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Articles from Francis Rosenfeld | Selfgrowth.com
- The Delightful Aromatics - by Submitted on Mar 31, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldAromatics come in two flavors: kitchen herbs and medicinals. A few herbs cross over from one category to the other, rosemary and lavender would be good examples of that, although using lavender for cooking is a bit of an acquired taste. Almost everybody has grown kitchen herbs on a sunny ...
Views: 433 - A Celebration of the Sun - by Submitted on Apr 09, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThere are many traditions, myths and folk tales associated with the summer solstice, many of which involve the herbs and plants that bloom around this time and whose medicinal and aromatic properties are said to be enhanced when gathered on the eve or morning of the solstice. I remember an ...
Views: 432 - Mushrooms - by Submitted on Sep 24, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldEveryone is familiar with this weird characteristic of mushrooms: they spring out of the ground overnight, fully grown, whenever they get a good rain and enough warmth to trigger their development. You go to sleep with a lawn and wake up to a mushroom hatchery. The good news is that mushrooms ...
Views: 431 - Northern Light - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldAs we left the shore and I looked back at the beautiful, surreal landscape of Horseshoe Bay, it felt like all the worries and the cares of the world were also left behind to fade into the distance. The vast, placid waters worked their magic on me too, as they did on so many travelers throughout ...
Views: 429 - Northern Orchids - by Submitted on Jun 14, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldI couldn’t imagine my garden without the toad lilies, whose blossoms are as close to approximating a tropical orchids as any cold weather plant is ever going to get. Don’t get deceived by their fragile look, they are hardy to zones four through nine and just like their cousins, the spring ...
Views: 427 - Cold Front - by Submitted on Dec 01, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThe winter arrived, somewhat tentative but for good. Yesterday it snowed with the large and fluffy kind of flakes which form when the air is still warm. At least the garden is ready: the flower beds are mostly cleared of leaves, the bulbs are in the ground, the trellisses and the pots are ...
Views: 426 - The Happy Go Lucky - by Submitted on Jun 01, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldSome plants find their way into your heart just because they look so cheerful and innocent. Who doesn't love daisies? They are the embodiment of simple and wholesome, like milk, child giggles or sunshine. The fact that they are easy going and thrive with a minimum of care doesn't hurt ...
Views: 425 - My Back Yard Beauty - by Submitted on Nov 24, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldMy beautiful is preparing for winter and there's not much I can do about it so I'm starting next year's planning early. There are never enough annuals or spring bulbs, so those are definitely on the list, especially for the new garden I started early this summer and which, with loving care, I ...
Views: 424 - The Fullness of Summer - by Submitted on Nov 03, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldA rose garden at the height of summer is a breathtaking sight. At this time the June roses haven't faded yet and all the repeat bloomers start their flowering season. Many once blooming roses repeat sporadically in the fall if the weather suits them, but if you want a consistent display of ...
Views: 424 - Aromatic - by Submitted on Jun 17, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldA trip to the herb border in mid-summer is pure aromatherapy: the lemon verbena in the picture, for instance, smells so much like citrus it's used instead of lemons to flavor seafood dishes. During a sultry summer afternoon the herb garden is a symphony of scents: the lingering persistence of ...
Views: 423 - Sun Exposure - by Submitted on Jan 05, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldEven though the three basic sun exposures are full sun, part sun and shade, the latter comes in so many variations, all with their own little quirks, that it deserves a full chapter all to itself. Full sun exposure means eight hours or more of direct sunlight a day, without any large elements ...
Views: 423 - Bundled Indoors - by Submitted on Jan 03, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldSnow arrived, as promised, and blanketed a rather drab decor with a fresh coat of white. I’m bundled indoors, cozy next to the fireplace and a thick pile of flower catalogs: the summer bulbs are here. What’s featured in the glossy pages? Gladioli, every breed of lily in existence and ...
