• Now available for $24.95 including shipping.

• Now available for $21.00 including postage.

• Search

  Search for:

• Recent Articles

  • Plants that Have Stood the Test of Time
  • It’s Time to Pay Attention to the Vegetable Garden
  • Tips for Growing Wonderful Flowers
  • Late May in the Garden
  • Keeping a Record of What’s Blooming in the Garden

• Vendors I Like

  Click Here to buy from Cobrahead

• Cobrahead

  This is the best darn weeder made in the country, and I think I've tried them all. I use it to dig weeds, tease out grass roots, and mix soil at planting time. Neither right nor left handed, it is lightweight and strong.

• West Lebanon Supply

  I buy all of my organic fertilizers and soil amendments at West Lebanon Supply. They carry several lines of seeds, watering devices, tomato cages, landscape fabric and much more. They also sell pet supplies - and allow dogs in the store!

• E.C. Brown Nursery

  E.C. Brown Nursery has an amazing selection of high quality trees, shrubs and perennials. The staff is incredibly knowledgeable. Looking for something unusual? E.C. Brown Nursery probably has it.

 Holiday Gifts for the Gardener

Posted on Thursday, December 25, 2025 · Leave a Comment 

New England skies in winter are often cloudy and dark, accompanied by sleet, slush, rain or snow. The sun sleeps late and goes to bed early. Gardeners sometimes give up and go to Florida. Not me, but there is much I do to make the holidays cheerful.

 

Learn how to help save nature with this book

I put up blue holiday lights outdoors on trees and shrubs. And I think about gifts for my loved ones – most of whom are gardeners. Let’s see what I am helping Santa with this year.

 

First, there are books. Always good for long nights or cold days. A book I have enjoyed this year was written by a friend of mine, Jill Nooney. She wrote of a wonderful book called “Bedrock: The Making of a Public Garden” (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2025, $50). Jill is a plant collector, a garden designer and sculptor. Her book is not only the story of making a public garden, it is also and full of design insights and an introduction to many unusual plants suitable for our zone. She writes well, and tells good stories, too.

 

Then there is entomologist Doug Tallamy’s 2025 book, “How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard.” The book is in the form of questions – 499 of them – and answers in a simple, readable form. It’s like sitting down with your favorite and wise uncle. But one who knows the science behind complex questions about what we can do help save our environment. Hardback, $30.

 

Nut wizard

I believe in supporting local garden centers and avoiding internet purchases. We need our local purveyors of plants, seeds and fertilizers. But an unusual tool might not be found locally: the Nut Wizard. This is a long-handled tool with a rolling wire device the size and shape of a football that picks up apples or nuts. When the device is full, spread the wires over a bucket or wheelbarrow and it empties. This is fun to use – kids love it, so Tom Sawyer will be proud of you for “letting” them use it. I got one long ago, and see that now there are several brands, not just the Nut Wizard, and several sizes.

 

For those of you on a shoestring budget, let me suggest a few no-cost/low suggestions, too. If you’ve saved seeds from your heirloom tomatoes or flowers, these are good gifts. If you have none, the seed companies have their 2026 seeds available well before Christmas. I called Johnny’s Selected Seeds and High Mowing Organic Seeds, two of my favorites, and they both confirmed next year’s seeds are ready to ship. So if you had good luck with a tomato or zinnia variety, give some seeds.

 

Gardener’s Journal

Maybe I am from a different era than you (or a different planet), but I like keeping a journal. I started at age 8, but confess that these past 20 years my computer has become my record keeper. Perhaps you use your cell phone (I don’t have one). This year I am going back to keeping a handwritten gardening journal.

 

There are many available for sale, some just blank books, others designed for use by gardeners. Lee Valley Tools has a 10-year gardening journal, one big page for each day of the year, and ten sections per page. I’ve had one, and if I were diligent in its upkeep I’d have some great data. But it’s a bit big and clunky, and I didn’t keep it in a handy place.

 

This year I found The Old Farmers’s Almanac Garden Journal for sale at my local bookstore. I bought one – I like that its pages are NOT dated. It has some nice art prints of plants and some nice quotes about gardening here and there. It only cost me $15.95, and it will last me more than a year.

