It was different this year. The madman has really lived up to his New Year’s Resolutions and has not tried to rush the season – sort of. But, it is now past his magic last frost date of May 15 and the long term forecast shows no frost in sight; in fact it seems warm….
Do you remember the Three Musketeers? No, I am not talking about Athos, Porthos and Aramis and their friend d’Artagnan. I’m talking about the three white-tailed deer that entertained the madman so well all winter. Right now, they’ve got him worried. And, it’s not just them. The other day the madman found some…
Last time we talked about getting dirty; this time we are going to talk about getting clean. No, we are not going to go out and take a bath in the madman’s lily pond. We are going to clean up our earth. Two days from now is the 51st celebration of Earth Day. Bugs…
Spring is here. Time to get outside and get dirty. First things first, do not plant any warm weather crops in the ground. It is still much too early for that. But, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be out in the garden. Around here, the weather seems to have warmed up. The snow has gone,…
Reflections of a year in quarantine. It’s been one year. One long year of quarantine. A year ago, the news was grim. The world around us was shutting down. Uncertainty was rampant. Offices were closed. Events were cancelled. Restaurants were shuttered. Schools were shut down. And the governor kept issuing executive orders shutting more stuff…
The madman is excited. March is full of great gardening events. His head is ready to explode with all the excitement. As you read this, we are on the cusp of the first great thing. In about 10 weeks, it will be May 15. And, May 15 is the madman’s estimate for the last…
In other years we had the Hartford Flower Show to pull us out of winter hibernation. And, to help us put the finishing touches on our garden plans. I sort of miss the madman running around talking to his plants. Did he really think they would scream, “Take me! Take me!” when he asked who…
We love watching the winter wildlife. As we hit “publish” on our last post, the madman looked at me and said, “Today feels like a bobcat day.” Not sure why he would even think that – it’s been a while since we last saw one. But, as I looked out in the garden, lo and…
The Persephone Period is about to end. The madman and his plants will get a daily dose of 10 hours of sunlight (I wonder what kind of a celebration we’ll have this year). For the past month, he’s been looking at seed catalogs and his garden journal. We are getting through the dark days of…