January is the time that gardeners start their gardens. We garden on paper, planning what we will grow in our gardens or how we will improve our landscapes this year. Three ways that gardeners prepare for the growing season are to review last year’s garden, check out what’s new in the catalogs, and use available resources to learn more about gardening! Review the 2012 Garden If you did any kind of gardening in 2012, this is the moment to take a critical backward look. The easiest thing to do is to remember the real successes: the abundance of aromatic basil, the brief but magnificent …

It’s the time of year to brainstorm about good gifts for gardeners on your list. But before I get into the juicy details, I need to pause for a very important seasonal alert. This winter may be especially cold -- we know this because of the mice. The mice are making their way into homes all over southwest Boston (a conclusion reached after polling my neighbors and members of the water aerobics class at Curtis Hall). They are finding their way through openings in walls around pipes and ducts, squeezing through ¼ inch openings, flattening themselves to scurry under the door. What does that mean…

My daughter was sure that the ruffled purple cabbages in the fall planting outside a fancy hotel were not the same kind of cabbages that we eat: “But they’re so pretty! They don’t look like the kind of cabbage we put into soup.” (But in fact those elegant landscape plants are cabbages!) My daughter’s observation came about the same time our neighbors beautified the fence by planting vines with pretty heart-shaped leaves and long purple beans (which turn green when you steam them up to eat). Blueberry bushes started showing up here and there in cities and towns as decorative shrubs (with an …

Our big blue planet is the planet of water. Every form of life on our planet — from the largest mammal to the smallest microbe — depends on water. Without water, there is no life.  The amount of water on our planet is not infinite. Sometimes we act as though this most precious substance is so ordinary we don’t even have to think about it.   This spring it looked as though we were in for a parching drought.  Summer rains have brought our total rainfall almost up to the average (45” a year), but we are close enough to scarcity that gardeners are thinking seriously about the very best ways to …

My community garden neighbor and I were clearing weeds from our joint border when she generously loaned me her weeding tool. The minute I held it in my hand I knew I had come in contact with a tool I wanted to spend the rest of my gardening years with. It has three thin curved claw-like tines that slide into the earth with authority, pulling up the target weed, roots and all, with no nonsense.  I turned to where I was just about to plant my beans this year, and found that the tool dug deep and aerated the soil with almost no effort on my part. This was a tool designed for a gardener like me …

The problem was that the kitchen cabinets fell apart a year early.  We had outlined our budget plans, and it was going to be dental repairs this year, kitchen update next year.  But two of the cabinet doors fell off and then the drawer holding the silverware came apart and had to be knocked back into shape every time you opened the drawer for a teaspoon. And when we looked around critically we saw that the front strip was beginning to peel off the countertop and the old wallpaper was dingy even after scrubbing. So it really was time for a kitchen redo. That’s when the questions began: What do…

The floating clouds of white dogwood, the appearance of dandelions in the lawn, the forty shades of green that make up JP’s lush landscape,– a gardener doesn’t need to look at a calendar to know that it’s time to begin. The birds know it – they are already patrolling backyards and plots in the community gardens looking for the tasty seeds gardeners are planting. So whether you are planning on growing herbs in a container, flowers to attract butterflies to your balcony or backyard, or a family size vegetable garden… it’s time! Something we may need to consider in particular this year: the …

Green Jamaica Plain holds the crown of Boston bicycling. JP cyclists have many of Boston’s sweetest cycle-spots in their back yard -- the Arnold Arboretum, the Jamaicaway Bikepath along the Emerald Necklace, Forest Hills Cemetery and Franklin Park. JP is home to Boston’s international bike charity, Bikes Not Bombs, and to unnumbered bike events, ranging from JP Bikes’ annual Spring Roll to Ferris Wheels’ free pancake breakfast for bikers participating in Boston’s Walk/Ride Day the last Friday of each month.  And it’s not just bikers out for a ride. JP is also a hub of activism; bicyclists are…

That spring a couple of years ago when we got all the rain, I was worried about the strawberry crop. Not strawberries I was growing myself, but the ones a particular farm was growing for my family and all the other part-owners in that farm’s harvest.  Back in March, we had put down money for a share of the farm’s annual harvest of fruit and vegetables, and rain or shine, we were in it along with our CSA farmer for the rest of the growing season. That’s the way it is in a CSA. Consumer Supported Agriculture is a system in which buyers give a farmer cash at the beginning of the growing season, …

There is a story in the Talmud of Honi, a wise man. One day he was out walking when he saw a man planting carob tree seeds. Honi asked the man, “How long will it take before you can eat the fruit of these trees?”  “Seventy years,” was the answer.  Honi smiled. “And you think that you are going to live long enough to harvest that fruit?” The man sat back from his work for a moment. “Probably not. But all my life I have harvested fruit from carob trees that were planted by my grandfather and my father. Now I am planting seeds so that my children and grandchildren will have trees.” The urban …

