Category: Southern Living

  • Treating my Spring Fever

    Groundhog’s Day has come and gone. Shadow or not, the prospect of an early spring makes me want to garden. Unseasonably mild weather in recent weeks is testing my resolve to avoid planting too early. Digging up day lilies to expand my veggie garden scratched my itch for several days. They came from Dad’s garden…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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.…

  • A Balmy Winter

    I despise cold weather, but a move south isn’t in the cards. Living in an area with four distinct seasons is mandatory. Suffering through winter–my least-favorite season–enhances my appreciation for the other three. Fortunately, what passes for winter here is typically short and mild. Even so, spring can’t come soon enough for me. By January…

  • Cold Snap Survivors

    Cold Snap Survivors

    In late-December, the temperature here in Athens dropped to eight degrees (F) and stayed below freezing for several days. I figured the vegetables in my little garden were doomed, but took precautions anyway. After mulching with a thick layer of straw and covering everything with floating row cover, I crossed my fingers and hoped for…

  • Testing My Optimism

    I suspect most — if not all — gardeners are optimists. They have to be. Planting a garden is an act of faith. Lots of stuff can go wrong. A pessimist wouldn’t waste time and money on near certain failure. Gardening is seasonal. In my old Kentucky home (USDA Hardiness Zone 6), the garden went…

  • Fall Garden 3.0

    My third serious attempt at a fall garden is in. This time, I started all the veggies from seed. Tootsie “helped.” Back in June, I started some Foxgloves and Canterbury bells inside. These beauties are biannual, blooming in the second year and then dying. I’m testing my hypothesis that going through winter triggers bloom —…

  • May Flowers

    Hard to believe nearly a month has passed since my last post. Funny how time flies when you’re retired. Just thinking about work is enough to stress me out, and blogging often feels like work. Running was the subject of my last post. Since then, I’ve logged 20-25 miles a week running three to six…

  • Running Cold

    Sticking to my running regimen has always been a challenge. Work, foot problems, and less-than-perfect weather too often keep me inside. Retiring solved the time issue. Skechers ArchFit shoes fixed the foot problems. Weather is beyond my control, but my preferences have changed to expand the window of opportunity. I can’t complain. The climate in…