Dried egg shells – check. Fresh, still-in-the-unsealed potting soil bag so it’s still moist – check. Empty toilet paper rolls….darn, where did I put that stash, it takes me a long time to collect enough!
I don’t make a lot of rules for myself but this one I insist on. I am not allowed to go [...]

can hardly wait to get into my garden when it’s snowing, or after the first snow. The landscape I thought I knew so well becomes brand new, and I’m reminded how snow contributes to my garden’s health in surprising
ways.
According to Taylor’s Encyclopedia of Gardening, snow is called “the poorman’s fertilizer.”
As it falls, a small [...]

Happy new year!
To keep basic gardening chores organized, I developed a gardening calendar associated with major holidays.
You can use any calendar but I like to use a Missouri Department of Conservation Natural Events Calendar, which includes other major events, such as when hummingbirds migrate, chiggers start biting, etc.
Here’s my calendar for 2013:
New Years [...]

hen we lived in Mexico City, I remember Poinsettia bushes taller than my father.
In those days, our school had a “living” nativity scene and everyone had a “job.” Mine was to move the ceramic mule a couple of centimeters closer to the manger every day so that Mary, Joseph and the mule would get to [...]

Gloria sounded very worried when she called about how long to feed her hummingbirds this fall.
Hummingbirds migrate to summer breeding grounds in Central and South America. Our winters are their summers and vice versa.
Hummers move back to Missouri mid-April, stay through our summers, and normally head back south mid September to miss our cold weather.
Hummingbirds [...]

Meet Louie the Missouri box turtle.

When I started doing a live Rolla radio interview a few years back, I would take fresh flowers in from my garden.
Both radio personalities Lee Buhr and Bob McKune seemed to enjoy the flowers, and it was a fun way to relate to radio listeners.
or the following days after the interview, people would approach [...]

Naming new bee hives.