In The Garden

Working hard to get more pictures up

Please keep checking in. I have so many pictures to upload, it's taking a bit longer than I had hoped. The most time consuming part is writing up the descriptions, but it is also the most important part. I should get everything loaded up over the weekend. Please do check back.

And while you're here now, please check out the photo album of Rae Chambers' garden. She will be missed.

In My Garden

Welcome to my garden. Today my column runs in the Centre Daily Times. As soon as the good folks at the paper put it online, I’ll post a link. In the meantime, please check out some of my other articles and photo albums. When my column is no longer on the CDT web site, I’ll post it here for reference.

If you are visiting here today for the first time after reading my column in the CDT, and would like to see some photos of the rose bush rejuvenation project, click the photo album called Pruning Roses to the right.

There are also two sets of photos of earliest spring, one from the first day of Spring called Good Bye Winter, and the other from late March called Welcome Spring.

You can leave comments by clicking on the word "comments" at the end of this post. Let me know what you’d like to see and to read about. I want to have something new up at least once a week, so bookmark this site and check back next Thursday or Friday of next week when we will take a walk through the daffodil woods.

After six years of writing about it, I am really looking forward to sharing my gardens with all of you through this web site.

Update: My column is now online at the CDT.

Snow Crocus Tales

The first day of Spring arrived clear, but soon clouded over. By midday a light rain had started and got heavier as the afternoon worn on. It was cold, too, so the rain did little to melt the icy snow still covering most of the gardens.

Welcome

It is hard to believe that I started writing my monthly garden column for the Centre Daily Times six years ago. I’ve truly enjoyed sharing my garden with so many people, but the best part of my column is the notes and e-mails I receive from my readers and fellow gardeners in central Pennsylvania.

End of Winter

PEEKING PLANTS JUMP-START GARDENER'S ANXIOUS CLOCK
First Published on March 11, 2004, Page 1C, Centre Daily Times (State College, PA)

My four-year-old woke me up the other morning.

"Mommy, mommy, winter came back," he announced triumphantly. Indeed, flakes were floating out of a slate-colored sky, and the ground was coated with white. But it didn’t last longer than my first cup of coffee.

For my son, winter is a time of holidays and surprises — Christmas, his birthday, little treats to make those snow days pass more harmoniously.

For me, the week the snow melts is the most exciting day of the year.

Preserving Flowers

TAKE SIMPLE STEPS TO PRESERVING VALENTINE FLOWERS
First Published on February 12, 2004, Page 1C, Centre Daily Times (State College, PA)

My husband is an incurable romantic. Most folks are content with a single valentine from their sweetie. I would be, too. But I always get at least three, not counting the ones signed by my kids but selected by their Daddy.

More precious to me than cards, though, are the flowers and flowering plants that my sweetheart has given me over the years. Flowers in February are about the most welcome gift any gardener could receive.

Tasks for the year

THIS YEAR, I RESOLVE TO DO A BETTER JOB IN THE GARDEN
First Published on January 8, 2004, Page 1C, Centre Daily Times (State College, PA)

I come from a family of list makers.

On the first day of summer vacation one year when I was a kid, my mother made a list and read it to us at dinnertime. It was the list of everything we were going to get done that summer. That night I dreamt that summer was over and school was starting the next day. I don’t make lists.