Catching up! Plus, a companion planting video

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Hi, guys — it’s been a while!

The Weekly Dirt will be back in full swing — along with spring! — next Sunday.

But for now, some homework. Who knows? Maybe there will be a quiz next week — and a giveaway! 🤷

I presented my Companion Planting Essentials program to thousands of gardeners worldwide during the free Great Grow Along Virtual Garden Festival yesterday. If you missed it, you can still catch it online (just for a few days) here. You’ll learn which plants to group together to increase productivity, pest resistance and longevity — and which to keep apart.

📰This week in my Associated Press gardening column

Callery pears and the ‘Bradford’ cultivar were once widely planted for their fast growth, tight habit, glossy leaves, beautiful white spring flowers, striking fall foliage and stress tolerance. Then they showed their true colors.

I took a month-long break from writing my AP column in December but resumed at the start of the year. Here’s some reading to get you all caught up.

• Bradford pears, once the darlings of suburbia, have become rude invasives. Learn how to manage them -- and get my recommendations for better-mannered alternatives to plant instead. 

• A couple of weeks ago, I checked out the Philadelphia Flower Show — for the first time ever, if you can believe that! Click in for photos and highlights.

• Botanical Latin: A language worth learning

• New plants for 2023

• Moon gardens: An old trend is new again. Here’s how to plant yours.

• Toxic plants and cut flowers to avoid if you have pets

• Pretty but toxic: Watch toddlers around these houseplants

• What’s that green stuff on my tree?

• It’s in fall, not summer, when leaves show their true colors

• How to protect a fig tree over winter

• How to make Bokashi compost

• Six favorite conifers and the cones they produce

You can read all my AP gardening columns here. 

Let’s be friends! Follow me:

• @JesDamiano on Instagram

• @jessicadamiano on Facebook

• @jessicadamiano on Twitter

• and @jessicadamianoofficial on TikTok, where all the cool kids hang out 😎

Until next week, stay safe. Be well. And always keep your mind in the dirt. —Jessica