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Hip to be square
The most effective way to make a bold visual statement in your kitchen or bath is through the use of tile. In the same way that fabrics add that splash of color and…
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A little of everything
If real-estate investor Tom Pfeffer had been born in England a century ago instead of in Illinois in the late 1950s, he might have been termed “a celebrated gentleman naturalist and collector of…
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Turning over an old leaf
You’d think, this time of year, that all I’d be doing is sowing seeds and transplanting small and large plants. I am. But I’m also turning compost piles, getting ready to use that…
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Financing the American Dream
When the housing bubble burst, the free-flowing money used to finance a home shut down to a trickle. After a few wild years where many companies encouraged buyers to stretch their definition of…
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Revive a room
Spring is a time of new beginnings. Many of us are yearning for a new look—be it a new hair style, outfit, or living room. Regarding the latter, a simple arrangement of furniture…
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A fruitless pursuit?
What a fool I am; I can’t even follow my own advice! A couple of days ago I planted an apricot tree that I had ordered a few weeks previously – all of…
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Holy tomato!
Sowing tomatoes was the big moment in the garden last week. The sowing was actually indoors, and it was on April 1, which is six weeks before the “average date of the last…
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Green that keeps giving
The season’s first peas and potatoes are such a taste treat; radishes are fun; and everyone pines for the first tomatoes. But kale, I think, is the vegetable most worthy of praise. Here…
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Fresh ideas for spring
It’s time to treat our winter-weary eyes to some lush greenery and colorful blooms, maybe even grow a vegetable or two, or at least pot some fresh herbs for the kitchen windowsill. For…
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Tap that sap
Time is running out to finish pruning my kiwi and grapevines, apple, pear, cornelian cherry, filbert and chestnut trees, rose, gooseberry, currant, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, yew and fothergilla bushes. Now that I list…
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Bang for your buck
Light bulbs Replacing conventional incandescent light bulbs with their energy-efficient successors is a simple way to save money. The dilemma is whether to choose LED (light-emitting diodes) or CFL (compact fluorescent lighting). LEDs…
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Philahortica
Philadelphia should not be called the “City of Brotherly Love.” No, I didn’t get mugged on a recent trip there. It’s just that more evident – to me, at least – is Philadelphia’s…
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A time to plant
There must be a converse to the saying, “Be careful what you wish for…” and if there is, I’ve realized it. I wrote, a couple of weeks ago, about the so-called hardy orange,…
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Something new
Two or three people have already asked me, “Are you growing anything special this year?” Each time I had to stop and think: “Am I?” Then I feel, “Yes, I should be growing…
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Ramping it up
Spring is here, in my basement. Allow me to set the scene: My basement is barely heated, and I replaced what once was a south-facing Bilco door with a wooden frame supporting two…
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Pungent progeny
The official start for this year’s growing season, which I count as the day when I sow my first vegetable seeds, will begin momentarily. Actually, the season should have already been underway, as…
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Rustic without the rust
Charles Petersheim didn’t know a soul in the Catskills when he left New York City post-9/11 and purchased an abandoned shack in Sullivan County. Petersheim, who had done construction and real estate in…
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Don’t run out of impatiens
You perhaps missed last summer’s plant plague, which might be back this summer. My garden was spared because last summer I happened not to have planted the particular host plant: impatiens (Impatiens walleriana),…
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Unnatural selection
Some inch-long, tapering white sprouts – roots – caused quite a stir today, for me at least. The first was spotted inside a baggie of moist potting soil that I put in the…
Unnatural selection
Some inch-long, tapering white sprouts – roots – caused quite a stir today, for me at least. The first was spotted inside a baggie of moist potting soil that I put in the…
New wrinkles in pruning
Just because I wrote The Pruning Book doesn’t mean that I always go forth boldly, pruning shears in hand, to prune with speed and with total confidence. This realization hit me right between…
The fight over subsidized housing in Saugerties
Does Saugerties need 55 more units of affordable rental housing? Some local landlords say no and vow to fight the Country Meadows project on North St. approved by the Planning Board last month….
Tarting it up
Winters have been warmer here for the past few years and, so far at least, this winter is playing out to be the warmest ever. But even the “global warming” cloud has its…
Winter savory
Growing vegetables is really quite simple. You put the seeds or transplants into sunny ground, you water and weed and then you harvest your bounty. For that small effort, you can put on…
Power puffs
Do occult practices contribute to the health of my pear trees? After all, there I was, clomping through lily-white snow in boots, tossing what looked like puffs of smoke at each tree. As…
Can spring be far behind?
We’re now at the tipping point. No, not the global climate one, after which our climate permanently veers off in a new direction. Nor a sociological tipping point that describes, for example, how…
Words of wisdom
“Let it be, let it be” went the old Beatles lyric, and this could very well be a mantra in gardening. Sometimes, sometimes a little and sometimes not at all. Take, for instance,…
Great gifts for gardeners
What would be a good gift for a gardener at this gift-giving time of year? Every gardener has his or her special inclinations, gardenwise, so each of us warrants a special set of…
Vine-tuning
I got a jump on spring yesterday and started pruning hardy kiwifruit vines. The fruit is a kissing cousin of fuzzy market kiwis, except that, with smooth skins and small size, they can…
