Hello fellow readers, This growing season provided a perfect environment for foliar disease. Earlier in the summer Hector from Morristown, NJ sent a photo of his Mom’s maple tree dotted with black spots. “All the leaves seem to have the cooties.” I sent the photo off to my favorite as

Hello Fellow Readers, As we ready our gardens for the new season of growth, many add fertilizers and other nourishment such as compost and manure. You’ve likely noticed I advocate organic practices so we all may breathe green with a splash of color. Organic farming became known

Hello Fellow Readers, This time of year, what fun it is to peruse seed catalogs. Green beans aren’t only green anymore. And tomatoes come in all sorts of shades and mottled blends of colors. There are even tomatoes that stay green when they’re ripe. Charlotte of Stone Chur

Hello fellow readers, Jeanne of Blairstown NJ shared a gooey dilemma on her peach trees. Both trees have clear jelly-like globs on or near the fruit. Plus, a rust colored goo on some of the branches. One tree has a deep wound at the base of the trunk, yet that’s the tree producing edi

Hello fellow readers, Jacquie from Andover bought some comfrey seeds to try. She heard comfrey leaves are great for the soil and it’s true. Common Comfrey (Symphytum officinalis), native to Europe, can juice up your garden with nutrients. But before you opt to plant it, consider that

Hello fellow readers, While on a road walk with Miss Ellie, I saw a pinkish Queen Anne’s Lace flower with dark magenta edges on a plant where all the other flowers were the customary cream. What a gorgeous anomaly! It reminded me of grade school when we’d cut Queen Anne

Hello fellow readers, While sitting with Mom outside her nursing home in Virginia, I noticed a crust of bread being hauled off by an ant.  I marvel at how much an ant can carry – ten to fifty times their body weight, they say. Mom, who inspired my gardening start, can’t talk muc

Hello fellow readers, They say one out of every three bites of food depends on a pollinator. According to the Pollinator Partnership, the largest non-profit organization in the world dedicated to the protection of pollinators, the U.S. has lost over 50 percent of its managed honeybee

Hello fellow readers, I considered delaying part two of our talk about Worm Composting in the spirit of a more appetizing topic for Thanksgiving, but a promise is a promise. And dinner preparations will make plenty of grub for your worms. (For those that missed last week, here’s

Hello fellow readers, Yay! John from Belvidere asked about worm composting -what fun! The process is called vermicomposting. It takes very little space, and there’s little or no odor. Best of all, a couple of pounds of worms can make nutrient-rich compost out of your trash in ab