Gardenig in Jordan. Tips & Guides

IWAS FEELING A LITTLE ADRIFT (IN A DRIFT?) MYSELF. I admit it.

NO SMART-ASS COMMENTARY FROM ME TODAY, not on this one. As doodler Andre Jordan paints a very clear picture of, there is more to life than meets the eye. Shall we look a little deeper?

To move the latest stories front-and-center, the header, or logo, is slimmer than it was before designer Kenneth B. Smith and the programmers of WebDevStudios helped me revise it, using Brian Gardner’s hot new Genesis framework for WordPress. (Besides botanical Latin, I also talk some geek. You’ll get used to the fusion.) Take a minute to familiarize yourself with the “action items” that are placed up top, above and in the header. For example:ABOVE THE LOGO, left to right:ABOUT will take you to the About page.

ANDRE SWEARS THAT IF I PUT THESE AROUND THE TRUNKS of my young trees, no critter of any description will be able to get in for a nibble. I’m more familiar with traditional hardware-cloth collars, but I’m always open to any suggestion regarding pest control.

NOBODY TWEETED THAT THEY WANTED SUET, NOT PEPPERONI, on their pizza–and who would have guessed that a Whopper paled by comparison to a tiny grain of millet? Birdbrains, these feathered types are total birdbrains, I swear. :) Thanks, Andre Jordan, for channeling our avian companions.

TO CELEBRATE THREE YEARS OF DOODLES BY ANDRE JORDAN on A Way to Garden–yes, it’s three years this week!–Andre and I have set up shop, finally delivering on your demand that we offer postcards of some of his weekly doodles. We’ve put together 15-card sets for just $10 a pack. The hardest part was selecting which of the archive to print first.

The latest doodle makes me think of a few older, tender ones Andre’s drawn for us about longing, including these:The message from a little bird. And even this one, of a wriggly reunion. Or this thank-you note a Christmas or two ago. You can always browse through the thumbnail images of Andre’s garden doodles starting at this link. Enjoy.Tagsandre jordan

SOMETIMES I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND ANDRE. We may have a special relationship, but we still don’t speak the same language.

It’s just a start; some things aren’t even planted yet, and nothing has grown in, of course. But I wanted you to see what I’m trying (and tell me what caught your fancy for containers this year). Click on the first thumbnail to start the slideshow, then toggle from slide to slide using the arrows beside each caption. Enjoy.Other Timely Mid-June TopicsPots don’t need to contain soil; they can be mini water gardens. Here’s how. As we watch the spring garden crumple, remember: Nothing lasts (and that’s OK). Which oregano is the one that tastes good, please? So confusing! I first formally “met” doodler Andre Jordan last June. Here’s the doodle that drew me to him. Categoriesannuals & perennials container gardeningTagsMargaret Roach

NORTHERN GARDENERS KNOW ABOUT FINALITY. Its name is hard frost, and it will be here any day now…having sent an advance guard of light frosts three or four nights already to visit and survey the premises.

THIS WEEK’S DOODLE IS REALLY A POSTCARD, one to send to the beloved garden in appreciation for a year of its devoted service and joy. Thanks, Andre Jordan, for just the right thing at just the right moment–one less thing on my to-do list, now that you have “send card to garden” covered.

WE GARDENERS HAVE SPOKEN OUR FEELINGS OPENLY together here about mowing, but I guess The Andres hadn’t had the talk yet–the talk about how some lovers with macho names like Toro and Snapper are fair-weather friends. Uh-oh, the mower’s about to go into cold storage, and *she* isn’t ready for the separation.

Starting in spring, I see the smallish white butterflies with smudgy spots on their wings–called cabbage whites, the adult stage of the imported cabbage worm–a signal that the cycle is beginning again. They are often one of the first butterflies to fly here each season.Growing crucifers under fabric row cover can reduce the opportunities for egg-laying. I then hand-pick worms that did manage to get hatched on any plants–another effective, non-toxic tactic that works if you check your plants daily, and merely have a home-garden-sized plot. Those steps, plus the need

IT’S EITHER TIME TO HIT THE SLOPES, or hit the bar, Andre Jordan–or at least that’s how it looks from conditions as depicted in your latest doodle.

