All Entries in the "Henry Homeyer’s Notes from the Garden" Category
Henry Homeyer: How to decorate outdoors in the winter
Editor’s note: The Chester Telegraph has been publishing Henry Homeyer’s Notes from the Garden since 2016. Now that he has gone into ‘semi-retirement’ and writing one column a month, we’ve asked him to curate his archives of articles to find the gems he believes are pertinent to our readers. We’re happy to present this first […]
New schedule for Henry Homeyer’s Notes from the Garden
Editor’s note: Henry Homeyer’s Notes from the Garden will now be running once a month through the winter. You’ll find Henry’s column in The Chester Telegraph on Dec. 10, Jan. 7, Feb. 11 and March 10. Beginning in April, look for Henry’s column twice a month.
Henry Homeyer: Reflecting on 25 years of writing a garden column
By Henry Homeyer @2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC On November 8, 1998 my first gardening column appeared in my hometown paper, The Valley News of West Lebanon, New Hampshire. Since then I have written over 1,200 weekly columns and answered countless questions from readers. I am 77 years old, and plan to slow down a bit […]
Henry Homeyer: Late fall is perfect for some gardening chores
By Henry Homeyer @2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC For many of us, November is a drab and dreary month: Days are short, gray skies the norm. Flowers are largely gone, the soil is soggy and a drizzle or a downpour is common. Soon snow will not be unusual — we’ve already seen a wintry mix. But […]
Henry Homeyer: Don’t be a timid pruner!
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing I asked an experienced arborist the other day what he thought about pruning apple trees in the fall. His answer was the same as mine: “Prune when you have time and the pruners in your hand.” Yes, March is a good time to prune, but I suspect that […]
Henry Homeyer: Plant now, bloom later
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing I have been planting bulbs around my property for at least 40 years, and some of them are still flowering each spring. I even have daffodils I brought up from my childhood home in Connecticut that might be 70 years old or more. Others run out of energy […]
Henry Homeyer: How to grow great garlic
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing If you lean toward lazy (or have kids, dogs and a job), growing garlic may be just the ticket. It is the easiest of all vegetables to grow. Once planted and mulched, it requires little or no work until harvest. A good harvest is guaranteed if follow my […]
Henry Homeyer: Putting the garden to bed
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing To me, this felt like the summer that never was. It was rarely hot and sunny. The rainy gray days felt more like those in Portland, Oregon than in New England. Even so, the summer we had is largely over and it’s time to clean it up and […]
Henry Homeyer: Fall flowers important food for butterflies, other pollinators and birds
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing Despite my best efforts to support monarch butterflies, this year was discouraging: I only saw two monarchs visit my gardens. I have a small bed just for milkweeds, both the common one and swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). But no monarchs laid eggs there this summer, no larvae ate […]
Henry Homeyer: Time to sharpen your pruners
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing Fall is a good time to prune deciduous trees and shrubs. Once the leaves have dropped you can see the form – and the clutter – and decide what to take out. But before you begin, think about sharpening up your pruning tools, replacing blades, or buying new […]
Henry Homeyer: how to deal with invasive plants
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing Most older houses are plagued with plants brought from Asia or Europe and sold to well-meaning people who didn’t know that some of those handsome plants might become invasive. By definition, invasives come from abroad, spread rapidly, do not have any natural predators to help keep them under […]
Henry Homeyer: gardening better as we age
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing As a Certified Senior Citizen I sometimes wonder if I am too ambitious in my garden. I have about an acre of gardens with 200 or more kinds of flowers and a good-size vegetable garden. These gardens please me greatly, and I visit them daily all year, even […]
Henry Homeyer: From garden to kitchen
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing I love to cook, and I love to eat. I got started gardening in the vegetable garden more than 70 years ago, in part, because everyone I knew loved to eat homegrown vegetables – raw in the garden, fresh in the kitchen, or cooked for dinner. I’d pull […]
Henry Homeyer: With hydrangeas, you always win
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing Unlike the games of chance at our local fair, you always win when you buy a hydrangea. They generally bloom their fool heads off every year, even if you have poor soil and a poor track record in the garden. When I was a boy I noticed that […]
Henry Homeyer: We like big plants and we cannot lie
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC If Jack, of Beanstalk fame, were to visit my garden, I think he would be impressed. I’m not sure how tall his beanstalk grew, but I got out my 10ft tripod Hasegawa pruning ladder and took a picture of a flower blossom while standing on the top […]
Henry Homeyer: A window box for everyone
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC You may not have the time and energy to weed and maintain lovely perennial flower beds – or even to grow a few tomatoes, carrots and beans. But if you love flowers, you can have a window box or a big pot of flowers on your deck. […]
Henry Homeyer: How to time your pickings
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Hhose of us who grow vegetables are faced with many questions each year: will there be a late frost that will harm our tomatoes and peppers if we plant them on Memorial Day weekend? Is it time to harvest garlic now, since they produced their scapes early […]
Henry Homeyer: Sal, of blueberry fame, is getting old
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Have you ever wondered what would happen after a story ends? I have. The children’s book Blueberries for Sal came out in 1948 and has been a hit for 75 years. If Sal was four years old in the book, she must be pushing 80. I imagine […]
Henry Homeyer: How to reduce your weeding time
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The recent rains have kept many gardeners from getting outdoors to weed, and weeds have loved the rain and are growing like Boy Scouts on “Free Ice Cream Day” at the Ben and Jerry’s factory. But don’t give up. Weeds also pull well now, with the soft, […]
Henry Homeyer: How to pick and arrange your flowers
By Henry Homeyer © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC I have been keeping track this year of what blooms for me, and when. So far I’ve recorded over 100 species of flowers (plus many more named varieties of the same genus) and 40 species of flowering trees and shrubs. Blooming starts with snowdrops in March and […]