 

Every year I recommend the CobraHead Weeder because it is the best darn weeding tool ever made. It’s a rugged single-tine hand tool shaped like a cobra up and ready to strike. It is neither right- nor left-handed. I use mine to loosen the soil to plant, to tease out long roots of grasses and weeds, or to get in tight places. At $39 from the website (www.CobraHead.com) it is a bargain. It’s a family run business, the tools made in America. It has a hole for a bright colored string to help you find it if buried in the compost pile. Also available from good garden centers and seed companies.

 

This amaryllis needs no water or soil and looks great even before blooming

Lastly, a friend recently sent us an amaryllis bulb that had been dipped in shiny red wax. It’s gorgeous, and for non-gardening friends it is excellent, too: no soil needed, no watering needed. Just put it on the table and watch it grow, blooming in 4 to 6 weeks. It sits nicely on its flat base of wax. I can’t wait to see it bloom! It’s available from Jackson & Perkins on-line for a little over $40. 

 

So start your holiday shopping now. Give gardening gifts, and hope someone gives you something off this list, too. 

 

Henry live and gardens in Cornish, NH. This column appears just once a month now, in his semi-retirement. Reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Filed under Article · Tagged with cobra head weeder, Doug Tallamy, nut wizard

Late Fall Gardening Tasks

Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2025 · Leave a Comment 

After a severely dry summer, October brought much needed rains – at least here, in Cornish Flat, NH. It is particularly important for trees, shrubs and perennials planted this year to go into the winter well hydrated, and it looks like Mother Nature has taken care of that. I always recommend watering new plants before the ground freezes if they are dry.

 

Witch hazel blooming in November

Because of the drought, there is virtually nothing left blooming. Everything has gone by. The only bloomer in my garden is a small native tree, witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), which is loaded with small curly yellow flowers on their branches. It is pollinated by the owlet moth – one of the few pollinators still active now, after many frosts. The seeds are not formed until spring, and it is not until next fall that the seed capsules burst open, sending seeds up to 45 feet away.

 

Winterberry is not blooming now, but it is loaded with bright red berries. A native shrub, it grows in swamps and wet places in the wild, but it also can be used in regular garden soil. It is dioecious, meaning that there are male and female plants. Fortunately, the nursery industry labels their stock as male or female. Only one male is needed for most plantings. It looks great in a vase with cuttings of witch hazel, or with sprigs of evergreens.

 

But on to the late fall chores. Now is the time to empty your clay and enamel pots of their soil. If not, they are likely to burst when wet soil in them expands on freezing. Best to rinse out and put your favorite pots in the garage or barn. Plastic and fiberglass pots won’t break.

 

Winterberry brightens the winter landscape

What about your lawn? If you have a heavy leaf load, I recommend raking up the leaves. Oaks and other heavy leaves can impede growth in early spring, and can encourage snow mold. If you don’t have a smothering load of leaves, you can just mulch them with your lawn mower and leave them in place. They will add needed organic matter to the soil, helping you to have a nice lawn next summer. To avoid snow mold, give your lawn one last mowing, cutting it a little shorter than usual.

 

By now, you probably have brought inside all potted house plants that summered outside. If so, you may have a nice crop of aphids on some of them. Look for sticky excrement on leaves, and tiny aphids. You can get rid of the aphids two ways: first, take the pots outside and rinse the leaves (top and bottom) with the hose. Or, take a shower with your plants! Only kidding, just rinse them off in the kitchen sink or shower. Alternatively, you can spray them with “Safer Soap” or your homemade equivalent – one tablespoon of mild dish soap in a quart of water. Spray the leaves, rinse after 20 minutes. It will dissolve the fats in their skin, drying them out and doing them in.

 

 This is a good time to test your soil. In the spring the wait is often long. Now you can get quick results and make improvements to the soil if need be. Each state has a Cooperative Extension Service that offers soil testing for a minimum fee. In my state the standard test includes recommendations for adding fertilizer, pH, mineral content, organic matter content, and a test for lead. If your vegetable garden is near a house that was built before 1970 when lead paint was outlawed, you should get it tested for lead. For an additional fee, you can get your soil tested for cadmium and other heavy metals, too.

 

When you buy blueberry plants, the soil they come in is at the proper pH (a measure of the acidity). But as the roots extend outward, they may not have the proper pH. If your blueberries are not producing well, get the pH tested. They need very acidic soil, 4.5 to 5.5 on the pH scale. This is a good time of year to add soil acidifier or elemental sulfur if your soil is not acidic enough. Sprinkle soil acidifier around the plants, extending out 2- to 3-feet from their centers. This will improve production in a year or two. You may want to get the soil around your bushes tested for pH, in addition to a general soil test for your other gardens.

