Goal-Setting 101

All being well, the contractor will arrive to start paving the garden on Thursday. It has been a long time coming, and it’s only the first stage in getting the garden ready to be planted. Once the paving is complete then we still need to build raised beds and fill them, which will probably involve a bit of levelling here and there. When we investigated the cost of building the E-shaped raised beds in the original plan, we found that they would be considerably more than we wanted to spend. Ryan has come up with a cheaper alternative, which should look just as good, and even gives me more planting space! He has created a 3D render, printed it out and stuck it to the patio doors to give me something to look at:

Header image: Artemis-1 on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Centre. NASA

Used for turning, driving and removing screws, a screwdriver is fundamental to most DIYtasks. A screwdriver is a length of shaped metal designed to fit into a specific screw size and shape, attached to a long shank and handle. However, it’s not quite as simple as it may seem. 

Botanical Name: Hippeastrum

With the New Year comes the New Year’s Resolutions and goals. If you are making a resolution or goal, aim for the goal to be SMART. What does a SMART goal mean?

It’s that time of year again. With the New Year comes new year goals and resolutions. If you are looking for tips on how to not only stick to your new year fitness goals but CRUSH them, you’ve come to the right place. Many times, we set these goals/resolutions in December and call it quits by March, but not this year. Stay motivated and on track with these tips:

What method of composting you use should be determined by the volume of material created in the yard (and to a lesser degree, in the kitchen, where vegetable scraps, egg shells and coffee and tea grounds can be collected for the heap, too). I create far too much raw material for a mere bin-type system, the commercially available kind made of metal or heavy plastic or mesh that are about as big as a washing machine. I have one of those, a metal one that shuts tight and thereby keeps animals out, to hold my vegetable food wastes, alternating them with layers of garden debris and a little soil or finished compost to get things activated and reduce any chance of unpleasant odors.The latest rage is all about lobster-trap-wire bins, meaning really durable even under the ocean day in and out. But my main heap is about 40 feet long and 5 or 6 feet wide, a long, open pile that in composting jargon is called a windrow. In the peak of fall cleanup and leaf raking, it gets to be about 5 feet tall, too, but as the material begins to settle, and eventually to break down, it’s usually more like 3 to 4 feet high.Whatever style of composting you choose, from a simple, small pile to a long windrow to an

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.

Ask yourself this: Where do you see your garden from most often, and at what time of year? Where does the magical light happen, and catch your eye? For me, it’s a few places:The best seat in the house is the dining-room table (above), where I often plunk my laptop and heaps of messiness when writing and just generally like to be. (So does Jack the Demon Cat, who adores the west view.)I can see a long way due west from that old Chinese wooden chair, and also pretty far south, with a short east snapshot as well…so those directions, starting at the point of my favorite chair and emanating outward, are the primary axes of my garden. Fr

Note I used the word “shred,” because on my radio show and podcast, Mike and I talked about shredding, and how the right strategy along with the best shredding device can make all the difference in making mulch and compost from those brilliant leaves you’ve been piling up.Read along as you listen to the Nov. 23, 2015 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).my leaf-processing q&a with mike mcgrathQ. Congratulations, I should say first, on 17 years of “You Bet Your Garden.”A. Isn’t it amazing? People remember me still to this day from “Organic Gardening” magazine, a

THE ANNUAL RITUAL BEGINS: At tax time in the Northeast, we start our tomato seeds indoors, though many of you may be putting your seedlings out in the garden already or otherwise way ahead of me.

TWO CLASS SESSIONS FULL OF YOU visited one recent May to talk about container gardening, but for those who didn’t take the workshop in person, a recap seemed in order since it’s that time: everything into the pots!top container tips THOSE ARE MY WHEELBARROWS of some possible pot subjects, along with some full and empty pots, some tuteurs (metal towers), houseplants just dragged out, and more. It’s what one reader and attendee at the workshop calls the “Dance of a Thousand Plants” right now…wheeling or carrying things you bought or had around, looking for where they go, and scurrying to get them under cover if a cold night interrupts the planning.