Madeline Yakimchuk

Glen Innes Soldiers' Settlement Estate - receiving instructions in pruning, 1921.(

Photographic Collection from Australia [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

Gardening Tips: Pruning Time

March 13, 2019 at 11:50 am

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

Whitefly. (Photo by gbohne from Berlin, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

Gardening Tips: Indoor Infestations

February 27, 2019 at 12:45 pm

What to do this week These days, I mark time, waiting for my leeks and onions to sprout and it’s time to start my early spring greens next month. It is a good time to pay attention to the indoor garden and other small tasks. Houseplants, particularly those that spendRead More

Onion seedlings (Photo by Madeline Yakimchuk)

Gardening Tips: Gardeners, Start Your Onions!

February 6, 2019 at 11:30 am

What to do this week I know it’s the dead of winter but it is still time to think about finalizing your seed orders and starting your transplants. Onions and leeks are the first thing to start on the windowsill rotation. There are a lot of good reasons to startRead More

Gardening Tips: When Less is More

Gardening Tips: When Less is More

January 30, 2019 at 11:45 am

What to do this week This week we need to have a talk. Yes, it’s advice I find hard to follow myself, but just between you and me, we’re going to have to suck it up. It’s for our own good. The advice? Don’t take on more than you canRead More

Gardening Tips: How to Read a Seed Catalog

Gardening Tips: How to Read a Seed Catalog

January 23, 2019 at 1:00 pm

What to do this week Looking at some of the better seed catalogs can be a bit confusing for the uninitiated. A well-written catalog is full of useful technical information, but that’s not much use if you don’t know what any of it means. This week, we’ll take a tourRead More

Gardening Tips: Time to Read About Seed

Gardening Tips: Time to Read About Seed

January 16, 2019 at 11:54 am

Editor’s Note: It is making the Spectator a bit giddy to announce the return of the weekly gardening column! Don’t let the snow fool you — spring will come, and Michelle and Madeline will make sure you and your garden are ready for it.   What to do this weekRead More

Garlic. (Photo by fir0002 | flagstaffotos.com.au, GFDL 1.2 http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html, from Wikimedia Commons)

Gardening Tips Week 37: Garlic Time

October 3, 2018 at 12:15 pm

What to do this week It is garlic-planting time again. In this part of the world, it is a good idea to plant your garlic before the end of October. It needs a bit of time for the roots to get established before the freeze-thaw cycles. One never knows howRead More

Der Sommer by Abel Grimmer, 1607. (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Gardening Tips Weeks 29 & 30: Harvest Soon

August 8, 2018 at 11:30 am

What to do this week Harvesting is really the point of it all. This week, I’d like to give you a few tips and tricks to make the harvest even more abundant. To get maximum production from some crops, you have to pick them. The plant senses it is notRead More

McIntosh apple, half-inch green. (Source: UMass Amherst Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment https://ag.umass.edu/fruit/bud-stages/april-23-2013-bud-stages)

Gardening Tips Week 17: Spray It, Don’t Say It

May 9, 2018 at 11:30 am

What to do this week This week is a good time to talk about spraying fruit trees because now is the time to do that. There are a couple of reasons that even an organic grower might want to spray. One would be to rid the trees of pests beforeRead More

Gardening Tips Week 5: From Here to Maturity

Gardening Tips Week 5: From Here to Maturity

February 7, 2018 at 11:45 am

This time last year… What to do this week: This week I want to talk a bit more about days to maturity because it is a big factor in what you choose to grow in your garden. If you look at any single seed catalog, be aware that the daysRead More