 

 This is a good time to do some pruning. After leaf drop you can really see the branches. You can ask yourself, as you look at a shrub or tree, “What will this branch be like in five years?” If it’s growing toward another branch or shooting through the middle of the shrub, you should remove it now, while it is still small. I never prune a woody plant in the first or second year after planting – it needs all its leaves to produce food for the roots.

 

Open soil invites weeds so mulch with leaves now

If you have cleaned up your vegetable bed and removed annual flowers elsewhere, it is good to cover the soil with chopped leaves. Weed seeds are blowing around now. Don’t offer them a good place to land and spend the winter. I don’t usually pull annuals in the fall for that reason. I just snip off the tops and pull the roots in the spring.

 

Generally we are most active in the garden in the spring and early summer, but this is the time to do some planning. Put on an extra layer of wool, grab a notebook, and take a walk around your gardens. Make note of places that need more or different plants, and do some research about what would do well there. We have a long winter ahead, so do your homework!

 

Henry is an organic gardener living in Cornish, NH. He is the author of 4 gardening books, and frequently lectures to garden clubs and library groups. Reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Filed under Article · Tagged with mulching with leaves, winterberry, witch hazel

Getting Ready for Winter and More

Posted on Saturday, October 25, 2025 · Leave a Comment 

Garlic grows through th mulch, shown here in May

After a hot, dry summer – there was a drought in most parts of New England – we had a very early frost this year, September 20. Not enough to kill our late potato vines, but enough to kill squash and dahlias. I was caught off guard. I am now getting ready for winter.

 

It is important to clean up the vegetable garden well to avoid overwintering diseases. Pull your squash, cucumber and tomato vines and compost them well away from the vegetable garden. I have a compost pile for noxious weeds and grasses, and for plants that harbor fungi. That compost never gets hot enough to kill weed seeds or diseases, but it disposes most of the organic material at home, rather than sending it to the landfill.

 

After pulling the plants in the vegetable garden, I weed carefully and then hoe up the mounded beds with soil from the walkways and add a layer of good compost. Finally, I mulch planting areas well to keep weeds from starting in early spring, before I plant. Fall leaves are fabulous mulch: they inhibit germination of weeds, prevent soil erosion, and add good organic matter and minerals to the soil.

 

Although many gardeners chop up their fall leaves with a bagging lawnmower, I usually don’t. I just rake them onto to tarp and spread them over the vegetable beds. Will the leaves blow away? A few might, but after the first good rain they compact and settle in for a good winter’s nap. If I have more than I need for the vegetable garden, I run them through my chipper-shredder to reduce their volume and store dry in big barrels. This stuff I use in flower beds in the spring. Plants love it!

 

This folding saw will easily cut down tough stalks of big perennials

We have an exorbitant number of flower beds so it’s a lot of work to cut back perennials and get out any late-season weeds. Here are a few tips:

 

1. Use a serrated knife or folding pruning saw to slice off multi-stemmed plants like daylilies. Grab a handful of foliage and with one swipe, they are all ready for the wheelbarrow.If that method is not for you, how about using hedge shears or even a weed whacker to cut down big expanses of flower stalks?
2.  I have my pollinator or “Darwin” bed which gets no weeding – it has filled up with tall plants that fight it out for space: phlox, fall asters, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed and obedient plant. I leave it until spring to clean up, as it provides good places for beneficial insects to overwinter.
3. We have a lot of hostas, and I wait to clean up until hard frost has killed the tops. Then I can either just grab the mushy leaves and pull them off, or use a rake to do the work.
4. As for weeds, we don’t have many. The flower beds are weeded early in summer, and then well mulched. But I use my favorite tool, the CobraHead weeder, to remove any late season invaders. It is able to get under weeds, loosen the root, and get them all out.

Now is the time for planting bulbs. To save time and energy, don’t plant them one at a time. For 25 daffodils I excavate an oval 30 to 36 inches long and 18 inches wide and 8 inches deep. I put good soil in a wheelbarrow or a tarp, and rocks and heavy clay or poor soil in another. I put about 2 inches of good soil in the bottom and mix it up with some bagged organic fertilizer or bulb booster. I nestle the bulbs into that mix, and cover with good soil or soil and compost mix. Bulbs need good drainage and reasonably good soil.