When I asked Patrick Bryne of Cobwebs why he sells fresh flowers and houseplants as part of the antique business he didn’t miss a beat. “Beauty! That’s the goal. It’s all about making a home full of beauty.” The delicate little potted tree with pussywillow buds displayed beside the antique silver was a promise of just such visual pleasure. That was only one of the many reasons people gave for growing houseplants, devoting space and time and care. The motives range from aesthetic satisfaction to health to companionship! Jeb Taylor of New Leaf Flores reports that some customers come looking …

Community gardener Jeanine Baillie always plants garlic and tulips in the fall, and every year she makes a different design with the tulips. Last year it was a white heart outlined with scarlet tulips. This year it’s a multicolored tulip message: HOPE.  Jeanine is from Trinidad and she says that for her “thin tropical blood,” Boston winters are cold.  She explains her tulip message of hope: “Every year I think, well, if the tulips can make it until spring, then I will, too.” Actually, even while many gardens are empty of everything but chilly winds and drifting leaves, some are still …

There aren’t many people sitting outside at J.P.Licks now that it’s November. The early morning motorists at Hatoff’s tend to hunch into their warm jackets as they pump their gas. There are still lots of people jogging and fast-walking around the Pond, but not many sitting on the benches to watch them go by. Fall has long since cooled, snow has actually fallen! and people are buttoning up against colder temperatures. That means it’s time to get our homes ready for the winter, as well. So let me tell you the story of one building in JP, and how the residents are saving money on heating and …

Snow? But I just picked a cucumber from my garden yesterday! Some folks will be putting a cardboard box or five-gallon container over plants they want to protect in their gardens tonight. Others may be rushing out for a mesh or translucent fabric grow-tunnel or a “wall of water” to keep a little warmth around their plants. None of these solutions work when there is a hard freeze, but they offer a few degrees’ worth of protection. Dahlia growers have a more difficult challenge; the beautiful blossoms are often at their height just when the danger of snow or frost threatens. Because this is a …

October, New England’s finest month. The sky is never bluer, and the autumn leaves have begun their quiet circus of color.  Some people are humming melancholy tunes about leaves tumbling down and feeling nostalgic about the fleeting joys of summer, but gardeners who know The Secret are smiling to themselves. The Secret: If there is a silver bullet that can solve just about any gardener’s problems, it is compost, an incredible resource which those in the know will be creating from those autumn leaves. Yes, if the soil in your garden sticks together like clay and nothing drains well, compost …

It’s harvest time in gardens all around JP, that time of year when the danger of leaving your car unlocked may be that you return to find a bag of zucchini on the back seat. We gardeners have been weeding and watering all summer long, nurturing seedlings into healthy, productive plants, and we want to see that everything the plant produces gets used. But sometimes there’s just more than we need. That’s why some gardeners are finding creative ways to share their hard-won produce or finding ways to preserve the excess harvest for colder seasons. Sharing the Wealth!  On Monday nights (and early …

How do you get through the hot weather? “Drink lots of water.” “Central air conditioning!” “Move v-e-r-y slowly.” “I have thick thermal curtains that really work – it’s dark but it’s cool.” “Lie still under a ceiling fan.”  “We go to the movies.” [Responses of members of a water aerobics class who were cooling off at the Flaherty pool.] It has already been hot, and the dog days of August are still to come. And the climatologists say that we are heading toward summers with 30 to 60 days with temperatures over 90. That’s a different kind of summer, and we need to think ahead about how to live …

On a summer morning, there is nothing like a stroll around the estate to inspect the gardens. What? No estate? You can get the same thrill of wonder and satisfaction by opening your window and taking a close look at the plants in your windowbox. In fact, taking a close-up look at this small plot of land may be even more fascinating, because you notice every detail of what is happening. Our across-the-river daughter has been growing Sun Gold cherry tomatoes in an Earth Box on her triple decker's porch for the past few years. First thing every morning she's out there checking on the plants. At …

Some people bring their children to the garden to teach them about healthy food or to introduce them to nature. For others, it’s a way to get them away from the electronic screen. For some, it’s a way of continuing a family tradition. For Rachel Parker’s girls, going to the community garden means having fun. First of all, there’s the dirt. There are holes to dig and piles of dirt to move around. Rachel says that until kids are at least two and a half, that’s the best thing of all. Child-size shovels make it even better. Then there are seeds to plant and water. Fast growing plants like …

There are four things I want to write about blueberries: some ways to help blueberries grow well in JP gardens, the story of a determined woman with vision and cash who created domestic blueberries as we know (and grow) them, a special trick to use with berry pies, and a hill just outside Camden, Maine. To start with the hill, there’s a trail that winds up to the top through rocky fields of blueberry bushes. If you’ve read the children’s book, Blueberries for Sal,  you know just the kind of hill I mean – rounded, lots of granite showing, lots of blueberries. There’s a great view of Penobscot …