It happens every year. Just after the New Year begins, I become antsy. I have finally stuffed my Christmas tree back in the closet, and I have put my party dress away. I’ve played a bezillion games on my iPad. But nothing is helping. It is at least 3 months before I can escape outside …
Author: jackikellum
Garden Sage – The Fragrance of Thanksgiving Down Home — Growing in My Garden
The fragrance of the plants in my garden is important to me; I rarely buy a rose that doesn’t have a lucious old garden rose smell about it. And I am equally drawn to vegetables that smell “right.” For instance, if one of my tomato varieties does not smell like tomatoes from my grandmother’s kitchen,…
Sweet Basil – Prized Herb for Its True Basil Fragrance and Taste of Little Italy in Your Garden
Today I repotted some 4″ basil plants in gallon pots. To be honest, if more colorful basil plants had been available, I would have opted for those. Color in my garden is important, but as soon as I began working with the Sweet Basil plants that were available, I realized that where basil is concerned,…
Archduke Charles – An Old Garden Rose I Am Adding to My Garden in 2026
Probably my greatest gardening passion is for Old Garden or Antique Roses, Over the years, I have grown several varieties of Old Garden Roses, but this year, I will add Archduke Charles to my collection. My Archduke Charles was delivered on February 12, and to assist its transition, it had been sevely shorn. I placed…
Borage – A Self-Seeding Blue Herb that is Both Tasty and Beautiful in the Garden
For years, I have loved blue bachelor buttons, In fact, I had them special ordered for my wedding bouquet, and bachelor buttons are among the earliest flowers to bloom in my garden. And just as the bachelor buttons are beginning to die, my blue comfrey takes the stage: One of the final flushes of…
Blue Salvia – Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria Blue – A Tender Perennial Native to Parts of America
If I were forced to choose a favorite color for flowers, it would be lavender blue. The lavender is a complement to the yellow sunflowers, tall marigolds, and black-eyed Susans in my yard, But I also love lavender blues with the pinks of my roses. I have always planted one blue sage or another, but…
How to Use Hi-Yield Calcium Nitrate to Prevent End Rot when Planting and or Potting Tomatoes & Peppers
Although I am a a seasoned flower gardener, I am still learning how to better grow vegetables. And while I can be a cottage gardener without growing vegetables, I aspire to be a better kitchen gardener, which, in my opinion, is planting flowers and vegetables together–side by side. Jacki Kellum Kitchen Garden In all honesty,…
Off-Topic: A Tall, Fast-Spreaing German Iris
I am not sure when I purchased my off-topic iris–nor exactly how many bulbs I initially [ planted, but I know that I had one plant growing in my garden in the Ozark Mountains: Off Topic Iris Jacki Kellum Garden in the Ozark Mountains Off Topic Iris Jacki Kellum Garden Water Valley, Mississippi I transported…
Daffodils – Preparing to Draw and Paint Them – Starting My Painting Time of Year
This past week, I have cheered on one after another of the wild weeds that were blooming in my February garden. Posted only two days ago, I ended the following video by saying: “As soon as you see these things, you know that your garden is about to fully wake up.” And as regular as…
Spinach in My Garden – Planting in February in Zone 8a
“Spinach is thought to have originated about 2000 years ago in ancient Persia from which it was introduced to India and later to ancient China via Nepal in 647 CE as the “Persian vegetable”.[8] In 827 CE, the Arabs introduced spinach to Sicily.[9] The first written evidence of spinach in the Mediterranean was recorded in three 10th-century works: a medical work by al-Rāzī (known as Rhazes in the West) and in two agricultural…