 

Daffodil bulbs planted in a 36-inch oval hole, ready to cover with soil

Daffodils last many years – tulips less so. I plant 100 tulips just 3 or 4 inches apart in rows 8 inches apart in my vegetable garden once it is cleaned up, and use them for cutting and putting in vases and for giving away. I generally pull the bulbs after cutting in the spring, but one year I kept 50 or so and replanted in the fall. The following spring they bloomed, but were shorter and smaller. Since deer love tulips I can use chicken wire vertically along the sides of the bed to keep them away, come spring.

 

I plant garlic in mid-to late-October each year, mainly using garlic I grew the year before, but sometimes buying new varieties to try. I plant once the soil has chilled as they may start growing this fall if planted in warm soil. That’s not awful, but I prefer to avoid it. I plant garlic 3 inches deep, 4 inches apart in the rows, and rows 8 inches apart. I give them a little organic fertilizer at planting time, and cover with a 6 to 10 inch layer of mulch hay or straw. They’ll grow through it next spring, but most weeds will not.

 

Tulips protected from deer

I prune some trees and shrubs in October, too. You really can prune any month, but once leaves are down it is easier to see their stems and look for crowded areas, crossing or rubbing branches, and dead branches to remove. To identify dead branches, just rub the bark with your thumbnail. If it shows green, it’s alive, if not, it’s dead. Prune so sunshine can hit every leaf and there is good air circulation.

 

So don’t walk away from the garden now and say, “I’ll get it next spring.” Get those weeds now. The more you do, the easier it will be next spring.

 

Henry can be reached by e-mail at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

Filed under Article · Tagged with mulch, planting garlic

Lilacs Care & Feeding

Lilacs have been plagued by blight this summer.

The most common question I am fielding is about lilacs: why have so many had their leaves turn brown and fall off early? We had a wet spring, ideal conditions for fungal diseases to thrive, and many are affected. The ultra-dry conditions of August stressed the lilacs, making them even more susceptible. But fear not: they should recover next year.

Lettuce did well

My vegetables did well this summer, as they loved all the sunshine. My soil is very high in organic matter, so it holds water well. My spring-planted lettuces were cut-and-come again varieties, so I ate good lettuce all summer. By cutting off heads instead of pulling them, the roots started up new plants which produced well. Now everything has bolted and I will leave a few to set and drop seeds. Those will start new plants in April, even when the soil is too wet for me to work it.

Joe Pye weed is a fall bloomer & provides nectar to Monarch butterflies

We all know that Monarchs need milkweed – but that is so their larvae will feed on the leaves and become toxic to birds. Adult monarchs do not feed on milkweed leaves, but right now they are enjoying feeding on nectar from goldenrod, Joe Pye weed and fall asters, among others.

Monarch on New England Aster 1

If you haven’t got your seed garlic yet, buy some. We should plant garlic in October, but by then most seed garlic is gone. And harvest your potatoes soon – even if they haven’t blossomed (which is usually when we dig them). I got a great crop, due to all the sunshine.

Pick plenty of flowers so you have many to choose from when arranging them

It’s best to pick flowers for an arrangement in the morning when they are fully hydrated and before the heat of the day has had a chance to dry them out. Watering your flowers the night before helps if you’re in a dry spell. Bring a picking bucket when you collect flowers. As soon as they’re cut, plunge them into deep water, but don’t submerge the blossoms. It’s best to pick flowers that are just opening up, not in full bloom.

A flower arrangement can be simple with just a few stems

How tall should an arrangement be? An 8-inch vase looks good with the tallest stems about 12 to 16 inches tall. You may want to start an arrangement with a low filler – something with stiff stems that will help keep taller stems upright. Boxwood branches are good for that. Place three, five or seven stems of a particular kind of flower in the vase. Use medium-height flowers then add another variety with slightly taller flowers until the vase seems almost full. Some people obsess about making colors complimentary, but I feel all flowers are beautiful, and look good together. You’ll know what looks good as you make the arrangement. White flowers add a nice counterpoint to the others.

Rattlesnake master

Within a week or so I found rattlesnake master at Rocky Dale Nursery in Bristol, Vermont. It is related to sea holly, but has leaves like a yucca. At maturity it can get to be 4- to 6- feet tall with greenish-white, thistle-like blossoms and a basal rosette of yucca-like leaves. It is hardy to zone 3, and is native to the Midwest.  I had seen it once in Ohio in the wild. It likes hot, dry, sandy soil, preferably in full sun.

