Welcome aboard!
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- March
- 16
Hello gardeners — and armchair enthusiasts and condo-dwelling dreamers. Welcome to my blog on gardening.
I liken gardening to a sport, one that’s not necessarily for the weak or faint of heart. Like other sports and vigorous outdoor activities, long days of yard work in the growing season will keep you in great shape. Just ask any wobbly legged gardener in April after an off-season of flights south, martinis, bowls of chili and afternoon naps.
And let’s be honest — it’s a competitive sport. Every rose grower wants to be a best-in-show rosarian. Every vegetable grower wants to have the biggest, tastiest beefsteak tomatoes in the neighborhood. You think your neighbors don’t notice those tall rows of corn in the back yard, or the gorgeous cherry and crabapple trees in full bloom or the sad pale-yellow forsythia shrubs that really need to be hacked back to the ground? Guess again.
But hey, gardening is loads of fun and I’m totally addicted to it. And I’ve had long dry spells of living in walkups in the city, years when my “gardening� was limited to pigeon-sharing pots of parsley and basil on the windowsill and long trips to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
I’ve learned there are lots of ways to enjoy gardening. My colleague Noreen O’Donnell has a great garden in containers on her New York City fire escape (please, please don’t tell NYFD —she’s already gotten in trouble once). And she adopts the saddest, dustiest houseplants that have been abandoned in the newsroom.
For my blog, I’ve got a nifty new digital camera, so I’ll be able to illustrate my musings. And send along snaps of your own best stuff, whether it’s an 8-foot gourd, a zinnia as big as your head or an iris with a color like no other.
We can’t exactly swap cuttings over the backyard fence, but we can share tips, horror stories and tall tales of scary encounters with weed whackers, bears and “landscapers.�
And we’ll surely talk about deer, the No. 1 nemesis of every gardener in the Hudson Valley. How’s your herd this winter?
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 10:52 am by Bill Cary.
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Bill Cary grew up in Louisville, Ky. His gardening was limited to growing parsley and impatiens on the windowsill of Manhattan walkups until the mid-1990s when he bought a rundown old chicken farm on 8 acres in the Hudson Valley. Now he spends his weekends chasing deer, hacking away at invasive shrubs and vines and wondering why he doesn`t have more meadow and less lawn.
Good luck with the blog. I myself have a “black thumb”- but still love reading about gardening. Looking forward to your posts- and your pictures, too.
Hi Bill, I heard you started your blog today and I am happy to add it to my list of must-read lohud blogs. I love plants and cut flowers but have little formal knowledge of them. I have had a lot of luck with my Orchid and houseplant collections. I was blessed to have inherited an amazing outdoor garden when my husband and I purchased our home about 9 years ago and mother nature has kindly kept it alive. I joined the Garden Club when we moved here in hopes of learning something and I have gained much from the members. Now, I find myself Co-President of the Club and am in need of all the help I can get to become a knowledgeable leader. Blog on…
Hi Beth. I’m sure there are lots of suburban gardeners just like you, people who buy nice homes with gardens already installed. Of course, you’re going to want to learn enough to keep it growing and healthy.