Author Archives: Lee Miller

Succulents and cacti are a new world-to me. The word “succulent” comes from the Latin word sucus, meaning juice, or sap and we are unlikely to be saps for liking these plants. Succulents have the ability to thrive on mist and dew, which makes them equipped to survive with scarce water sources. In our drought [...]

Bare root season is here at nurseries and stores and it is a relatively short season. The plants are dug when dormant, hence it lasts from now to about mid-February, so plan to get out and get those plants you want to grow next spring while the selection is at its best. The season is [...]

A friend asked me recently if there are modest sized trees to plant for shade. Her recent experience was removing a Magnolia tree which had cracked up her driveway. The back-hoe operator, who took out the root-ball, said it was the largest he had ever removed. We have to be wary of planting trees that [...]

Gardening is not just about plants, landscapes, flowers and vegetables. There is always the basis of a great garden—the soil to consider. I always recommend to people who want to get back to the land or want to commit to serious gardening to check out the soil before they buy property. That said, I recently [...]

I have always been somewhat conflicted about human’s role in nature. I grew up with a 40 acre woodlot on our farm and always liked the wild woods I experienced as a kid. So I came to gardening with a mixed viewpoint. I wanted to garden somewhat on the wild side, but I know that [...]

As summer passes it is a good time to count some of the successes and failures of gardening activities. One of my triumphs was getting rid of overwintering squash bugs early in the season, so that I did not have to deal with their offspring for the entire summer. Hence, we, and our neighbors, have [...]

In maintaining a household there are some things that you should never run out of—like flour, salt, sugar, toilet paper, onions and garlic. Onions and garlic are pretty essential ingredients of most culinary efforts and both are easy to grow winter vegetables. I start my onion seeds in a flat of compost in August and [...]

Heat and tomato fruit set: The hot streak we had recently was not good for a lot of plants, but in particular not good for fruit set in tomatoes. Tomato blossoms drop off when daytime temperatures exceed 95 and night-time temperatures are above 70. Tomatoes in the sun may experience temperatures as much as 10 [...]

One of the things that Master Gardeners and others teach new gardeners is to not bite off too much when starting to garden. With experience one can take on more efforts if you want to. Here is what one family magazine has to say, “Be realistic when you plan your first garden. Start small; you [...]

Perennial borders are wonderful. Little or no annual planting, but some pruning and deadheading required from time to time to keep plants flowering. Sage advice is to include some sage plants, in your perennial flower bed. The true sages are Salvias, but Russian sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia, is not a true sage, nor is it from [...]