I admire the knowledge of plant biologists, especially that group of expert botanists who make me feel like a novice in comparison…those are the people I love to hang around with at any given opportunity to improve my own skills and knowledge. Every time I look up a plant description, a little...

How perfect for Punxsutawney Phil to predict six more weeks of winter on the day when snow was falling heavily in the St Louis Metropolitan. School would have been cancelled when and where I grew up in Indiana on a day like that. But because of COVID-19, snow days for students are coming to be a...

Chipmunk or squirrel, it doesn’t matter, cuteness only goes so far! Most especially after the little fiends have dug up several of the spring-blooming flower bulbs and garlic I had just planted the day before. My normal practice of firming the soil over the bulbs, watering, and covering with...

Hard to believe but the median date for the first frost is just around the corner, and I still have lots to do in the garden. Last year the first freeze occurred on October 5, so I know it can happen any time now.  Number one on my mind is the overwintering of tender plants I plan to protect and...

Past mistakes seem to come back and bite you. When I started planting my garden nearly 19 years ago, I didn’t think to keep a master list of my plants mainly because I didn’t know then how much I would come to rely on it for accurately identified photo images. For the first five years, I just...