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Text of the page (random words):
garden housecalls ramblings and readlings home home contact site map garden drawings talks trips patriot news pennlive posts buy helpful info navigation storage shed useful past columns about george sign up for george s free e column plant profiles timely tips george s handy lists george s friends photo galleries links and resources support george s efforts george s new 50 american public gardens you really ought to see e book steers you to the top gardens to add to your bucket list read more order now george s survivor plant list is a 19 page booklet detailing hundreds of the toughest and highest performing plants click here has the info here been useful support george s efforts by clicking below looking for other ways to support george click here george s current ramblings and readlings george signing off the final post december 30th 2025 well this is it i ve been writing and running this website for 20 years and i ve decided it s time to pack away georgeweigel net old george in a familiar position i ve been gradually shedding different parts of my career now that i m a full fledged member of the medicare and social security community my garden house calls consulting business garden trips garden talks landscape drawings and most free lance writing is already history this site is the next to last thing to go this post is the last and once my web hosting contract runs out at the end of april 2026 the whole site will disappear into internet heaven i plan to continue writing weekly garden columns posts and in season plant picks of the week for the patriot news and its pennlive com website that s where my garden writing started in 1993 and so it s fitting that it ll be the last gig standing i wrote a post last week going over where you can find articles and photos here that you might want to read or save before it all goes away scroll down to see that post i should also remind you once more that if you want a copy of my 19 page george s survivor plants for pennsylvania booklet the most useful resource i ve come up with in my 30 years of garden writing now s the time to get it the listing zeroes in on hundreds of my top plant recommendations specific varieties too and it includes light needs planning sizes bloom times and other important factoids you ought to know about each plant it s updated for 2025 the only place you can get the survivor plants booklet is directly from me i e through my buy helpful info page you can download a copy for 4 95 or order a paper copy for 7 95 plus 3 shipping once this site goes away so does the booklet the buy helpful info page is also the place where you can download a copy of my 50 american public gardens you really ought to see e book it s a 7 95 download and if you re interested in using any of the articles and photos posted here in a commercial way say to reprint in your own writings site or publication i d be happy to sell you the rights and email you copies articles are 25 and photos are 10 email me at george georgeweigel net before that address also goes away i don t mind if you want to grab and save any of the files for your own use i ve been writing posts and adding content what used to be called articles and photos to this site for more than 20 years now i never intended it to make money which it didn t and so i didn t charge subscription fees or clutter up the site with ads my main purpose was to share info with fellow gardeners as well as to set up an online base for my one time garden house calls consulting business and the many garden trips i used to do occasional donations from generous gardeners and the marginal income through the sale of my books and survivor plants booklets helped with the funding a little but i basically ate most of the operational costs and production time i m super grateful to everyone who contributed in one way or another over the years thanks so much you can see the names of contributors on my george s friends page of all the avenues i ve taken in my career writing is easily my favorite i ve really enjoyed the research the creativity of crafting factoid jumbles into stories and especially sharing discoveries that i think others will find useful and helpful i still do blending my favorite pastime of gardening with my penn state training in writing has been the perfect career combo i m glad someone was willing to pay for the results so i could make a living out of it and i m glad i timed it before ai bots completely take over garden writing my parting wish is that all of you gardening friends and treasured readers will have many more healthy years of digging in the dirt fun i know many of you share my belief that despite the dirt the sweat the sore backs the oppressive heat the annoying blackflies the endless stream of weeds the never cooperative weather and the frustration of dealing with hungry deer rabbits and groundhogs there s still no better day than one spent in the garden second best is a day writing about gardening thank you for giving me that opportunity and happy gardening always past posts still worth checking out december 9th 2025 time is winding down if you want to read and or save anything i ve written here over the past 20 years of georgeweigel net george right interviewing tim clymer for a gardening article of the past i m retiring this site at the end of the year and when my web hosting contract runs out at the end of april 2026 the site and everything in it will disappear into internet heaven that means now s the time to sniff around here and mine whatever gardening info nuggets you might have missed or ones that you read a few years ago and forgot i don t mind if you want to grab and save any of the files for your own use but if you d like to use any articles or photos commercially say to reprint in your own writings site or publication i d be happy to sell you the rights and email you copies articles are 25 and photos are 10 email me at george georgeweigel net before that address also goes away as for what to find where a good starting point is to check out the archived topic lists at left the plant profiles listing guides you to rundowns on the 300 high performing plants that i ve profiled over the years including good places to use each plant good partners for them and how to care for them the timely tips listing is my 12 part calendar on what garden jobs to do each month buried cable lines one of the many potential pitfalls on a typical gardening day my favorite section is george s handy lists a set of links that takes you to more than 60 lists to help you garden better and maybe give you a few chuckles along the way the entries include topics such as 10 frankenplants i d like to see 10 landscape plants you ll probably kill 10 murphy s laws that apply to gardening 12 ways to keep you from hurting yourself in the garden ultra local native plants for southcentral pennsylvania the eight things that annoy gardeners most and 10 things my wife makes fun of me for gardening only if you like looking at plant and garden photos my photo gallerie s section