Views: 422 - And More Perennial Gardens - by Submitted on Jan 31, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldOne of the myths of gardening is that once you planted a perennial border it is set in stone and it will come back, year after year, exactly the same. That is not true at all, I look through pictures of my garden through the last few seasons and it is almost unrecognizable from one year to the ...
Views: 421 - The Garden on the Window Sill - by Submitted on Jan 13, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldWith not even half of the winter behind me I have no choice but to concentrate on the miniature garden on the window sill. Fortunately for me, the indoor plants are generous with their flowers. The African violets, the lovely ruffled cyclamens, the amaryllis, the dark begonia, even the Christmas ...
Views: 421 - Veggies to Start Outdoors - by Submitted on May 21, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldSome plants don’t benefit from being started indoors. There are a few reasons for this: their tender foliage has a hard time adjusting to the change of environment, their roots dislike being disturbed or their growth schedule is so accelerated that they outgrow their starting containers too ...
Views: 421 - The Secret Lives of Plants - by Submitted on Jun 30, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldIf you ever watched a time lapse footage of a plant you can’t see the botanical world the same again. Nobody questions the fact that plants are living entities, but since their lives unfold at a speed so much slower than our own, one gets it intellectually, but rarely at gut level. The most ...
Views: 420 - Gardening by the Moon - by Submitted on Jul 12, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldGardening by the moon is a bit of a contentious subject among farmers and gardeners; some swear by it and find it very useful in their practice while others dismiss it as total hooey. I haven’t tried it yet, so I’m only talking about it in the abstract. The basic tenet behind the practice is ...
Views: 419 - Sunshine and Heliotrope - by Submitted on Jul 05, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldI’m sitting on the balcony staring at my purple cherry pie plant, which looks happy as a clam basking in the sunshine in the company of butter yellow petunias. I don’t know why I haven’t tried heliotrope before, it’s an old fashioned cottage garden favorite and mine is a cottage garden. Some ...
Views: 419 - About Gardening - by Submitted on Aug 09, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldI’ve been growing vegetables in my little garden for over ten years, and one may wonder what is the benefit of waiting four whole months to get an eggplant when there is a whole stand of them at the grocery store all the time, even in the middle of winter. What happens is that every year, ...
Views: 417 - Maltese Cross - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldLegend has it that the Knights of Malta where so impressed with this plant, whose four petaled bright red flowers reminded them of their crest, that they brought it home when they returned from the crusades; it has been a cottage garden staple ever since. The plant has many names, some of ...
Views: 417 - Mushrooms - by Submitted on Jun 22, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldEveryone is familiar with this weird characteristic of mushrooms: they spring out of the ground overnight, fully grown, whenever they get a good rain and enough warmth to trigger their development. You go to sleep with a lawn and wake up to a mushroom hatchery. The good news is that mushrooms ...
Views: 417 - Skin Pampering - by Submitted on Dec 07, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThere is nothing like a gentle facial to cleanse the skin and make it glow and there are plenty of ingredients in the kitchen cupboards for a nourishing face mask. Let’s go over a few classics. Honey - it works by itself as a gentle exfoliator or it can be mixed with other ingredients like ...
Views: 417 - Bee Trivia - by Submitted on Aug 23, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldThere must be a hive somewhere in the neighborhood, because bees visit my garden very often, to gather nectar from their favorite flowers. Sedums produce an abundance of it, and their small flowers make an insect's work a little easier. Did you know that a worker bee lives just forty days ...
Views: 416 - Grasses - by Submitted on Jul 28, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldI felt kind of guilty to see that the grass had gone to seed on my lawn, but then I saw it ripen in a lot of other places and relaxed, it seems the combination of warmth and plentiful rain gave it the oomph to grow wild this year. Because we're used to seeing it in its domesticated form - the ...
Views: 414 - Autumn Favorites - by Submitted on Sep 01, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldThe stonecrops are ghostly pale this fall and I'm not used to seeing them like that, normally they turn up rosy hues as soon as the middle of August; it must be the rain, they didn't have enough sunshine to start ripening. Despite the wet weather the fall bloomers are right on time - the ...
