Garden Wisdom Blog

The holidays are over and the weather outside is still pretty frightful. Here on the coast it is altogether wet — the ground is sodden and squishy. Elsewhere, snow is falling, and the ground is freezing hard. Only the most spirited of winter gardeners are still making trips to the greenhouse, low tunnels, or raised beds at this time of year; yet some plants are so slow to start that January is actually prime time to launch seedlings for the new year. The sun is very low on the horizon, so starting winter seedlings requires certain equipment, most importantly artificial...

The weather outdoors is cold and gloomy. Here on the coast it is altogether wet — the ground is sodden and squishy. Elsewhere, the first blankets of snow are falling, and the ground is freezing hard. Only the most spirited of winter gardeners are still making trips to the greenhouse, low tunnels, or raised beds at this time of year. Winter doesn't officially even start until the third week in December, and then it goes on for three solid months. It's not very intuitive to think about starting seeds this early for the coming spring and summer. Yet some plants...

One day this past summer several of us got together to photograph some of the flowers and produce from the trial fields in a more studio setting. Jill, who normally works in customer service, has some professional experience as a florist, and her arrangements were amazing. Several of our team would cut the flowers and herbs (and vegetables!) and bring them into the farm house where Jill would set them up, and I would light and photograph them. We have tagged the most traditional of our cut flowers on this website so they can be filtered as a group. These...

This blend of annual and perennial wildflowers is selected to attract and feed a wide array of bumble bees. The Bumble Bee Blend Wildflowers are hardy to Zone 4, and are best grown in full sun. Different components of the mix will bloom at different times over summer, so the look will change as the season passes. This is a good blend for bee conservation — set aside an area for this mix to grow in wild from spring to fall, and leave it un-mowed over winter. Balsam 'Camelia Flowered Mix' Impatiens balsamina Catchfly Silene armeria Cosmos 'Sensation Mix' Cosmos...