gives you hundreds of shots i took during the many garden trips i led as well as collections of my 50 favorite american garden settings of all time 50 favorite international garden settings of all time photos from past philadelphia flower shows photos of some superb harrisburg area home gardens and photos of the cumberland county home garden i left behind probably the most useful resource i ve come up with in my 30 years of garden writing is my 19 page booklet george s survivor plants for pennsylvania i developed it as part of my garden house calls consulting business the listing zeroes in on hundreds of my top plant recommendations specific varieties too and it includes light needs planning sizes bloom times and other important factoids you ought to know about each plant the only place you can get this survivor plants booklet is directly from me i e through my buy helpful info page you can download a copy for 4 95 or order a paper copy for 7 95 plus 3 shipping once this site goes away so does the booklet so if you want one now s the time to do it it s been updated for 2025 the buy helpful info page is also the place where you can download a copy of my 50 american public gardens you really ought to see ebook it s a 7 95 download if you re interested in certain topics look for the search box at the top right of the home page and type in the topic of choice a list should pop up of articles on this site that match another option is to go to the storage shed button at the top of the left side tool bar this avenue lets you search by categories such as enviro gardening flowers how to mayhem in the garden garden design plant selection fun stuff and everything else or you could just keep scrolling down the articles on the home page and hitting the older ramblings and readlings button at the bottom to keep going back in time here are a few past readlings that i liked and believe are still timely and useful read more eight things i ve learned about gardening december 2nd 2025 i ve been gardening for 45 years now and have picked up a few practical insights that a aren t always obvious and b aren t lessons you usually read about in books scientific evidence to the contrary i m a believer in improving soil with compost before planting as i head into the final month of this website i thought i d share eight of the most important with you 1 you really do need to improve the soil this is the one really important part of gardening where i disagree with the experts and the supposed scientific evidence behind it the books all tell you that you shouldn t add compost or other amendments to the soil at least when planting trees and shrubs the reason is the so called bathtub effect water will drain through the improved soil then hit the more compacted native soil below and around the hole causing a backup that leads to root rotting while that can happen i don t think it s anywhere near the threat that planting into unimproved soil poses most of our soil is heavily compacted clay shale and especially builder s soil that results when home builders grade a yard pile up the surface clay and subsoil then spread a six inch layer of this plant death trap over the bulldozed site i ve tried the recommended loosening and planting into existing soil and it almost always results in severely stunted plants and often a gradual retreat into death i can t tell you how many plants i ve rescued by digging them up working a bucket of compost into the planting bed then replanting i ve had the best results by preparing planting beds in advance loosening a foot deep and working about two inches of compost into the soil before planting that amounts to about a 20 percent compost improvement 2 if there s a secret to gardening it s water i ve seen so many fads and miracle products marketed over the years ones that are supposed to jump start plant growth mycorrhizal fungi vitamin b2 biochar assorted plant stimulators magnesium super thrive and fertilizers in general are among the many things gardeners are told they ought to apply to maximize success while some of them might have some benefit i ve found that the best overall plant growth stimulator is simple water plants go downhill quickly when they don t have enough and they stunt and struggle mightily in hot summers that go long spells without rain a scenario that s become our norm lately i ve found that not enough water is the cause of way more plant woes than nutrient deficiencies bug problems or compost added to the soil being a good waterer leads to success more than any product read more circle of life in the yard november 18th 2025 gardening is recycling at its core or at least it could should be george playing with his compost when done thoughtfully growing plants in the yard returns as much to nature as it uses creating an endless sorry lion king circle of life things feed things until it all comes back around it s what i like most about composting when i yank weeds gather fallen tree leaves and collect coffee grounds and kitchen peelings in my under the sink stainless steel pail i don t look at it as work it s harvesting free fertilizer and organic matter i can t imagine gardening without composting a hallmark of almost all of the best gardeners i ve seen in action is a compost bin or three they seem to have tucked away somewhere in the yard it s never made much sense to me to bag and toss leaves weeds and grass clippings and to grind organic kitchen waste down a water hungry garbage disposer then turn around and buy bagged mulch and soil amendments from the garden center why not make our own out of what we already have read more how to head off winter plant damage november 4th 2025 our winters have been consistently warmer these past three decades but that doesn t mean we pennsylvania gardeners can let down our guard like we re now the semi tropics just one really cold night is enough to cause damage or death to a tender landscape plant last winter reminded us that we can still flirt with sub zero winter nights even if it s just for a quick hit arctic blast or two really that s all it takes to kill or winter burn plants that are borderline hardy although most of the harrisburg area has now morphed into usda cold hardiness zones 7a and 6b a half of a zone warmer than the turn of the century we can still get temporary tastes of a zone 6a or even 5b winter that doesn t mean it s foolhardy to take advantage of new possibilities like tea olives hardy camellias distyliums and gardenias or to feel more comfortable with previous iffy choices such as cherry laurel figs aucubas and skip laurels most winters now we probably can get away with all of the above read george s pennlive column on 16 southern plants you now might be able to grow what helps stack the odds in your favor is 1 wise siting and 2 a few precautions and winter prep techniques to mitigate those few extra cold surprises and erratic temperature ups and downs read more older ramblings and readlings home garden house calls george s talks trips disclosure 2026 george weigel site designed and programmed by pittsburgh web developer andy weigel using wordpress