All Entries in the "Henry Homeyer’s Notes from the Garden" Category
Henry Homeyer: Grow your flowers organically, for the soil & your blooms
By Henry Homeyer ©2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC When I mentioned to an acquaintance that I not only grow my vegetables with organic methods, but my flowers, too, he looked at me funny and asked, “Why? Are you going to eat your peonies?” No, I don’t eat my peonies, but I do believe they are healthier […]
Henry Homeyer: Tricks and tips to help you grow house plants
By Henry Homeyer ©2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC Even the best vegetable gardener can struggle to keep house plants alive. A champion rose gardener can sometimes kill her fiddle-leafed fig or her “mother-in-law’s tongue” (also called the snake plant or Sansevieria). Why? Because the growing conditions are really very different. And indoors plants really do depend […]
Henry Homeyer: 10 ways to become a great gardener
By Henry Homeyer ©2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC If you want to become a great gardener, you can. It’s really not that hard. Here are 10 things you can do that will help you achieve that goal. Take classes. The flower shows are starting up, and they all have classes with speakers who have been selected […]
Henry Homeyer: Grab your seed catalogs and start to plan
By Henry Homeyer ©2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC Groundhog’s Day has come and gone. That means we’re coming down home stretch. Winter is more than half gone. It’s time to think about ordering seeds, if you haven’t yet. Many great gardeners just don’t bother starting seedlings indoors. They say it takes too much time and effort. […]
Henry Homeyer: I love plants, but I hate these
By Henry Homeyer ©2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC There are a few plants I just do not like. Yes, I’m known as the Gardening Guy and have the website to prove it (www.Gardening-Guy.com). So I should love – or at least like – all plants. But I don’t. Now, in mid-winter, it’s a good time to […]
Henry Homeyer: How to identify trees in winter
By Henry Homeyer ©2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC Despite their lack of leaves in winter, it is not too difficult to identify most trees now. You just have to look at other characteristics such as branching patterns, bark, overall shape, seeds or fruit, where they grow and what their buds look like. I recently went to […]
Henry Homeyer: Mark your calendars for spring flower shows
By Henry Homeyer © 2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC Each winter, just as I am about to give up on life in the North Country and move to an island in the Caribbean, I am saved by the arrival of the spring flower shows. If you think that life is nothing but shoveling walks and wearing […]
Henry Homeyer: A view to improve your white winterscape
By Henry Homeyer © 2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC During hard winters like this, when we tend to be somewhat housebound, it’s important to have a landscape that we can enjoy from indoors. When I first gardened, I only grew vegetables and flowers, which disappear from view in winter. But now I delight in growing trees […]
Henry Homeyer: Can you protect plants against the deep freeze?
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC We’ve had some very cold weather recently. And although I hear gardeners at the post office or country store complaining about the cold, the weather has been normal for this time of year. It’s January, after all, and it’s supposed to be cold. It’s even good to have […]
Henry Homeyer: A year in plants, tried and now true
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC 2017 was a good gardening year for me. Although we had some rainy times, some hot and some dry times, overall the weather was conducive to good plant growth. As usual, I tried a number of new things, and here they are: In the vegetable garden I grew […]
Henry Homeyer: Paperwhites & amaryllis make for easy indoor blossoms
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC The winter months can be a bit depressing for me. As a gardener there is very little to do, and my supply of colorful flowers indoors is limited. I combat this by buying cut flowers and getting flowers to bloom in pots or dishes. Two of my favorites are […]
Henry Homeyer: pruning and pollarding, techniques to keep you busy
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC This is a time of year when little is happening in the garden. Weeds either have been pulled, or won’t be – until next spring. I’ve cut back most flowers, both perennial and annual. The ground is starting to freeze and we’ve had some snow. It’s a good […]
Henry Homeyer: Build your own cold cellar
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Ihad a banner year for root crops this year, and storage is a problem. For the past few years I had been storing root crops in a spare fridge, or in an old 25-gallon crock with a plywood lid in my cold basement. This year, I went back […]
Henry Homeyer: Berries, boughs and ferns for the winter home
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC This is the dark time of the year. The sun sets early, and is often obscured by clouds dripping rain and snow. For that reason, I string bright lights on trees outdoors, decorate a tree indoors, place candles in my windows – and lots more. I buy cut […]
Henry Homeyer: Holiday gifts from and for the garden
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC By the time you read this, Black Friday has passed us by. I know that some people stand in line that day, starting before the sun comes up to get special deals on electronic games and various widgets, but I have never done so. And won’t. My loved […]
Henry Homeyer: Keep your home bright with flowers through winter
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Each fall, around this time, I pot up daffodils, tulips, crocus and other bulbs for indoor blooming. It takes a long time for bulbs to establish roots and get ready to bloom, come spring. The sooner you do so the better, as most bulbs need three to four […]
Henry Homeyer: The many pros of taking an extra step with your perennials
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Now is a good time to divide and transplant some of your perennials. I recently dug up and moved Shasta daisies, Siberian iris and snakeroot (Cimicifuga spp). Most perennials can be divided in either spring or fall. However, experience is the best way to know what season is […]
Fight off insects with nature, not chemicals
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC As an organic gardener, I am always looking for ways to minimize the chances of pests or diseases in my garden. I don’t use fungicides or insecticides, even those that are all-natural and are approved for use by organic farmers and gardeners. I want it all: tasty veggies […]
From summer garden to winter table: storing your harvest
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC This was a good gardening year with adequate rain and adequate sun. I have enough food from the vegetable garden to sample some every day, for the rest of the year. Eating something from my garden every day is a bit of an obsession, but not all that […]
Little bloomers grace the garden in fall
By Henry Homeyer ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Frost was late this year. It was nearly mid-October before we had a hard frost, one that murdered the zinnias and blackened the basil. For me, hard frost is a day to mourn a little, to spend a few moments missing the summer that passed, for the tomatoes […]
