The 2021 gardening calendar is here!
Your daily chores are back -- this time in a glossy wall calendar
When my Newsday garden column ended after nearly 15 years in August, I received hundreds of kind and touching emails and social media messages from readers expressing sadness that the Garden Detective would no longer be part of their Sunday paper, and gratitude (for saving their tree, teaching them how to grow vegetables, solving a mildew issue or hosting the annual Great Long Island Tomato Challenge, which for many had become a family tradition.)
OMG, I have been following your monthly guide for years, how terrible, I'm lost. — John Malesko
Receiving those messages was heartwarming, to say the least. As a journalist, I knew, of course, that folks read my column. They filled my inbox every week with comments and questions. But, still, it was hard to imagine that my work actually made any sort of a difference to anyone. Until my last column was published.
One of the most-mentioned features in those lovely “goodbye” emails was my monthly gardening calendar. Scores of readers wrote to tell me it was a fixture on their refrigerator, or their garage, hanging over their tool bench. Some garden centers even displayed it by their registers. Throughout the years, many of you wrote to request a wall calendar filled with my gardening tips, but the stars never aligned. Until now.
My husband and I are HUGELY disappointed you won’t be in Newsday. We looked forward your gardening section every Sunday (especially loved your monthly calendar). It was so informative and you are very knowledgeable. We learned so much in your section and it really helped in our garden. — Michele Mooney
So I just published a 12-month, day-by-day gardening calendar — and you can hang this one on your wall.
If you’re unfamiliar, it’s not an ordinary calendar. Think of it as 365 visits from a gardening friend who stops by every day of the year with tips, advice, inspiration and timely reminders about what needs to be done in the garden -- and the best time to do so.
If you’re looking for an appointment keeper, however, you won’t find it here; there are no spaces to enter doctor visits or lunch dates. I’ve taken up all the boxes myself.
But if you’ve ever brought home a plant, put it in the ground and then wondered how to keep it alive — or are experienced but not quite sure of how to deal with pests and diseases when they strike — consider it your personal daily horticultural hand-holding from a gardening friend.
You’ll never miss a seed-starting date, fertilizer application period, houseplant repotting time or preventive crabgrass-control window again.
And they’d make great holiday gifts, too.
You’re subscribed to receive The Weekly Dirt every week starting this Sunday. I welcome your comments and suggestions, so please send them along — as well as any topics you’d like to see covered, photos of your garden and questions you’d like to see answered in upcoming editions of the newsletter.
If you’re sending photos, please include your full name and name of anyone depicted, your hometown, details about your plant or garden, the name of the person who took the photo, and a sentence granting permission for its use in this newsletter and archives.
Stay safe. Be well. And always keep your mind in the dirt. —Jessica