Curing garlic is one of the season’s more pungent chores. I usually place mine outside a window, and every time I pass by, I crave Italian food as the aroma of curing garlic bulbs wafts inside. Curing garlic enhances the bulbs’ storage capabilities, ensuring that some will store long enough to spice up February chili.

To cure garlic, I place bulbs in full sun on plastic nursery trays with perforated bottoms. In warmest parts of the country, you should give the bulbs light shade. The whole process takes up to two weeks. Bulbs are cured when necks are tight and ...

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I’ve become addicted to those 5-pound, 99-cent bags of overripe bananas at the grocery store. I’ve been pureeing bananas in smoothies, baking them in brownies, and slicing them onto cereal. Why am I so infatuated with bananas? Partly, it’s the price. But the real reason I’m sold on these discounted fruits is what they do for my garden. After I munch the fruit, I bury the peels around the base of flowering perennials. Rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous, banana peels deliver a nutrient-laden punch to plant roots.

I bury the whole peel in a shallow hole (maybe an ...

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Every year about mid-June, I scout garden centers for delphiniums. At that point, I can usually find them on discount, and snap up a few to add to the garden. Delphiniums are one of those short-lived bloomers that take a year to come into their own. The old delphinium saying goes like this: “First year grow, second year show, third year throw.” Last year my garden showcased a second-year delphinium that made every visitor gasp. Several compostings the previous year coupled with abundant June rains last year to yield a 5-foot-plus show.

When perennials shoot skyward like the delphinium or ...

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Wildflowers are now making an appearance: bloodroot, wild ginger, woodland phlox, dutchman’s breeches, and trout lilies. Spring has sprung! Last weekend forecasts predicted a day of rain, so I dedicated a few days to clearing perennial beds. After I clean beds each spring, I scratch organic fertilizer into soil and mulch. I like to do this right before a rain, so the rain waters in the fertilizer. I finished the task just as the clouds opened.

As I cleared planting beds, I removed the heavy layers of autumn leaves lodged among perennials, along with the stems I allowed to remain ...

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An early spring snowstorm smothered flower beds with 3 inches of heavy, wet snow yesterday. I grabbed the camera to capture the beauty of Scilla sibirica snuggled in a bed of oak leaves covered with a blanket of snow. I grow two scilla species: blue or Siberian squill (Scilla sibirica) and white or early squill (Scilla mischtschenkoana).

A wildflower bulb native to Iran and Southern Russia, the early squill flowers first, greeting the bracing winds of early March with white blooms streaked in the palest blue.

The flowers are reported to have a lovely scent, but I haven’t detected ...

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Motivated by a sun-splashed afternoon, I decided to check out the compost pile. Before the snow started to fly, I had my three 16-cubic-foot wire cages brimming with garden waste. I’m curious to see if our hard Iowa winter has compressed the piles. Touring the garden this time of year requires Olympic-style prowess. The garden gate is frozen in a swirl of late-falling oak leaves, a clump of collapsed garlic chives, and ice. To get near the compost, I have to climb the fence, which I accomplish using a stepladder opened over the gate. After a short clamber up and ...

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