Very little goes as planned in gardening. Weather and other mysterious natural forces conspire to thwart human hubris, as they should. But this year, miracle of miracles, my spring bulbs turned out exactly as I had dared to dream. My daffodils fulfilled a specific vision I’d been harboring for a couple years. On a walk around the…
Category: Skills
How to Grow and Propagate California Fuchsia in Containers
If you’re already thinking about fall color in your garden, I can’t recommend California fuchsia (Epilobium canum) enough. Its tubular bright red and orange flowers bloom in autumn and unfailingly attract hungry hummingbirds, while its soft silvery foliage looks nice all year round. And best news of all for us balcony gardeners: it thrives in…
Save Time and Emotional Labor by Testing Your Dusty Old Seeds
If you’re a gardener, chances are you’ve got some seeds squirreled away that are past their prime. Maybe you’re overzealous with your seed orders every year (me), couldn’t resist a bunch of free but expired seeds at a garden event (also me), or can’t bring yourself to throw away a packet with pretty illustrations on…
How to Care for a Winter “Greenhouse” in Your Kitchen
As activity outside on the balcony slows down, I’m keeping busy inside this December. The shelves installed in my kitchen window (a.k.a. “the greenhouse”) are populated with a collection of scraggly young plants that will be spending winter indoors. Each little pot contains a miniature experiment in propagation. Cuttings of herbs, salvia, and Agastache mingle…
An All-Purpose Guide to Re-Potting Any Plant
Very few plants can live in the same pot forever. Eventually, they must either go in the ground or into a bigger pot. Since my garden is on a concrete balcony, a bigger pot it is. As a container gardener, I feel like I’m constantly moving a plant from one pot into another. Although every…