The Crotchety Old Man

Category: Gardening

  • Wishing Winter Away

    The forecast for my neck of the woods calls for lows in the teens and twenties and highs barely into the forties for the rest of the week. Brr! Despite the chilly forecast, mild winters are my favorite thing about living in Athens. Once upon a time, snow days were gifts from God. I have…

  • Winter Garden Lessons Learned

    Petunias can handle temperatures as low as 29 degrees (F)–a fact I’ve long applied to all cool season annuals. I recently checked cold tolerance for the specific varieties in my winter vegetable garden. Turns out, everything I’ve planted can handle temperatures as low as 20 with most surviving as low as 15. Talk about relieved.…

  • Lessons Learned…Finally

    My gardening style revolves around buying whatever catches my eye and finding a spot for it later. I could write a book about my mistakes. Like it or not, the key to success is planting the right plant in the right location. Many of my poor choices limped along for days, weeks or even months…

  • Countdown to Harvest

    When I started seed for my fall garden last month, lingering summer heat and insufficient rain were concerns. High temperatures dropped into the 80s a few days after I planted everything. Rain, however, is still in short supply. My still unmet goal is a harvest-ready crop by the middle of December. Although seed got off…

  • Getting Ready for Fall

    The last of the tomato plants went to the compost pile last week. Bell peppers are still producing, but the other summer veggies are gone. Time to start my fall/winter garden. Experience helps. Wisdom accumulates with each new season. Lessons learned last year resulted in a few changes this year. I need to plant fall…

  • Veggie Delight

    For me, gardening is mostly about flower. A sense of obligation and a desire for fresh tomatoes motivate me to plant a few every year. Harvesting just a few is typical. Some years, I don’t harvest a single fruit. Lessons learned last year led me to switch things up a little. Overcrowding is much less…

  • Deer-Resistant Annuals

    Outside of my fenced in backyard, deer are a problem. Trial and error has taught me a few lessons about what they will and won’t eat. The bottom line: Hungry deer will eat just about anything. Deer won’t touch toxic plants. Most are perennials, but a few can be grown as annuals including castor beans…

  • A Proper Spring

    Instead of skipping from winter to summer, the weather in Athens the past month or two has been unusually spring-like. More rain would have been nice, but temperatures have yet to hit 90 with highs mostly in the 70s. The delayed arrival of hot weather has given transplants a better chance to get settled in.…

  • Springing Forward

    The eternal optimist in me believes a mid-March cold snap marked the end of freezing temperatures here in Athens. Locals say wait until Good Friday to plant tender annuals. Not me. I’m too impatient to wait any longer to jump into spring. The falling Mercury brought my seed-starting operation to a halt. I was out…

  • The Case of the Missing Fish

    In early 2021, I put five fantail goldfish (Larry, Curly, Moesha, Smokey and Bandit) into my little patio water feature. Early last summer, I added some platies (live-bearing tropical fish aka Moon fish). Last fall, four goldfish and a swordtail (Maude) were taken from th pond and moved indoors to an aquarium. Bandit and all…