Transcript Bulletin

All-America Selections, North America’s oldest and only national non-profit plant trialing organization, recently announced six new national winners for 2022. Each AAS Winner is grown and trialed anonymously by independent, volunteer judges across North America. The entry is compared to and scored against a very similar, well-known variety. If the entry performed better than the comparison in a majority of sites, it becomes an AAS winner.

During the winter months, proper care of your houseplants can help ensure the health of your collection. Keeping houseplants away from cold drafts, radiators and hot air vents, as well as making sure foliage doesn’t touch cold windows is essential. Otherwise, plants will do well in a home with temperatures that are comfortable for us – between 65 and 75 degrees during the day and between 60 and 65 degrees at night. Temperatures below 50 or rapid temperature fluctuations can damage many plants.

Decades of research tell a clear and sobering story: Poverty is harmful to the developing brain. The research demonstrates how experiencing the adversity of poverty in childhood places children at risk for later hardships. It also shows how modest investments to protect today’s children from this adversity can lower the roadblocks and burdens they may face as tomorrow’s adults.

The plant and seed catalogs started arriving in late November and are still dribbling in. I’ll review all of them at some point, but for now I’m focusing on the companies from which I order seeds most frequently – Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Territorial Seed Company, Burpee, Pinetree Garden Seeds, Park Seeds, John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I’ve inventoried my leftover seeds so I know what I need to reorder.

Many of us look for greenery or flowering plants to brighten our homes during the dreary winter months. But a number of readers said they have “black thumbs” and kill every houseplant they buy. I maintain that you don’t need to have a green thumb to successfully grow a few houseplants. There are two, in particular, that will help you gain confidence in your ability to keep them alive. The first is crown of thorns (Euphorbia milii), the subject of this week’s article.

It’s the end of another year – 2021. And what a year it was! Extreme weather events wreaked havoc across the world due to climate change, from droughts and wildfires to flooding and severe storms. A cyclone in Mozambique killed over 20 people, while tens of thousands of people were displaced and vast areas of land were left underwater. A devastating winter storm in Texas left millions without power or water for days. More than 100 people died, mostly due to hypothermia.

Holiday activities and last-minute leaf cleanup on these unusually warm winter days are likely keeping you so busy that you’ve called it quits for anything having to do with outdoor gardening. But there’s one very important thing left to do before the snow starts to require your attention – clean and sharpen your equipment and tools. It might seem like a no-brainer, but there are a lot of us who learned this lesson the hard way. A sharp tool makes a cleaner cut than one that is dull.

Not a lot of companies inspire the brand loyalty that Apple does. After all, the maker of Macs since 1984 and iPhones since 2007 did put the world in our pockets. But while Apple generally garners accolades, one of the company’s core business practices has been rotten to consumers. For years, Apple has monopolized product repair by withholding the parts and tools that customers and independent repair shops need to fix broken products. That’s finally changing.

He never inundated Santa with requests; his letters to the North Pole sought little, though each year, he did ask for the same specific crayon color. When he wrote these annual letters in the fall of autumn and winter’s wake, my son knew nothing of the “box” we live in – the box my income placed and confined us to…he knows it now because we’re still in it. He’s older – it’s harder to hide the things we cannot afford to do, like beach vacations and NFL games. We swim; it’s just day trips.

It’s that time of year again! Our first dusting of snow covered the landscape this morning reminding us that the Christmas holiday is right around the corner. What seems to have eluded me this year is the gift list for gardeners that I usually publish right after Thanksgiving. Better late than never, eh? I will admit to being behind the eight ball this year.