Freezing tomatoes extends the season feeding me in the winter for which I am grateful

I planted 37 tomato plants last spring, and plan to freeze lots of tomatoes for winter use in soups and stews. The simplest method for this is to fit clean, dry tomatoes into zipper bags and put them in the freezer. To use, just run them briefly under hot water in the sink, wait 5 minutes, then rub off the skins (if you like) or just chop them up and cook with them. No canning work involved.

Itoh peonies are great in a vase

The most dramatic of my July bloomers are my Itoh peonies. These are hybrids of herbaceous and tree peonies that were developed in the mid-twentieth century by a Japanese plant breeder named Toichi Itoh. Unlike their parents, the blossoms of the most commonly sold ones are yellow, not pink, red or white. In fact, I’ve never seen anything but yellow ones for sale.

Stewartia blossom

Another favorite July bloomer is a small tree called Stewartia. I only got mine four years ago as it is a Zone 5 plant, and I was previously in a cold Zone 4 location – and unwilling to take a chance on it. I’m still here in Cornish Flat, NH but our winters “ain’t what they usta be”, so I got one four years ago. It has a plethora of 1-inch creamy-white flowers with yellow centers that are lightly fragrant, and exfoliating bark with patches of gray, orange, white and brown that is pleasing all year. I plan to prune mine to keep it around 12 feet tall, though it could go to 20 feet tall or more if I let it.

Sea holly or Eryngium

This year my two wisteria vines started blooming on June 19, though they usually do not bloom until July 4^th. For decades gardeners in northern climates lamented they could grow wisteria, but couldn’t get any blossoms. That is because those vines bloom on buds set the previous summer. But ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Amethyst Falls’ bloom on new shoots that grow in the spring. Wisteria need trellises or supports, and are vigorous growers. In southern climates, some wisteria can be invasive, spreading out everywhere, but I have never had a problem with mine. They produce hundreds of blue flowers, though to me, the blossoms smell vaguely of cat pee. Blue Moon re-blooms again for me later in the summer, though not profusely.

Campanula glomerata spreads by root but is not a thug

For exuberant perennials that spread, bloom well in July in sun or part sun, and serve as great cut flowers, it is hard to beat the clustered bellflower (Campanula glomerata). Yes, some people consider it a thug as it can spread by root or by seed, but I find it easy to remove if it oversteps its welcome. The clusters of small blue-violet blossoms form 2-inch balls on 24-inch stems and are a delight to grow.

Sun king aralia

A great shade perennial I grow for its foliage is called ‘Sun King’ Aralia. This plant has bright yellow-green leaves that just pop in a full or part shade garden. Mine gets bigger every year. Now, five-years old, it stands almost 5-feet tall and more than 5-feet across. It’s in rich, fairly dry soil and gets some morning sun.

Rowan seems to understand he needs to stay out of the raised beds

First, if you have a big rain, the best thing you can do is STAY OUT OF THE GARDEN. Wet soil compacts when you walk on it, making it less hospitable for plants because they get nutrients, water and oxygen through their roots. You already know better than to walk in your growing beds, both in the vegetable and flower gardens. But your lawn will suffer, too, if you walk on it while wet, and your footprints may make it lumpy.

Pea stone pathway in primrose garden

We also make pathways through large beds. We have a bed of candelabra primroses (Primula japonica) that is approximately 25 feet by 30 feet in size that contains hundreds of these beauties. We designed and built three pathways through and around it. And although we cannot access it all, it helps.

Flat stones enhance this walkway

For our walkways we put down landscape fabric and pin it in place with landscape staples. We avoid woven landscape fabric, as weeds tend to grow through it. We use an almost see-through spun fabric, which does well by us. We cover the fabric with a 2-inch layer of quarter-inch washed pea stone that I buy at a gravel company and bring it home in my trusty, rusty 2004 Toyota pickup truck. Lastly, we spread some finely ground bark mulch along the edges of the path to help keep weeds and soil from migrating into the walkway. Steel edging would be good, but it’s expensive.

This homemade raised bed drains well in rainy times

Raised beds are great in wet times. I have a wooden one I built using rough sawn pine that is 16-inches tall. I filled it with a mixture of garden soil and compost I buy loose in bulk. You can buy both at good garden centers, and a 50-50-mix works well, though I sometimes add peat moss and perlite if the mix is too heavy. In these recent rains my raised bed stood happily above the water-filled walkway around it.