I’ve been asked various times this year, in interviews about my own new life, whether I’d have other contributors to this blog, which represents my first act of personal (not corporate) creative expression in far too many years.“Absolutely not,” I’d say without a second’s reflection. “This is about my voice.”How someone who five months ago was a total stranger could have me eating those words is not so easy to explain.Andre and I still have never met, with only blog comments, Skype sessions and emails forming the concrete connection, but this goes deeper:Fr

THAT ANDRE JORDAN IS UNCANNY, WITH HIS ABILITY to see what I am doing from halfway across the nation. I am beginning to worry that he has somehow placed a 24/7 Skype video device here in my dining room–is that your secret, dear doodling Andre? Yes, it’s seed-mania time, and I am having a hard go of it–trying to avoid doing just what the lady in the nightgown has fallen prey to.

FOR SOMEONE WHO SAYS HE DOESN’T GARDEN, doodler Andre Jordan seems to have all the right tools on hand nonetheless. I grow suspicious; you? Thanks, Andre, for one of my favorite garden doodles–er, garden cartoons.

As with any animal or insect pests, the work starts with reducing habitat—especially places they can overwinter. Close-cutting the entire lawn here is one of the final things I do in late fall, lowering the deck to 3 inches to reduce places to hide in general.For mice and voles, it’s essential to install fine-gauge hardware-cloth collars (or heavy plastic ones) around young trees, in particular, though these and other rodents will chew wood young or old if hungry. It’s especially to make sure that the immediate area at the base of trees is clear. Friends with orchards do not allow turf to

UNDERPLANTING: The antidote to boring masses of pachysandra or ivy: underplanting in complex mosaics. I showed my method, at the request of various commenters on a previous story. You asked for it, you got it.TO THE WOODS WITH ME: I published a favorite “doodle” by offbeat English illustrator Andre Jordan, which apparently you loved (and I got to “meet” this idol of mine as a result, thank you all very much).THE COMPLAINT DEPT: We opened the doors on Memorial Day weekend, and the gripes are still pouring in. Got a “garden no-no” you want to add to the list? (Does dyed mulch or bad staking, or maybe garden gnomes or white-gravel mulch get you all worked up?)NO DULL EDGES HERE: Who knew you were all OCD like I am about edging your garden beds? This how-to was another popular post.PESTO FEST: The kickoff event in our summer-long cross-blog food series with Dinner Tonight was a spicy favorite, featuring my recipe for Garlic

ROBIN REDBREAST is a classic symbol of spring, the early bird who catches the worm, but in my northern garden, the flock stays in view in winter just as long as the holly and crabapple fruit lasts. I miss their happy song when they finally push back from the buffet, and miss the oddball run-and-stop, run-and-stop movements of North America’s most widespread thrush.

HOW MANY -PEDES DOES IT HAVE, I ASK? CENTI- OR MILLI- OR ??? All I know is that they creep me out, too, my dear friend Andre Jordan–or at least startle me when they come pedaling prehistorically in my direction out of nowhere.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DOODLE MAKES. Sixteen months ago I asked a stranger across an ocean if I could run an illustration of his (above) on my just-born blog, because I’d adopted its words as a motto for my new rural life adventure. Then exactlyone year ago tomorrow, that stranger—by then a friend, and living in America—officially became a weekly columnist, part of the haphazard happy A Way to Garden family that also includes Jack the Demon Cat, the garden itself, and you. Won’t you wish me and Andre Jordan a happy anniversary? A somewhat-deranged new doodle, and Andre’s take on Year 1 together await if you do: “My friendship with Margaret began with a doodle,” says Andre. “Just a simple doodle that no one but me would understand. Fours seasons, 52 doodles, 12 months later we talk of spring visits and endless walks through her extraordinary garden.

