Posts Tagged ‘gardening tips’
A Garden in the Hills: Katharine Stewart’s Diary Entry for October 23rd
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. Here’s an excerpt for today from Katharine Stewart’s diary-turned-book A Garden in the Hills. October 23rd Waking to find a scattering of snow above the tree line on the hill, I think ‘time…
Read MoreThe Allure of Allium: Celebrating Garlic Lovers Day
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. October 6th On this day, dear garden enthusiasts and culinary aficionados, we celebrate the pungent glory of Garlic Lovers Day. This aromatic allium, often referred to as the “stinking rose,” is a member…
Read MoreThe Father of Newfoundland Botany: Merritt Lyndon Fernald’s Enduring Impact
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. October 5, 1873 On this day, dear readers, we celebrate the birth of a true luminary in the world of botany, Merritt Lyndon Fernald. This American botanist, whose prolific pen produced over 800…
Read MoreBlooms and Biceps: The Joyful Workout of Gardening
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. June 6, 2022 On this day, dear readers, we celebrate National Garden Exercise Day, a delightful occasion that marries the pleasures of horticulture with the virtues of physical exertion. As one who has…
Read MoreCompost Awareness Week: Nurturing the Earth with Nature’s Alchemy
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 6, 2022 Dearest reader, This week, we celebrate International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW), a vital annual event that promotes the art and science of composting. From May 1st to May 7th, 2025,…
Read MoreUnderstanding Soil’s Story: Lessons from Carol Williams on Garden Life
by Carol Williams When one is first beginning to garden or gardening in a place one does not yet know, soil can seem dumb and unhelpful, just dirt. It is gray and empty, or yellow, clammy, and stony, or perhaps it is black and full of worms. Little pebbles might be interspersed all through it,…
Read MoreStarting a Garden: The Playful Spirit and Pragmatic Wisdom of Cheryl Merser
by Cheryl Merser As with most occupations, there are different ways to approach the garden. The absolutely right way to start a garden, for instance, is to bulldoze your whole yard, then, according to a friend of mine, a brilliant (if obsessive gardener), spend some time in it naked in the middle of the night,…
Read MoreEdgar Anderson, Sunflowers, and the Lessons of a Mentor
The Gift of Good Students The botanist Edgar Anderson wrote to his student Charles B Heiser Jr: “Oh stamp collecting, when will taxonomists ever take any interest in being biologists? Once, when I traveled with E.J. Palmer, I went to a good deal of trouble to get a whole sheet of lily pods, and he…
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