What to do this week: Now that winter is here it is time to start gathering seed catalogs, and planning the coming year’s garden. This week I am thinking about trees, bushes and berries. It is always a catch 22 because the prices are really good now, but it mayRead More

“I‘ve been telling you for years your prices are too low!” My daughter was cross. I love her dearly but there are times when I wish she weren’t quite so adept at scolding me. Don’t know where she learned that skill. She wasn’t wrong. One of the downsides of beingRead More

What to do this week This week, I would like to talk about taking care of your garden tools. This is a good week to do it. The best time to get your tools cleaned and in good working order for the next season, before you store them away, isRead More

What to do this week This week, I have been thinking about four-season gardening and those greens you have in the yard that might be still alive. Kale will be fine, so long as you can find it under the snow, but you may even have some chard that hasn’tRead More

What to do this week This week, it might be a good idea to check on the health of the plants you’ve taken in for the winter: it is time to check for pests. When you bring plants in from the outdoors you sometimes bring outdoor pests in as wellRead More

I was busily sewing a new dress for my first date in 12 years. (Yeah, I know, so sophisticated, a homemade dress.) Anyway, I was struck suddenly by a thought: what if this guy was Mr. Right? What if he wanted to move in with me? I stopped sewing. Huh.Read More

What to do this week What a wonderful fall we have had, but winter is near, and this winter it might be even more important that you take the time now to mulch your trees, bushes and bulbs. We will very likely be getting heaving with the freezing and thawingRead More

The Calculus of Cold As part of my Northern Immersion experience, my daughter and I keep Nunavut CBC on all the time. This means that more than 50% of the programming is in Inuktitut, a language said to be the second most difficult in the world to learn, next toRead More

What to do this week This column is usually about the things I am currently getting up to in my garden. This week I happen to be on my way to Iqaluit via Ottawa for a visit with my daughter. The garden, however, was still present. “Open up your bag,Read More

What to do this week I have been potting-up things this week to bring indoors. There are lots of things you can bring in, but one of them is not basil, so I didn’t bring in any. Here is why: The only way I have ever successfully overwintered basil inRead More