Short version: It is possible that the covers of books published in the 19th century may contain arsenic, lead, or other heavy metals that could be harmful to one’s health with prolonged exposure. For more information, please visit the Poison Book Project website. Long version: Arsenic and Old Gardening Books sounds like the title of […] The post Arsenic and Old Gardening Books appeared first on Carol J. Michel - Author and Gardener ..read more

This, my friends, is my black bean harvest. It is about three-fourths of a cup. And these beans tell us all we need to know about gardening. First, though some of us may appear to spend quite a bit of money on gardening, not all gardening costs money. I got the seeds for the plants […] The post These Beans Tell You All You Need to Know About Gardening appeared first on Carol J. Michel - Author and Gardener ..read more

What is a dandelion summer? According to M. C. Beaton, who wrote about it in the cozy mystery, The Skeleton in the Closet (2001), a dandelion summer is a hot summer, foretold by an abundance of dandelion blooms in the spring. We’ll have to take her word for it because I searched and searched online […] The post What Is a Dandelion Summer? appeared first on Carol J. Michel - Author and Gardener ..read more

Welcome to Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day for August 2024. Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, August is not the most flower-ful month of the year, but there are still plenty of blooms. With a focus on only perennials, come along with me to check out a few of them. The […] The post Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – August 2024 appeared first on Carol J. Michel - Author and Gardener ..read more

Yes, I am reading another gardening book from the past. This time I have gone way back… Not to the 1950s. Not to the 192os. Further back than that. Grab your button-up shoes and your best sunbonnet, put on a dress with a big full skirt that goes all the way down to cover your […] The post Gardening by Myself appeared first on Carol J. Michel - Author and Gardener ..read more

Well, here we are in August already! Depending on how. your summer is going you might be thankful that we are rapidly approaching the “season of the pumpkin spice.” Or maybe you are in disbelief that it’s already this late in the season because you haven’t planted that last flat of flowers you bought in […] The post An August Assessment of My Vegetable Garden appeared first on Carol J. Michel - Author and Gardener ..read more

If you fear grabbing your shears and whacking back a plant or two, you aren’t alone. But you need not be afraid! This is a slightly blurry picture of some lavender that famously grows in The Vegetable Garden Cathedral at the end of a raised bed beside a giant boulder. It looked so nice earlier […] The post Grab Your Shears and Ignore Your Fears appeared first on Carol J. Michel - Author and Gardener ..read more

What is missing from this picture? I’ll save you some time by providing the answer. Cucumbers. And large tomatoes, but this post isn’t about tomatoes. It isn’t about how well the green bean and pepper plants are producing. Or how I let a squash get away from me and get that big before I saw […] The post Lazy Cucumbers appeared first on Carol J. Michel - Author and Gardener ..read more

If you need someone to blame for not getting something done in or out of the garden, you might look at your smartphone to find that someone. Inside your phone, you’ll find the “Woman in the Phone” aka the WIMP, or Wimp. Wimp is an appropriate name for her because I think she’s a bit of a softie. The other day, I woke up early, and through closed blinds, I could not tell if it was rainy, cloudy, or just still early. “Hey, Siri (that’s what Wimp prefers to be called when you ask her something), what’s the weather today.” Wimp replied, “Rain.” Okay, then! Rain means I can’t do anything in the ga ..read more

The title for this post comes from a quote from The Golden Circle: A Book of Months by Hal Borland, Paintings by Anne Ophelia Dowden. In the chapter for July, Borland wrote, “The season actually begins to lean toward autumn in July, though we are reluctant to admit it.” I came face to face, or rather face to petal with that leaning when I saw a few mums beginning to bloom this morning. Borland went on to write, “Once we have passed the solstice we are on the long incline that leads to October and the falling leaf. Daylight begins to shorten. The sun, as we say, already edging southward again ..read more