If this week's mild weather has you itching for spring, you are not alone. Even though the temperature has dropped again, I've decided winter is officially over and I can't wait to get out in the garden and start working. Unfortunately Mother Nature has other designs, and it's still too cold and damp to actually start working the soil. However, it's the perfect time to start certain seeds indoors and get a head start on the growing season. If you're growing veggies, seeds that can be started now include broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. In mid-month you can start your tomatoes, peppers, and …

As horrendous as this winter has been, I've maintained some semblance of sanity by tending to my houseplants even while snow is piling up outside my door. I've had the same jade plant keeping me company for many years and another unknown plant in a bizarre deer head planter that I found at a flea market in upstate New York. I've recently added some "air plants" to my collection, as well as a beautiful moth orchid (phalaenopsis) that was intended as a gift but I just couldn't part with. We also received a beautiful palm a few years ago as a housewarming present that currently brightens up a …

When faced with weather like we've been dealing with this winter, I tend to be all the more zealous when it comes to planning the spring garden. Looking out onto the tundra that is my yard, I close my eyes and imagine a lush plot of flowers and vegetables and I can almost smell the grass and dirt as I envision tilling and digging and planting and dividing. Unfortunately, this zeal translates into hundreds of dollars that I'd love to throw at the catalogs and websites that sustain my sanity during the cold. If you find yourself in a similar situation with eyes bigger than your budget, a little…

If you're planning a vegetable garden for the spring, whether it's through the community garden or on your own, it's time to start thinking of how to make the most of your plot and how to get the highest yield, the least crop failure, and the most fun out of your garden. Even if you consider yourself a novice gardener, there are some simple ways to defeat nasty pests and diseases and to ensure that you have success with your veggies through companion and succession planting. The number one way to control disease in the garden is to plant disease-resistant varieties. These may cost a bit more …

This past Saturday marked the start of the second season of the South Orange Community Garden, as residents lined up at the Baird Center with hopes of landing one of the 49 plots offered this year. If you were one of the lucky ones who walked away with a key to the hose and visions of fresh peas and vine-ripened tomatoes, it's time to start planning your 4' x 12' plot, as March 19th will be here before we know it (despite all signs pointing to eternal winter, including icy rain!) You'll first want to determine how you'd like to use your plot. Most people choose to grow fresh produce, but you …

In case you haven't figured it out by now from reading my previous columns, I have no love for winter. Pasty skin, perpetually cold hands, banging radiators and icy sidewalks - none of this is fun for me and any picturesque snowfall does not make up for it. To make it even worse, I've recently hit a new winter low in that I was given a Snuggie... and I love it. However, as dehumanizing as winter can be, at least it gives us gardeners a period of rest and contemplation so that we can calmly and logically plan our garden spaces for the upcoming spring. If you're anything like me, you lose your …

This time of year is normally a bit of a drag — the excitement of the holidays has died down, work and school are in full swing again, and it's back to the grind. Long cold months loom ahead, with not much in the way of distractions. That is, unless you are a gardener who has begun to receive the long-awaited spring catalogs in the mail. In fact, I'm beginning to think I've developed a bit of a dependency on them to get me through the winter. I carry them around with me constantly — they are in my purse by day and on my nightside table while I sleep. I dog-ear and highlight and circle; coffee…

2010 has proven to be quite an exciting year, from the ghastly drought over the summer to the historic blizzard that we are all still reeling from. So if you're looking for some reading material while you're snowed in, here is a look back at some of my favorite columns of the past year. In July 13th's column, I explored the growing problem of non-native invasive species that are disturbing the natural order of our woodlands and other ecosystems. This is sure to be a hot topic in the year to come as more people come to grips with just how destructive invasives can be. Native species are just…

Every year around this time people dust off their plastic mistletoe balls and hang them in doorways in the hopes of soliciting a smooch. I remember many holiday parties in which the mistletoe was the source of much squealing and giggling as couples kissed under the green boughs. It never occurred to me to wonder what mistletoe is and why it is a symbol of Christmas. In fact, I'm not even sure I knew it was a real plant considering the only mistletoe I've ever seen has been constructed of waxy plastic with dusty ribbons and berries with seams. American mistletoe (Phoradendron) is one of 2 …

We see them everywhere: decorating offices, churches, post offices and hospitals; they spruce up television sets, and can be bought anywhere from the grocery store to the hardware store. As soon as the Thanksgiving table is cleared, poinsettias seem to appear out of mid-air and we are inundated with the things until after Christmas. I've never been a big fan of the poinsettia, but after a visit to the Rutgers' floriculture greenhouse on Cook Campus, I had a change of heart. Even if you're not a fan, seeing 1500 poinsettias in one place is just overwhelmingly beautiful. For years, Rutgers has…

