Category: gardening
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A Different Point of View
We went fishing with a friend early one morning. The stars were still out and Lake Michigan was glassy smooth. Heading out of the harbor, I leaned back and watched the blanket of stars move slowly overhead. I felt part of something much bigger. And at the same time, with the sound of the boat’s…
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Smell: Tomato and Basil
On my daily visit to my vegetable and herb garden on the deck, I make sure the plants have enough water and are healthy and vigorous. As I pass by the plants, I run my fingers through the leaves. The smell of summer is on my fingertips. I planted determinate tomato plants because of limited…
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Taste: Tea Pot
In a pot in the side garden stands a pot. A pot filled with peppermint, spearmint, and lemon balm. My tea pot. In Spring, I sowed seeds in the pot. The mint has taken off. The lemon balm is quite stunted. After this picture was taken, I cut down the mint and put the leaves…
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Midsummer Check in
This summer has been rather hazy, due to the Canadian wildflowers. The forest has filtered a lot of the smoke, but ever so often I get a whiff of what smells like campfire. Views over Lake Michigan are gray with no horizon line. The tomatoes and peppers are doing well. I need to keep on…
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Our Garden Elders
BLACK CHERRY We have a few old trees on our property that have been here for decades, if not centuries. They have seen the land go through logging then private ownership. They are a visual history of what was here and what can thrive. One garden elder is the black cherry, Prunus serotina. A black…
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Summer Has Arrived
The weather is finally warm enough to open windows and go outside in a t-shirt. The astronomical first day of summer is June 20 but I will take summer weather whenever I can get it. Lake Michigan is still in the 50s so too cold for me to jump in. The lake is warmest in…
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Spring Review
GARDEN Spring was long, cold, and fairly wet. I put basil out in a pot around Memorial Day and the plant didn’t make it. Too cold. So I spread seeds in the container. I will get a later crop. The tomatoes, peppers, and basil I grew from seed all survived but were very small. I…
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Sowing Tomatoes and Peppers Indoors: My Spring Gardening Journey
On March 22, I sowed tomato, hot pepper, and basil seeds indoors. It was still below freezing and snowy outside and I needed some Spring in my life. I was a few weeks early since I can’t transplant outdoors until the end of May. Our last frost date is around May 16. Memorial Day weekend…
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Northern Michigan Gardening: Embracing Spring’s Arrival
It Starts in Autumn On a sunny, warm autumn day, when the leaves were just past peak, I spent an afternoon planting spring bulbs. I planted 100 snowdrop bulbs in groups of 5 in the front shade garden close to the house. I also naturalized bulbs in the back lawn. I naturalized a mixture of…
