Nicki’s New Garden Project

Everyone loves falafel—it’s a year-round staple, and the frozen options at Trader Joe’s make it incredibly easy to prepare. But today, you should probably rid your freezer shelves of any Trader Joe’s falafel: In the company’s third food recall this week, on July 28 Trader Joe’s recalled its fan-favorite Fully Cooked Falafel after being informed by the supplier that rocks were found in the food.

2020 Master Gardener Training Course registration is OPEN

Garden Sprouts is a program I run at the South Carolina Botanical Garden that is designed for preschoolers and caregivers. This class takes place once a week for three months every spring and fall. The goal is to share age-appropriate nature-based activities with children, who are mostly three to five years old, but sometimes younger or older. Over time I have learned the caregivers also learn things they never knew, enjoy the activities immensely, and are able to connect more deeply to the natural world through this program. The structure of this hour-long program is three-fold, we begin inside with a book related to the theme of the day, a walk or outdoor activity, and finally a craft. In this blog, I would like to share some of the books, outdoor activities, and crafts we have done in this class.

This heirloom grain, together with the skilled knowledge and forced labor of West Africans and their descendants, made South Carolina very, very rich. From 1720 to the outbreak of the Civil War, rice was the most economically valuable crop for this state. White landowners, who thought rice would do well in the low country, themselves lacked practical knowledge of rice cultivation. Instead, they paid a premium to slave traders to capture and transport laborers from the well-established rice region of West Africa to Carolina. During the 18th century, many enslaved people brought into Charleston came from this rice-growing area. These people and their descendants created the Gullah-Geechee culture in the low country.

Garden open from 10-4; $5 suggested donation to the Garden Conservancy, no reservations required. Broken Arrow Nursery plant sale in my driveway, 10-4. 11 AM lecture just down the road on “Backyard Fruit Simplified” by Lee Reich (reserve tickets here); 2 PM grafting workshop by Lee Reich (tickets here). (Plus: one other Garden Conservancy property open nearby.)saturday, june 1Garden open from 10-4; $5 suggested donation to the Garden Conservancy, no reservations required. Broken Arrow Nursery plant sale in my driveway, 10-4. (Plus: three other Garden Conservancy properties open nearby.)saturday, august 17Garden open from 10-4; $5 suggested donation to be shared by the Garden Conservancy and Friends of Taconic State Park, no reservations required. My Open Day in August is part of a townwide celebration called Copake Falls Day. Broken Arrow Nursery plant sale in my driveway, 10-4. 11 AM lecture on “The Heirloom Life” by The Fabulous Beekman Boys, Josh Kilmer-Pu

You may recall my previous conversations with Thomas, the co-author with Claudia West of the provocative 2015 book “Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes.” Even though we both have worked around plants for many years, it’s as if Thomas sees them differently from the way I do, in a sort of super-savvy botanical 3-D. He doesn’t see them as mere decorative objects, but astutely reads their body language for clues to who they want to grow with (or not) and how to put them all together successfully.I love how he sees, and thinks, as you can glean from our lively Q&A, where he says things like this:And this:Though not intentionally so, the Times article turns out to be especially timely—and not just because it’s early spring, and we gardeners need to make smarter choices

By the time I met the Chuck, Matt and Joe Heidgen 17-plus years ago, when we were  working on the former Martha Stewart garden line at K-Mart, I at least already knew that when I said Geranium that I actually meant Pelargonium, because that’s the genus our annual geraniums actually are in. But I didn’t know that one could look, and smell, nothing like Grandma’s old standards, and perform roles in the garden she’d never imagined.Today Joe Heidgen, with his brother Matt, runs the business called Shady Hill Gardens—both garden center (below) and mail-order specialists–that their father founded in Batavia 40 years ago. It’s now in Elburn, Illinois (an hour or so west of Chicago). For more than 30 years, Shady Hill has gained a national reputation as Pelargonium specialists, breeding and propagating every color, shape, size and scent imaginable (and then some). And good news: they sell them mail-order, too.Li

But what does it all add up to, all those notations? And how did I do on past resolves?“More mulch, no spray,” I proposed to readers a year ago (which is pretty much business as usual for me). Two deliveries of 8 cubic yards each were delivered and mostly distributed.The only spray? I’ve tried some dilute bleach, and on another occasion some dilute ammonia, in a small spritzer bottle, applied to the legs of wooden furniture on my back porch, to try reasoning wit

But how do you make a meadow or meadow garden, and manage one? What plants, and what practices, combine for a successful mix?Tom Brightman has been land steward at the famed Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania since 2007, where he oversees more than 700 acres of forest, meadow, wetlands and agricultural lands—including the 86 inspiring acres called the Meadow Garden.Read along as you listen to the Aug. 15, 2016 edition of

You know Joe Lamp’l as host of the “Growing A Greener World” show on PBS and of the Joe Gardener podcast, but apparently besides being a great gardener, he also had a show on the DIY Network for three years. So before all my vining crops and tomatoes need support, or the seedlings are screaming to be gridded out at proper spacing and other such impending issues, Joe shared some proactive garden organizing tips, DIY-style, based on the wire panels.Read along as you listen to the April 2, 2018 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).joe lamp’l’s diy garden projects using livestock panelsQ. Welcome back, Joe. I’m ready for some he

The popular course that Daryl Beyers teaches at NYBG in New York City is called Fundamentals of Gardening. And now Daryl, who has more than 25 years of professional landscaping experience besides his teaching role, has put all the fundamentals into a new book, “The New Gardener’s Handbook” (affiliate link).It was in its pages that I picked up some new-to-me tips on better composting and more—including the right way to water as you plant trees and shrubs; how to choose which limbs to prune off or keep when shaping and thinning; and how to rejuvenate overgrown shrubs (all at once, or in stages?).Read along as you listen to the March 16, 2020 edition