Picnic for the Planet News that 250+ media organizations have pledged to do a week of climate change coverage in the lead-in to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York on September 23 has made me vow to pull up my socks and make a point of includingRead More

What to do this week The Spectator‘s gardening columnist will be back to her regular schedule next week. (Full disclosure: the Spectator forgot to tell her we were resuming the weekly publication schedule as of September 11. Sorry Michelle!) Luckily, she has written oodles of advice for September gardeners, andRead More

What to do this week Michelle Smith is busy weeding, so here are some of her mid- to late-summer tips from seasons past: On 23 August  2017 she had some advice on storing all that produce you’re harvesting at this point in summer, notably the root vegetables: If you plantedRead More

What to do this week With the prolonged cold weather, there was some serious pouting going on in my house. I wasn’t sure there even should be a column this week and maybe I’m still not certain. But if, like me, you are greatly cheered by a few days ofRead More

What to do this week You might need a garden shovel or something similar in the next month or so, who knows, but generally, this is the time of year you should be cleaning, organizing and storing your garden tools for winter. It is a good idea to put yourRead More

What to do this week From the chill in the air it seems that this week is a good week to talk about fall activities in the garden. Between now and the end of October is official root pruning season. If you have any plants you want to divide orRead...

What to do this week This week can be all about tidying up in the garden, especially around your fruit trees and berry bushes. Of course you will be busy with harvest, that goes without saying, but these perennials also need some attention now. Let’s talk about apples first. YouRead More

What to do this week This week, we have a success report from Madeline about her globe artichoke overwintering experiment, and some encouragement to think about the early spring pruning of your trees and bushes. Let’s start with pruning. The little bit of snow we are getting this week mayRead More

Sorry for the radio silence here. I have been ill — in the hospital actually. Nothing serious or life-threatening, my nice Doctor says stress and overwork. Working 16-hour days, seven days a week for four months straight was not a good idea. Turns out I am not superwoman. Crap. IRead More

What to do this week This week is a good time to care for your fruit trees and shrubs before winter. The first thing to do is to clip the grass short around them. If you leave the grass long, the snow cover will leave little tunnels for mice. TheyRead More