continues regardless of… Read more »

February is the short, topsy-turvy month, when the crocus sprouts in Monday’s warmth…and disappears in Tuesday’s blizzard. It is also the last month to anticipate our gardening needs before warm weather — and utter chaos — arrive. Here is my list of chores, for gardens within and without: Branches, spring-flowering. A number of these can… Read more »

HERE AT A GARDEN FOR THE HOUSE, January marks the first month of spring. This is the time to sow seeds outdoors (even if you have 15 inches of snow on the ground), and to clip forsythia branches for indoor bloom. Then there are the bulbs (like hyacinth ‘Blue Jacket’ up top) … and the… Read more »