Sanguisorba gets taller and will need another ring of string later

What I prefer for peonies and other tall plants is to install three stakes around them, and then encircle the clump about two-thirds the way up with green garden string. For plants like peonies, I use bamboo stakes. For taller, heavier plants like New York ironweed or ‘Henry Eiler’ Rudbeckia, I use four-foot long one-inch hardwood grade stakes that I paint green to disguise them. I drive them into the ground with a three-pound sledge.

Zinnias

Unlike most perennials, almost all annual flowers have the advantage of blooming all summer. Keep cutting off the flowers to use in vases (or to remove tired blossoms) and most will continue blossoming until frost. Some take a rest in the heat of summer, but produce again later on. And bees and moths do visit most of them, too.

Lisianthus comes in several colors and lasts forever in a vase.

So for example, it is already too late to start lisanthus, one of my favorites, by seed. It takes 17 days at to germinate and then, in my experience, it sulks (like a teenager told to put on different clothes before going out) for another few weeks before putting on any real growth. I’ve grown it – but don’t bother most years. I’d rather save the effort for other plants that grow more quickly, so I just bought two 4-packs of lisianthus from Edgewater Farm.

Gomphrena, an annual, is great in arrangements.

What other annuals does Anne Sprague like? Broom corn, celosias of all kinds, but particularly ‘Sylphid’, with greenish blossoms. ‘Blue Horizon’, a tall ageratum. ‘Frosted Explosion’, an annual decorative grass. Orlaya is like an annual baby’s breath. She said beneficial insects love it. Gomphrena and Statice, both have a ‘QIS’ series that is superlative. They can be used fresh or dried. Gomphrena, also sold as globe amaranth, comes in several bright colors.

Annual poppies

Annual poppies are some of my favorite flowers, even though they do not last well in a vase. If you let your annual poppies drop seeds where they grow, and they will come back, year after year. Or you can harvest seeds and plant them elsewhere next year.

Winter aconite

As you move around your garden you will probably notice that the soil is moist. If you are leaving footprints in the lawn or garden soil, stay off it until it dries out more. Otherwise you can ruin soil structure by compacting it.

Tulips protected from deer

I plant 100 tulips as cut flowers every year. If you planted some last fall, and have deer in the neighborhood, you may be disappointed to see them eaten just as they are starting to bloom. I prevent this by surrounding and covering my tulip bed with chicken wire before that happens. I plant my tulips in the vegetable garden each fall, and treat them as annuals.

Raised Beds

I recommend raised beds for the vegetable garden, but you don’t have to build or buy wooden boxes for raised beds. When the soil has dried out, loosen it with a garden fork, and then use a short-tined rake to drag soil from walkways onto your designated beds to raise them up six inches or so. A 30-inch wide bed is ideal, it’s wide enough for roots to spread far and wide, yet you will be able to reach all parts for weeding.

Dandelions have deep roots and pull best when soil is moist

Some people hate weeding, some love it. Either way, it has to be done. Start before the weeds get big. Perennial weeds like dandelions or thistles will already have deep roots. Annual weeds will be tiny, but numerous. I believe the best tool for either is the CobraHead weeder. Its curved metal digging tip can loosen the soil around deep roots, and help you pull from below with the tool while your other hand tugs on the top. Pull gently, slowly. You don’t want to snap off the root, as it will just start growing as soon as you walk away. Annual weeds you can loosen by scuffing the soil lightly.

Watering wands get lots of water where you want it.

It’s April, and spring has sprung. Or will soon. Winter always is a sneaky devil, coming back with hard frosts and even a foot of snow on occasion. There is much to do, but start slowly – not just for your back, which has been resting all winter, but because a week of warm sunny days doesn’t mean your soil is warm enough to plant. A soil thermometer pushed 3 inches into the soil should read 50 degrees before planting anything – even spinach and so called cold weather crops.

Raised beds are easier to weed and harvest

I recommend raised beds for the vegetable garden, but you don’t have to build or buy wooden boxes for raised beds. When the soil has dried out, loosen it with a garden fork, and then use a short-tined rake to drag soil from walkways onto your designated beds to raise them up six inches or so. A 30-inch wide bed is ideal, it’s wide enough for roots to spread far and wide, yet you will be able to reach all parts for weeding.