Bats in Your Garden© I was a kid in Brooklyn who was raised up on Saturday afternoon movies that had an uncommon amount of movies which featured some of the famous actors and actresses of those days dealing with zombies, werewolves and vampires. Vampires meant bats... ( added 1 year 65 days ago.)

Biodiversity is Essential for a Healthy Garden© In Mother Nature's scheme of things the good and bad balance and all things basically take care of itself until the human hand is put into the cycle. We Americans are so beleaguered with cleanliness and fighting dirt and grime that we take it over... ( added 1 year 65 days ago.)

Creeping Phlox the Great Ground Cover© Our neighbor up the road had a 10 foot by 20 foot bare slope that went from the end of his lawn down to the drainage culvert the town had put in at the end of the highway. He had this on one side of his drive way and about 4 seasons ago I saw he... ( added 1 year 65 days ago.)

How to Attract Purple Martins to Your Garden© I live in an area of Kentucky that has a large and expanding Amish population and as I travel around I see more and more purple martin birdhouses in their yards and gardens. Mostly these are made from gourds painted white and now many of them are... ( added 1 year 65 days ago.)

4-H is a Good Head Start Program for Young Gardeners© Many of us associate the 4-H (Future Farmers of America) with animals. Many young members have goats, pigs, horses, sheep, chickens or just about any other farm animal you can think of. We see them showing their stuff at County and State fairs all... ( added 1 year 65 days ago.)

Growing Chrysanthemums for Profit© I remember an old boss of mine saying we would be lucky if we got our seed money back. He basically was raised on a farm and that was an old saying from his farming days. We certainly would like to get "our seed money back" from just about any... ( added 1 year 65 days ago.)

I Love Bok Choy© Years ago when I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn we did not go out to eat in many restaurants, but we did get Chinese take out food often. There was something about those little white cardboard boxes with their metal handles that added a certain... ( added 1 year 65 days ago.)

What is a Biennial Plant? © A Biennial plant is a plant when the seeds are sown usually produces foliage, roots, and leaves and stems the first season and the second season will produce flowers and set seeds giving you a plant that then seems like a perennial thereafter. A... ( added 1 year 65 days ago.)

June 17 is Eat Your Vegetables Day© June is National Fruit Month and right smack dab in the middle of the month on every June 17th is National Eat Your Vegetables Day! We are encouraged to be healthy and by eating 5 different colored vegetables and fruits daily, especially fresh... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

Why Not Grow Some Chinese Cabbage? © For years I really hated cabbage. I did not like the smell or taste of it until I discovered that my family had been cooking the heck out of it. Once I realized what could really be done with cabbage I had no problem with adding it to my cooking... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

How to Correctly Prune Clematis© My three Jackmanii Clematis are blooming all over the place and they are beautiful right now and will continue to be for many, many weeks throughout the summer. There is really nothing more spectacular than Clematis. They grow up to 20 feet high... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

The Art of Weeding© Remember the theme song from the TV series "Monk"? It's called "It's a Jungle Out There" and I think that many times it refers to my gardens. Most of the growing activity is not anything I planted. Many of the things growing in abundance are weeds... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

What Exactly is a Cultivar? © Over the years of creating gardens I have come across words that have sent me flying to the dictionary or to my personal library of gardening books. The other day someone emailed me a question and asked what exactly a cultivar is. I emailed back... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

Dead-heading, Yes or No? © Part II Over the many years of gardening one will gain more and more knowledge and dead-heading came, sometimes, as expensive lessons and that is the reason I am sharing this information with other gardeners. My Lupine will re-bloom with dead-hading... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

Dead-heading, Yes or No? © Part I For years I was in a fog about dead-heading my plants. First off I am a lazy gardener and dead-heading took a lot of time. Secondly, I did not know when to dead-head or when not to and thirdly I never knew what to dead-head and what not to. My... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

Passion Flowers Beauty and Food© We have a fence that divides my brother's land and home from ours. Trying to be healthier and to save gas we have decided to walk up our very long driveway, turn right, walk some more to the main highway, turn right, walk along the main highway... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

How to Grow a Roses in the Winter© As someone who loves and grows a few roses I miss them in the winter. I recently heard about a rose that grows through the snow and blooms for about 10 weeks each winter and that plant is called the Lenten Rose some times called the Christmas... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

When it’s Good its Berry Berry Good© We lost our blue berry bushes last year. However, this year the raspberry and blackberry bushes are loaded and it will be a fight between me and the birds as usual. I do not try very hard to win. Yet there is something about a blackberry or... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

Where Has All the Flavor Gone? © This year, with the big tomato scare we have not been eating any tomatoes. My brother and his wife think we are foolish. However with 25 lymph glands removed I do not take any unnecessary chances on inviting illness of any kind into my life. With... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

Tips for Beginning Gardeners© Do it yourself Gardeners need all the information they can get especially when it comes to using the correct terms and having some fast handy knowledge. Conservatories are used as a Solarium, Spa Enclosure or Greenhouse. In the daytime enjoy the... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

It’s Not Hard to Make Hard Apple Cider© I don't know why hard apple cider seems to conjure up images of copper stills in the woods in early autumn since I have personally never seen any stills in the woods any time of the year. Must be too many black and white old movies! I am a hard... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

One of Arlene’s Berry Special Pie Recipes© This morning at the local farmer's market we were starting to see more and more produce as the local fruits and vegetables start to ripen in the grower's gardens and orchards and upon returning home Carl went and picked a large bowl of fresh... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

Memories of Potato Pancakes© Coming out of the "great depression" in the 30's meant that there was not a lot of diversity in one's daily menus. Plus my mother was not the world's greatest cook. However, she did make wonderful crisp, brown potato pancakes in a large, grand... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

What to Do With More Squash Than You Can Handle© Is it that time of the year when your friends and neighbors hide as they see you coming down the road with a basket of squash? We have all been there on either the receiving or giving end. You wonder why the rest of your garden does not produce... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)

Growing Pears in a Bottle© The other evening Carl and I were walking through our orchard and we could see this year was going to be a bumper crop of apples, plums and especially pears. At this stage of the game which is mid July, I start making a list of all the friends to... ( added 1 year 67 days ago.)