I KNOW THERE ARE TIMES WHEN THE LURE of the garden pulls me outdoors before I change out of my PJs, before I brush my hair, without washing my face. It’s that powerful and seductive a force, indeed, especially with the lawn greening up right now, all verdant and provocative. But I have to say, my dear Andre Jordan, I try to make certain I have my trousers on. Do I sense a pattern in your doodles, a theme of how alcohol figures into horticulture in The Garden According to Andre (and no, I don’t mean for sterilizing pruners):

THOSE OF YOU TRAVELING at some point during the holidays may have left someone in charge of the houseplants. Doodler Andre Jordan wants to be sure you know this one teeny detail on that score: If the beloved charges are dead when you get back, it is NOT, repeat NOT, an excuse for violence.

ANDRE MADE ME DO IT. Go to the liquor store, I mean.

SHE SERVED TURKEY AT SAID GARDEN PARTY. You ate too much.

ONE OF THE GREAT JOYS OF LIVING ALONE is that there is only one circle on the chart here at A Way to Garden, eliminating the need for compromise. Newlywed and newly gardening Andre Jordan, on the other hand, has quickly learned the secrets to a happy marriage (carefully depicted by said doodler, above).

WHAT DO YOU SAY (AFTER ‘THANK YOU’) when someone sends you something thoughtful but, well, um, you’re just not an orange person? This latest doodle from Andre Jordan reminds me of all those holiday gifts I never wore but just couldn’t throw out, either.

JUST A YEAR AFTER HE PROMISED TO LOVE AND HONOR Mrs. Andre forevermore, now Andre the doodler is making another marital contract of sorts, and apparently for good reason: “This year I took charge of the gardening: the planting, the pruning, the growing of tomatoes,” Andre Jordan wrote to me in the email that contained this jpg. “Unfortunately, I didn’t do a very good job–the side of our garden was overtaken by weeds and all but a few of the plants died and the tomatoes did not work out. We spent last weekend undoing my ‘catastrophe’ and have decide to just start again next year–hence the ‘Gardening Agreement’ doodle. Ha.”

GRAY SKIES, BABY BIRD, CAUSE MAMA DONE FLEW OFF. That’s the message of Andre Jordan’s latest–and I don’t think Papa Bird is talking about your average seasonal migration here.

AFTER ALL THAT TENDER CLIPPING AND GENTLE GROOMING I gave you all those years, this is what I get in return? Oh, deardoodler Andre Jordan, I ask you, what went wrong?

THE TOPIC OF GNOMES is a popular one here at A Way to Garden (or should I say an unpopular one in that gnomes rate high on collective our Garden No-No’s list?). Whether he is trying to stir up trouble or simply get in the holiday spirit by conjuring images of Santa and his elves, daydreamer Andre Jordan offers this latest in our garden doodle series.

NOBODY LIKES TO BE TAKEN FOR GRANTED, including plants, and those who did the under-appreciating (read: me) the last few months are now in hot water as the weather chills out. I sense an uprising about to happen, a conifer uprising.

If I count my blessings from 2009, I’d count Andre right up there, along with starting A Way to Garden (and now The Sister Project), getting a book contract of my own (more on that someday) and letting Jack the Demon Cat in the house to sit at my feet while I work each day.Andre’s memoir is brutal and charming and uproarious all at once, sharing as he does in his words (sometimes starting with “F”) and pictures (sometimes involving turgid body parts) the journey through life’s inconvenient truths and low tides, as the book depicts:A line drawing of a bucket labeled “Happy Pills” and beside it the caption “Hard to Swallow.”

UM, I GUESS OUR FRIEND Andre Jordan got a peek at the way we really order seeds, huh? Trouble is: I’m still stuck on Step 1, that “Bloody Brilliant Big List” thing.

APPARENTLY MANDATORY DRUG-TESTING will now be required in the arenas of the county fair and harvest festival, where our able correspondent Andre Jordan reports that the use of performance-enhancing substances is growing as rampant as crabgrass. I wonder if the rotten carrot is being held in the crisper–or the clinker–awaiting trial? Doubtful that the drug-dependent root was a match for the world-record holder, at 19 feet 1.96 inches–I kid you not.