Author Archive for Henry Homeyer
Henry Homeyer is a lifetime organic gardener living in Cornish Flat, N.H. He is the author of four gardening books including The Vermont Gardener's Companion. You may reach him by e-mail at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or by snail mail at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, N.H. 03746. Please include a SASE if you wish an answer to a question by mail.
Henry Homeyer: Weeds – one farmer’s perspective
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Irecently went to Cochranville, Pa., to visit relatives, and they brought me to visit a successful farm-to-table farmer. I learned some new and interesting ways of looking at gardening, and I think they are worth sharing with you. For the past 40 years or so Glenn Brendle has […]
Henry Homeyer: garden thugs to love or hate
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC I’ve never subscribed to the old saying that “Children should be seen and not heard.” So it shouldn’t surprise you that I don’t insist that all the flowers in my garden stay in place each year, and that those that do wander are not necessarily disciplined with a […]
Henry Homeyer: Sweet smells by the dozen
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Lilac season is about over. For the lasts two weeks I have been enjoying the amazing fragrance of ‘Miss Kim,’ a species of lilac (Syringa patula) with light purple blossoms. It was sold to me some 25 years ago as a dwarf lilac, however it’s just slow-growing. Mine […]
Henry Homeyer: Flowers in bloom that make me swoon
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC My earliest memory of a flower dates back to spring, 1948, when I was just 2 years old and living in Hingham, Massachusetts (we moved away that fall, so I know the year). My mother, sister and I were walking through a pine woods when we encountered a […]
Henry Homeyer: 7 ways to improve your garden & you
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC If you’re like me, by now you have your garden planted, both vegetables and flowers. It seems like a good time to take a deep breath, pour a cold glass of your favorite beverage and watch the flowers perform. I have set up chairs by my Japanese primroses […]
Henry Homeyer: What to do when you’re in the weeds
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC There are weeds to worry about. There is even one that I fear. But most weeds are just a nuisance and can be managed relatively easily. Dandelions, for example, are bright and cheerful. If they were named daffodil instead of dandelion, we would pay good money to have […]
Henry Homeyer: Tips for building raised beds for your garden
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC As an avid gardener I am always looking for new places to plant. I own a couple of acres of land, but over the past 49 years I’ve filled virtually every square inch of useable space with something – vegetables, flowers, trees and a little lawn. Recently I […]
Henry Homeyer: What happened to ‘rhodies?’
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Rhododendrons throughout New England are looking awful! It is common for “rhodies” to get shriveled leaves during the winter, but they normally recover in spring. Those shriveled leaves occur when warm winter days allow moisture to be given off when the ground is frozen solid – and thus […]
Henry Homeyer: 7 tips for veggie success
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Depending where you live – a cold hollow, a hilltop, or near a large body of water, you may be ready to start planting the vegetable garden – or not. In any case, there is much to do before your plants go in the ground. Here are some […]
Henry Homeyer: growing your own wildflowers
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Oecently I was asked about plants for shady places. Wildflowers, I said, are wonderful in the woods or at the edge of the woods. Most show up early, before the leaves are on the trees. They are the perfect antidote to a long winter and rainy spring. They […]
Henry Homeyer: Magnolias for New England
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC One of my yearly high points occurs when my Merrill magnolia blooms. This year, and most years, mine blooms on my birthday, April 23. This year it opened that afternoon; some years it starts a week earlier and is fully in blossom; once or twice it has held […]
Henry Homeyer: It takes more than plants to make a garden
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC If you’ve visited any great gardens, you know that they consist of more than just flowers. They have fine trees and shrubs, pathways, stonework or pottery, maybe a bit of whimsy, and great views. Now, before your trees are fully leafed out and the perennials have begun to […]
Henry Homeyer: Understanding flowers from petal to stem
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC At a recent used book sale I purchased a copy of a lovely book called One Hundred Flowers by Harold Feinstein (Bullfinch Press, 2000). This large-format book includes not only 100 amazing, huge close-up photos of flowers against black backgrounds, it has a lovely introductory essay by Sydney […]
Henry Homeyer: Spring planning brings fall planting
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Now is the time to decide where you should plant bulbs next fall. Here’s what I do: I wander around my property each year in the spring to see what spots are bare of bulb flowers. I bring along those white plastic markers used for labeling, and write […]
Henry Homeyer: getting a head start on spring cleaning
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC With sunny warm days upon us, we all want to start gardening. However beware: if you leave footprints in the soil, or feel it go squish, it’s not time to be doing anything. Plants get their oxygen from their roots, not their leaves. If you compact the soil, […]
Henry Homeyer: garden design, advised by Piet Oudolf
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC I was out in my garden recently and noticed that my tall decorative grasses are looking quite bedraggled. I have a clump of fountain grass (Miscanthus sinensis) a variety called Morning Light. It’s time to cut back all the stems and flowers that stood up, largely, to the […]
Henry Homeyer: delicate but necessary art of pruning
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC I love to prune. To me, it’s a way of creating sculpture – a tree, well pruned, is a thing of beauty. I recently taught a homeowner how to prune his apple tree. It’s easy enough to do if you have the proper tools and understand the principles. […]
Henry Homeyer: creating your edible landscape
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC When I make a new friend I always ask if they’re a gardener. Often younger people with kids say, “I want to, but I’m too busy.” If you have limited time and space, you may wish to consider growing a few perennial plants that produce lots of food […]
Henry Homeyer: temperature, timing & more tips for starting seeds indoors
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC By mid-March I generally am getting a bit squirrelly. Winter is nearly over but mud season is ahead. It is still many weeks until the snow is gone, the soil warm and dry enough that I can work in my garden. This is the time I like to […]
Henry Homeyer: Trees, shrubs are vital for pollinators
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC When I say “pollinator,” you generally think honeybee, bumblebee and wild bee. But what about moth, butterfly, beetle or fly? Many of those are pollinators, too. I recently read an interesting article about pollinators by Dan Jaffe and Jane Roy Brown in the Native Plant News, a magazine […]
