Good-natured gardening: Try the buddy system
We all it just like it was yesterday - marching in pairs in our kindergarten class to go on a field trip.It was an effective, organized and peaceful method...
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Garden tips: Did you know ..?
Both my fortune cookie and my crystal ball garden orb say that 2017 will bring much enjoyment.Starting off, my cookie was stale and my orb rolled down the street and...
Making friends at the nursery
January is when gardeners and many non-gardeners take a hike to the nursery to see the season’s newest product arrivals. It’s also a great time to make new plant, people...
Gardening: Why not a natural Christmas?
Shortly after the Thanksgiving meal and the pecan pie have disappeared, the search begins for a healthy Christmas tree with that intoxicating pine scent.According to the National Christmas Tree Association,...
Put your nose to the petal
In my laboratory, where we park our cars, I’m working on developing a new kind of magnificently colorful flower with the tantalizing smell of … bacon. Yes, that means I love...
Gardening: Sometimes yellow means caution
Romantically, our eyes are the window to our soul. Horticulturally, a plant’s leaves are the window to their health.Plants signal that they are sick by the way their leaves look....
Good-natured gardening: Make thyme for herbs
I’m not sure why, but it took me awhile to appreciate herbs the way I do today.Herb is short for herbaceous plant, meaning it has a soft rather than woody...
Gardening help: Gophers are laughing at you
They’re baaaaaack!! The stars of “Caddyshack.” They’re down there with their toothy grins just belly laughing at you. Gophers can make your yard look like a motocross course with mounds...
Coffee with Camellia
It was a morning like other mornings and yet perfect among mornings. I was at Starbucks when Camellia walked in. We dispensed with the social introductions, the meaningless small talk...
Gardening tip: Keep on trugging
Last year I helped my sister- in-law put together a veggie trug.A trug is a wooden V-shaped raised garden planter that’s great for patio and small space gardening. It’s designed...
Keep those Mother’s Day flowers fresh
(A bonus column for our readers). Mother’s Day is Sunday. Many sweeties are holding garage sales, recycling their aluminum cans and refinancing their homes so they can afford to buy...
Gardening: Some rose basics
Roses can beguile and bedazzle, but they will take a little work. Fortunately, I have cut my rose maintenance time down to a mere three weeks per month.So what’s all...
Gardening tips, not tricks
(Editor’s note: We are pleased to introduce a new monthly gardening column authored by Poway resident Clarence Schmidt.)As gardeners we sometimes see our experiments fall apart before our eyes. However,...