Views: 410 - Season's End - by Submitted on Dec 08, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldOne of the perks of keeping a garden is stumbling upon little joyful moments when time stands still and life flows softly through, peaceful and unhurried. Time slows down so we have enough of it to notice how bright the sunlight looks, reflected in the gold and orange leaves of the maple ...
Views: 408 - Charming Tangle - by Submitted on Feb 02, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldIf you want a real cottage garden, don’t tame it, it is supposed to be wild, messy and overgrown, sort of jumbled together without too much focus on height hierarchy and perfect color schemes. Many of its traditional plants are tall, broad and thick and spill over railings, fences, trellises ...
Views: 407 - The Moon Garden - by Submitted on Oct 14, 2018 from Francis RosenfeldOk, I know everybody is busy and strolling through your garden at night is not the first thing that comes to mind at the end of the day, but if the spirit moves you to create one, a moon garden can be just as lovely as a bright patch of colorful flowers in the sunlight. As is the case with ...
Views: 407 - Container Garden Companions - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldFinding good companion planting is even more important when the plants are stuck together in a container. I watched the denizens of assorted pots fight for dominance many a time and more often than not one species brazenly asserts its rights over the sun, water and nutrients and ends up owning ...
Views: 405 - Perpetuals - by Submitted on Oct 05, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldSome annuals are such reliable self-seeders they can pretty much hold their own with their perennial counterparts. They are usually wild meadow flowers, a little rugged but relentless in the propagation of their species. I still find tall bell flowers from two years ago, blooming where I ...
Views: 400 - Companion Gardening - Planters - by Submitted on Oct 14, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldFinding good companion planting is even more important when the plants are stuck together in a container. I watched the denizens of assorted pots fight for dominance many a time and more often than not one species brazenly asserts its rights over the sun, water and nutrients and ends up owning ...
Views: 398 - For the Love of Athena - by Submitted on Aug 22, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldI don’t think the goal of traveling is to see places and learn things, often you get better images and information from photography catalogs and travel guides. The goal of traveling is to get immersed in the spirit of a place. The longer you stay in Greece, the more it becomes clear to you ...
Views: 398 - How to Prune Roses - by Submitted on Feb 19, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldThere is something I'm looking forward to this spring: I can't wait to find out if the two roses I started from cuttings last fall took root. It's almost time to start caring for roses, now that the threat of killing freezes is over and before they come out of their dormancy. If you are ...
Views: 398 - Care Free Bloom - by Submitted on Jul 06, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldNo matter how passionate you are about gardening, there comes a moment when you just want to plant your flower bed and forget it, at least forget about having to tend to it constantly; rest assured there are many plants, both annual and perennials, that would take care of themselves without a ...
Views: 397 - Geotropism - by Submitted on Jun 21, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldGeotropism is an incredibly sophisticated method through which a plant manages to use the same process to make its stems grow up and its roots reach down. If a plant is growing horizontally, instead of vertically, a plant hormone called auxin, which serves to inhibit cellular growth, sinks to ...
Views: 397 - Northern Light - by Submitted on Dec 28, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldAs we left the shore and I looked back at the beautiful, surreal landscape of Horseshoe Bay, it felt like all the worries and the cares of the world were also left behind to fade into the distance. The vast, placid waters worked their magic on me too, as they did on so many travelers throughout ...
Views: 396 - Sweet Violets - by Submitted on Apr 07, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldEvery summer I plan to thin the violets and every summer I change my mind at the last minute, and this picture is the reason why. How can I pull these delicate flowers that cover the earth in spring in every shade of blue between aqua and indigo? Sweet violets are to the flower bed what ...
Views: 396 - The Garden in Winter - by Submitted on Dec 15, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldThe winter garden is a haven for the little creatures of the land; it provides them with shelter, food and cozy nooks to hibernate. The gardener can lend a hand, goodness knows the wildlife can use all the help it can get during the coldest days of the year. Add bird feeders to your backyard ...