The winter is a great time to curl up with a good book and dream about the growing season to come. It's also a time to think up fresh garden designs, pick up some new tools, and perhaps even find some funky "flair" for the garden. Here are a few great books that have gotten me through many dreary winter days: The Garden Primer by Barbara DamroschReading this book is like having tea with a good friend who just happens to be a gardening guru. Damrosch writes in a friendly, casual manner giving great advice based on her years of experience. She goes into depth about growing annuals, perennials…

As the cold weather rapidly descends upon us, I just realized that I have made a glaringly obvious, utterly novice mistake in my garden planning: there is no winter interest! All the leaves have fallen, the blooms are long-faded, stems are brown and brittle and there is nary a glimmer of color or a shred of green. Most of my perennials have been cut back and will soon die down to the ground, and my annuals are long gone. I have a few creeping junipers that will eventually spread to cover more of the bare beds, but right now they are dwarfed by the vast expanse of brown. The most obvious …

I have been getting a lot of gardening questions lately and I'm finding that the same ones keep coming up over and over. Here are the answers to a few of the common questions I've been fielding lately. Is it too late to plant my spring bulbs?It may be a bit past the ideal time, but I'd say take your chances and get those babies into the ground as soon as possible! October is usually the optimal time to plant spring bulbs, when nighttime temperatures are around 45-50 degrees. Ideally, you want to give the bulbs some time to establish themselves before the first hard frost, but if you just …

Once upon a time, in a former life, I worked in advertising. As a fledgling art director, my boss once briskly imparted a piece of his vast knowledge to me: "We all want things fast, cheap, and good, but you can only ever have two of those things." Meaning, you can get something fast and cheap but it won't be good, or you can have something cheap and good, but it won't be fast, or... well, you get the idea.  At the time I laughed to myself, likening it to a scene from Office Space, but I never quite forgot that little nugget of advice and have found it to hold true in most situations, be it …

Something strange is happening around town—everywhere I look all I see are shriveled-up heads, half-eaten faces, and sunken-in eyes and mouths. I'm talking about our decaying pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns of course, most of which have been squirrel food for the past few weeks if you were brave enough to put them outside. Luckily for me, a stray cat has adopted our yard and the squirrels haven't mustered up the courage to make a run for our pumpkins. So now I'm left with the question of what to do with our shriveling jack-o-lanterns and the perfectly good uncarved pumpkins I have lying around. …

One of the things that attracts people to South Orange are the beautiful old homes, most of which were built between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. We've got everything from Victorian to Dutch Colonial, Arts and Crafts to the classic Tudor, all nestled on beautiful, albeit mostly small, properties. But, remember that paper you had to sign when you bought your home? Something about houses before 1978... lead... disclaimer... legalese... sign on the dotted line and move on? That paper? Well, that's because until a ban in 1978, the use of lead in residential paint was widespread. In fact, …

Priding myself on trying to live a greener existence, I have tried my hand many times at composting and I am embarassed to admit that the concept always seems to elude me. Last year I bought a counter-top compost pail and religiously saved all my kitchen scraps only to send my husband out in the cold to the compost bin with a swirling mass of fruitflies assaulting his vision. Needless to say, that didn't last very long. I've tried tumbler bins as well as loose piles and have always ended up with the same result: a mess of sludge littered with whole pinecones, sticks, lumps of sod and the …

When I began my foray into gardening a few years ago, I never imagined all of the doors that would open up to me — my interests widened from a narrow focus on perennials to include environmentalism, sustainable gardening, butterflies, bees, native plants, and, much to my surprise, bird watching. I hope I won't offend by saying this, but I've always had a preconceived notion of bird watchers as socially-awkward loners who just want to be left alone in the woods with their binoculars and bird guides, and honestly, it never really interested me. Until, one day last spring, I spotted a neon …

These past few gloomy, rainy days have given me a sneak preview of the impending winter and have got my mind turning, wondering how I'm going to pass the time when winter arrives and I can no longer actively garden. My anticipation of the inevitable cabin fever coupled with a recent lecture I attended for the Essex County Master Gardener program has inspired me to use the upcoming "planning season" (code for "bored-out-of-your-mind-stuck-inside-with-a-toddler") to work on designing a small rain garden for my sloped front yard. Despite what you may think, a rain garden is not a swamp or a …

For many of us, gardening is an exercise in quieting our minds and relieving stress, as well as (or perhaps as a result) a hobby that can border on obsession. Add that to the fact that most of us in South Orange have small lots with ancient shade trees and the result is that many local gardeners have been forced to garden in their front yard. My own on-going adventure in front yard gardening was precipitated by necessity - my tiny back yard fills out every spring with the shade of a beautiful Kousa dogwood and two giant pines from my neighbor's yard. Unfortunately that means I am left with a …