Grandma Gigi’s home & garden hints from Vermont
Grandma Gigi’s Vermont garden: a short season, cold nights and harvests worth the wait.
A short growing season does not have to mean a small harvest. It means choosing crops that finish before frost ends the year, and giving them a good start. Over the years I have learned that vegetables which mature quickly, or which enjoy cool weather, give me the most food for the least worry. Below … Read more
Starting tomatoes from seed costs a few dollars instead of the price of a tray of plants, and it lets you grow varieties that the garden center never sells. It also asks for a little patience and a little care. Most seedling problems come from three things: starting too early, too little light, and too … Read more
More houseplants are lost to too much kindness than to neglect. A gardener sees a droopy leaf, reaches for the watering can, and the plant gets worse. I have done this myself with plants I loved, and I learned to read the signs before reaching for the can. This article shows what overwatering looks like … Read more
Saving seed from your own garden is one of the oldest and cheapest habits a gardener can have. A good bean plant gives you next year’s crop, and a tomato you loved at supper can become a whole row in spring. Beans, peas and tomatoes are the easiest place to start, because their flowers pollinate … Read more
A houseplant that has lived in the same pot for years will eventually run out of room. The roots fill the pot, circle around the inside, and push out of the drainage hole, and the plant can no longer take up water and nutrients as it should. Repotting gives the roots new space and fresh … Read more
Every fall there comes a day when the garden stops looking like a garden and starts looking like a mess. The tomato vines are black, the bean stalks have gone brown, and the weeds went to seed while you were busy. It is tempting to pull the worst of it and walk away. I have … Read more
A north-facing window is the one many people give up on. It never gets direct sun, the light is soft and steady, and most plant labels that say “bright light” do not apply. But some plants come from forest floors and shaded places, and they are happy exactly there. Here are eight easy houseplants that … Read more
By January the air inside an old farmhouse gets as dry as a cracker, and my houseplants tell me so. Leaf tips turn brown and crispy, lower leaves yellow and drop, and a plant that looked fine in October starts to sulk. The cause is usually not neglect. It is dry heated air, weaker light, … Read more
You water a plant, and a small cloud of tiny black flies lifts off the soil. They are fungus gnats, and they are one of the most common houseplant pests. The adults are mostly a nuisance, flying around lamps and windows and drifting into your coffee. The real damage comes from their young, which live … Read more
Companion planting means growing certain plants side by side because they help each other. Gardeners have talked about it for hundreds of years, and some of it is solid, practical sense. Some of it is tradition that has never been tested well. In a small garden, where every square foot counts, it helps to know … Read more