Views: 396 - The Garden That Keeps on Giving - by Submitted on Dec 30, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldIf you have established perennials, they are a readily available source of new plants for your garden. Most herbaceous perennials can be propagated by division. In spring, for fall blooming perennials, and fall, for spring blooming perennials, dig up the clump, break it up into smaller ...
Views: 396 - Weather Musings - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldI read last year's entry entry for this week and got reminded of how remarkably consistent the weather and garden patterns are: the first snow, the January cold streak, the first bloom. They follow nature's implicit schedule almost to the day. It just dawned on me that I could read up a few ...
Views: 394 - Spring Care for Roses - by Submitted on Feb 24, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldBoth of the rose cuttings I started last fall have rooted, judging by the new growth, but I’m not taking the jars off of them until the weather turns really warm. The roses are usually the first to get attention in my garden, before the spring cleaning or tending to the grass, so let’s talk ...
Views: 393 - How Do Deciduous Trees Go Through Winter - by Submitted on Oct 27, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldFirst chlorophyll breaks down and gets reabsorbed, allowing the other pigments to lend their colors to the foliage and turn it copper, red, yellow and orange. The tree sends a chemical called abscisic acid to the terminal buds, which shut down the flow of sap to the leaves, signaling them to ...
Views: 392 - Wild Roses - by Submitted on Mar 14, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldThe wild roses, the species and the rugosas, are what comes to mind when you think rose hips. Their fruits are large, in bright hues of red and bright orange, and their thorny shrubs provide them in abundance. The best known species variety is the dog rose, an ancestor of the old garden ...
Views: 392 - Quince Jelly - by Submitted on Mar 29, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldAll fruits are suitable for preserves, especially if they come in vibrant colors, but some, like apples, quinces, pears, plums and grapes, are naturally high in pectin and will gel beautifully without additives. Jellies must be firm and transparent like colored glass, in brilliant jewel ...
Views: 390 - At the End of September - by Submitted on Sep 30, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldWith temperatures stubbornly stuck in the eighties and nineties I would have missed the beginning of fall this year but for the garden following its own internal clock: warmth or no warmth, once we passed the fall equinox, everything in the flower and vegetable border went into liquidation ...
Views: 388 - Millefleur - by Submitted on Jul 15, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldEvery spring I plan on planting more annuals and every summer I fall short of the desired effect. At least this year I have an excuse: after clearing up the shrubbery from a large portion of the front yard, the design of a new perennial border became a priority. There seems to be a quiet ...
Views: 388 - Second Wind - by Submitted on Aug 10, 2019 from Francis RosenfeldSomebody who is fated to live a linear life can’t easily grasp the cycles of nature; I’m envious, almost, of the way the garden gets to reshuffle the deck at the end of each year and start fresh in spring, one level up from where it was before. Sometimes this cycle skips like a record with a ...
Views: 386 - Summer's Door - by Submitted on Jun 01, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldSummer is knocking on the door a month early and it brought with it sweltering temperatures more suitable for the middle of July; it arrived so suddenly it gets difficult for us poor humans to adjust. Everything tripled in size in a matter of days, desperately springing into bloom as if not to ...
Views: 383 - Climbers and Ramblers - by Submitted on Feb 16, 2021 from Francis RosenfeldClimbers and ramblers are nature's gift to the land-locked gardener. I don't think there is anything cozier and more delightful than a little corner filled with greenery and flowers tucked away from the world, sheltered between walls covered in rose bunches or hiding behind an old arbor trailed ...
Views: 382 - The Land of Pretty Flowers - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2020 from Francis RosenfeldWhat makes a beautiful perennial garden? There is no recipe or guarantee, but I can list a few things I noticed over the years that all thriving gardens have in common. Work with the land you have I know this ingredient can be supplanted by a simply unreasonable amount of work and earth ...
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