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Category Archives: gardening
Running Late, Right on Time
Annual cycles come in every variety, and my yearly gardening procrastination routine is well underway. Every year, in the doldrums of “spring” promise during March and April, I vow that THIS YEAR I’ll get the garden put together in a … Continue reading
Posted in gardening, procrastination, weather
Tagged Penn Parmenter, spring planting, starting seeds, tomato plants
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Just One Storm
I’ve lived in a semi-arid environment all my life (except two years during college when I lived in England: a wonder of green, and skin that did not demand a daily slathering of lotion). Living where the air is perched … Continue reading
Posted in gardening, observation, spring, weather
Tagged April weather, high altitude gardening, spring snow, thunderstorms, tulips
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The Conundrum of Cute
The cottontail rabbit I mentioned a month ago is still around. When I didn’t see it for a few days and the entrance to the burrow near the front walk stayed covered with snow, I assumed it had met with … Continue reading
Posted in gardening, humans and wildlife, predators, rodents
Tagged cottontail rabbits, tolerance
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End of Season Miscellany
The season is over. The potatoes are dug, as are the carrots and the dinky onions. The kale, while green right up until an arctic front settled over us and drove temperatures below zero, is done for the season. The … Continue reading
Posted in change of seasons, fall, gardening
Tagged cherry tree, garlic confit, pea tendrils
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The Busy
A fringe of scarlet on the leaves of a Rocky Mountain maple. The fade to gold in the cottonwoods. A landscape gone tawny under sun-cured grasses. Short glossy hairs dropping off the horses, replaced by fuzz. Frost-blackened leaves curling on … Continue reading
Posted in change of seasons, gardening, weeds
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A Preponderance of Purple
My tastes don’t generally run toward clear favorites or coveting the “best” of this or that. I favor variety and contrast and have a tendency to be suspicious of my strongest biases, regarding them with clinical curiosity and trying to … Continue reading
Shoveling Water
Spring snows don’t last long. The sun has a better angle for its rays—and more hours in the day—to use against the accumulated white. The air temperatures are higher. And the ground is no longer frozen but is itself a … Continue reading
Losing the Garlic
For the first time in five or six years, I haven’t lost the garlic. I plant it in the fall, breaking a few heads up into individual cloves and digging them in like little bulbs. The garlic bed shifts from … Continue reading
Late Harvest
The garden is under snow—and after several crispy dry winters during our sustained drought, I’m not sorry about this fact. The snow isn’t deep, but there’s enough of it to cover the planting beds and protect them from the winter … Continue reading
Posted in gardening, rodents, trees and plants, weather
Tagged Colorado growing seasons, gardening with wildlife, wildfire
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