Wow! It’s time for the Perseids, the madman’s favorite meteor shower. It’s not the most prolific of the year, but it comes at a time when the weather is warm. The madman imagines some ancient gardener saying, “the heavens are showering, time to plant the fall crops.” If you were fortunate enough to…
Bulbs in July? Yep, now is the time to start thinking about what blooms you want to see after a long winter. Sounds crazy in July, but the catalogs have been here for a while. Pages are turned down; selections are circled, and lists are started. My problem is that everything looks so good, but…
It’s the middle of July – time to weed. The madman says if we’re lucky our bug problems are under control. We have found, squished and drowned large numbers of the big three – the ones that cause us the most problems. You may have a different list, but our big three are the Squash…
We’ve been getting a lot of questions from friends and others. Seems the Victory Gardens are truly springing up all over the place. The madman has been surprised by the source of some of these questions – people he thought would never consider growing a plant. Yet, here they are with a problem. But…
We’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: these are strange times we live in. We certainly appreciate all those who are out there doing what they do so we can stay safe and continue following the stay at home orders. After all, we’ve been in the over 65 category for some time now. Fortunately,…
We are still in lockdown. And, we are all getting antsy, but as a retired healthcare professional, the madman says we have to be careful and not jump the gun. Or take on a project too big to handle. We have heard a lot of chatter about people wanting to start gardens in response to…
In case you haven’t noticed, the weather is getting warmer. Not that it was a bad winter (until the darned COVID-19 hit), it’s just getting warmer. The sun is higher and we have more hours of daylight. Look at your calendar. Spring is here – it officially arrived at 11:49 p.m. March 19. The Equinox…
Time to put the holidays behind us because we have to start planning our garden. Actually, the holidays aren’t quite over. Due to sickness around Christmas, we had to push our family celebration into the new year. Mike and Harley are bringing Teddy down from Maine. They will be joined by Chris, Jenn, Liam…
The madman finally came to terms with the frost. He simply said, “After all it is almost Samhain”. Sounds like another excuse for a bonfire to me. In another reference to our Wheel of the Year, Samhain is the ending of the harvest and the coming of the darkness. Celtic Celebration Midway between…