Hamburger Helper is a supermarket panacea that extends and livens up ground meat to make a one-dish meal. Mulch helper is a homemade extender for store-bought mulch. Lately I have been using a lot of mulch helper. I like to use shredded cedar bark mulch from the garden center. It’s not all that expensive–until you … Read more
I am a grandmother, which is hardly unusual. Like all grandparents, I like to brag that my grandchildren are unique. But that word is actually an understatement–all my grandchildren are geraniums. They belong to my daughter, who buys them, installs them in elegant pots and fusses over them like any other doting parent. She is … Read more
There is only one word for my lower back garden these days—depressing. The infernal heat, with or without humidity, has made the hydrangeas, ferns and hostas look as if they are in the last stages of consumption. Even the stalwart hellebores are flat out—literally. Daily watering does little to stave off the desiccating effects of … Read more
Like the neighborhood ice cream truck, summer flowers announce themselves loudly and insistently. My front borders are screaming with tall Shasta daisies and multi-colored coneflowers. Standing head to head with all those daisy-flowered amazons are the daylilies, which are among the best-loved early to mid-summer plants. I have lots of daylilies, but I have forgotten … Read more
My collections of garden books and garden weeds are roughly the same size. I haven’t learned much from the weeds–except that they are eternal–but I have learned a lot from the books. There are some lessons, though, that only experience can teach. Here are a few of them. Self Seeding vs. Self Preservation—If you have … Read more
