andre jordan doodles Archives - A Way To Garden

happy spring? andre jordan’s doodled thoughts on winter, as it officially slips away

margaret — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 11:37:56 +0000

IN THE VERY FIRST YEAR of A Way to Garden dot com, 2008, I met a stranger across an ocean via the internet. I was drawn to Andre Jordan’s off-kilter “doodles” I’d happened upon somewhere–maybe on the BBC website, where he was a contributor at the time–and wrote to tell him so. Soon my new friend Andre was living in Nebraska with the future Mrs. Andre, and eventually they moved to South Dakota (despite being forewarned that winter never kids around there). A run of the Mount Rushmore State’s doozies has apparently left an impression on Andre, the dimensions of which he has summed up with a series of at once empathic and totally mad doodles–gardening cartoons that I hope you love as much as I do. To mark more than a decade of knowing Andre, I thought it might be fun to reprise some of them–just in time for the day that winter is officially supposed to be dispatched. Happy spring? Well, maybe. winter doodles, by andre jordan BAD WINTER: I miss the migrant birds in the offseason, who had the good sense to get the hell out of here. More than that, I worry about some species–like the […]

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doodle by andre: oh yeah, sure; the weeds are sorry

margaret — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 12:55:38 +0000

DO YOU THINK I BELIEVE THIS FOR ONE SECOND? After nearly 30 years of fighting (losing?) the good fight, I know the one thing we can count on is that garlic mustard will outlive us. Thanks to Andre for another great doodle. If you need more than a laugh to cope with your weeds, try these stories: margaret’s weed 101 MAKE A PASS through each garden bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from your desired plants. Top up mulch where needed (or maybe you need a layer of cardboard or newsprint first?). First: Learn to identify your opponents, and the tactics and timing for best control. These links help in that valiant effort (or you can just hope Andre was right, and the weeds won’t do it again–your choice): How to ID your weeds—links to online guides A 101 approach to weed control Smothering weeds with cardboard and newspaper Piling on the mulch for weed suppression and control Poison ivy 101 Clearweed, or Pilea pumila Hedge bindweed and spotted spurge Garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata Galinsoga and Commelina A weed I accidentally planted, Houttuynia or chameleon plant All my weed stories

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doodles by andre: what gardeners regret

margaret — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 12:44:41 +0000

SOMETIMES IT’S THE PLANT WE BOUGHT (as in “wrong plant, wrong place,” above); other times the cause of our gardener’s lament-bordering-on-shame is a little trickier, more the stuff you’d have to sort out by the 50-minute hour, on the couch. Over the years Andre Jordan, my doodling friend, has reminded me of more than just a few of my horticulturally induced regrets, including these: SOMETIMES IT’S that we, ahem, overdid it just a tad (not that such a thing has ever happened to me). A COROLLARY of overdoing it: when we buy more things than we can keep an eye on (especially in a dry year like this one, when you can practically hear the newly planted babies screaming across the yard for relief, and you can’t water fast or deeply enough). I‘VE TRIED getting help; I have. Somehow, though, when that first seed catalog arrives in my mailbox, or spring springs at the garden center, I just can’t seem to control myself and I slip right back into my old ways. I‘VE EVEN MADE LISTS and contracts with myself, promising to behave differently, to head off any possible regrets at the pass. But, no; it never quite helps–or if […]

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