Garden Journal

Paul Barbano writes about gardening from his home in Rehoboth Beach. Contact him by writing to P. O. Box 213, Lewes, DE 19958.

Give houseplants a rest with less water in winter

Paul Barbano
10 months ago
Ever since the ancient Romans heated with fires and indoor pipes, central heating has been a part...

Stocking stuffers for gardeners can be practical and...

Paul Barbano
11 months ago
Christmas stockings go back hundreds of years; they were even mentioned as an established American...

Cyclamens add a cheery note for the Christmas season

Paul Barbano
11 months ago
In ancient times, Romans celebrated Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of seeds and sowing...

Grow a new Thanksgiving tradition with spaghetti squash

Paul Barbano
11 months ago
Macy's has put on a Thanksgiving Day parade since 1924. Americans eat 46 million turkeys on that...

Let amaryllis bring a touch of Brazil to your holidays

1 year ago
Brazil is a land of greatness. It is the largest Portuguese-speaking country on earth. Brazil’s...

Time to bring houseplants indoors for the winter

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Most houseplants come from the tropics, where they typically grow in filtered sunlight with high...

Pie pumpkins need rich soil, full sun for best growth

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Pumpkins and pumpkin seeds were being grown and eaten by Native Americans long before the Pilgrims...

For a touch of Wales, plant daffodils

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Wales is an unusual country by any standard. Not only are there four times as many sheep as people...

October leaves can benefit the garden

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
It's October, the eighth month in the Roman calendar. Octo means eight in Latin. October is when...

Even the garden takes on a pumpkin palette

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Fall is in the air, and it is time for everything pumpkin. The pumpkin spice latte has such cult...

The virus that made tulip mania

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Not all viruses are bad. For example, certain viruses allow cows to turn cellulose from grass into...

Strike it rich with Klondike cosmos

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
American prospector George Carmack and his partner Skookum Jim (Keish), discovered gold Aug. 16,...

Plant parrot tulips for a flock of colorful blooms

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Parrots eat with their feet and taste with the tops of their beaks. Parrots are the only birds able...

When the garden becomes a seedy place

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
When flowers fade, they leave behind often-unsightly seed heads, and this is where we get the term...

Grow Rose of Sharon to nourish your soul

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
In John Steinbeck's novel, “The Grapes of Wrath,” the character Rose of Sharon is portrayed in...

Grow moonflowers for a sweet nighttime treat

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
The moon's gravity causes the tides to rise and fall, and the moon is thought to influence humans...

Tinky Winky and Pinky Winky – an endearing gardener...

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
They look like aliens and indeed were inspired by the waddling astronauts. The Teletubbies took the...

Start a resistance movement in your garden

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
When the Nazis invaded France, many French citizens secretly fought back and formed an underground...

Rice water is good for your garden

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
There’s an old saying: Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. And don't throw out all those...

The Berlin Wall and the Little Leaf linden

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Over the years, more than 5,000 East Germans escaped over the Berlin Wall, including acrobat Horst...

Japanese lilac trees attract pollinators, resist...

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Japan is a land of many surprises. For instance, there are 118 volcanoes in Japan, more than any...

For a fun, delicious houseplant, grow Orange Hat...

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
The hat trick first appeared in cricket in 1858, to describe H.H. Stephenson taking three wickets...

Quick-growing plants you can start from seeds

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
All tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises. Both belong to the order Testudines...

The fungus among us does more than you think

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
The bartender told the mushroom, “I can’t serve you,” and the mushroom replied, “Why not? I'm a fun...

Plant a hurricane apple tree for early summer fruit

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. When Hurricane Camille swept through Nelson County,...

Grow a Greek goddess on your windowsill

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Home is where the heart is, or perhaps, home is where the hearth is. The Greek goddess of the...

Plant a Delaware state flower and enjoy a peachy view

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
In 1638, Swedish and Finnish settlers in what is now Delaware built the first log cabin in North...

Here’s a squash to share and make into squares

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Amish dolls don’t have faces. This is because the Amish believe that vanity is sinful, and everyone...

Grow your own toys with Tennessee dancing gourd

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Most male singing groups have a lead singer who is a tenor. So the Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubb...

Companions in the garden provide many benefits

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Companions help us thrive and even make us laugh: "I love you." said the wife. The husband replied...

Keeping big bucks out of the garden takes special...

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
A “buck” meaning “money” comes from the days when a deerskin, or a buckskin, was used to trade for...

Red cabbage provides garden beauty and good nutrition

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Spring means baseball, and baseball means hot uniforms made of wool, or at least it used to. So,...

Easy-to-grow annuals: A triple play in the flower...

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
In baseball, a triple play is when a player makes three outs during the same play. They are rare,...

Oh, Sweet Pea, meet me at the Bijou

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
After serving in the U.S. Army, Tommy Roe had his first Top 40 hit in two years with his bubblegum...

Grow healthier houseplants with a little Latin rhythm

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Did you know you could dance the Cha Cha with your plants in order to promote growth? The Cha Cha...

Plant potatoes to celebrate Maewyn Day in the garden

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
It’s the middle of March and time to celebrate “Maewyn Day” instead of St. Patrick’s Day, because...

Rhododendrons are easy to grow from cuttings

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
What do you call a boomerang that doesn't work? A stick. And a cutting that doesn't root is also...

March out now and prune your roses for a blooming...

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Sometimes a big, beautiful rose is just delicious-looking. Raw or dried, rose petals are not only...

Bring the tropics indoors with a Majesty palm tree

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Palm trees come in all sizes. The wax palm can grow up to 200 feet high, as tall as a 20-story...

Invite a dragon from your garden for tea

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
The game Dungeons & Dragons came out in 1974, marking the beginning of modern role-playing...

Celosia offers wonderful wooly flowers and edible...

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
The name of the flower Celosia comes from the Greek word kelos, meaning burned, to describe the...

Peanuts as houseplants can be enjoyed for both...

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
America loves peanuts so much that two peanut farmers have been elected president, Thomas Jefferson...

Growing fragrant gardenias indoors is worth the effort

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Scents that soothed you as a child can continue to relieve anxiety and stress throughout all of...

If your houseplants have the winter blahs, try...

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
American English slang gives us “lead balloon,” meaning a dismal failure. Trucker's jargon includes...

Green cotton is a heritage plant worth preserving

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
There’s nothing like flannel sheets on a cold winter night. And true flannel means cotton. Classic...

Try this houseplant that absorbs dust

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
On average, your house collects 40 pounds of dust each year, and part of that accumulation is dead...

Christmas cactus can be forever gifts

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Christmas is always changing. Even the reindeer names Donner and Blitzen were originally Dunder and...

Relax, mon – Rasta Lipstick Plant needs little care

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
While we associate dreadlocks with Jamaica, some of the earliest Middle Eastern Christians wore...

Candy canes and geraniums

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
According to folklore, in 1670, a choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany bent solid sugar...

This jewel of an orchid needs little care

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Henry Morley boarded the Titanic with his mistress, Kate Phillips, age 20, to sail to America and...

Pine trees can actually be tasteful as well as...

1 year ago
We refer to them as the Algonquian, but going back to prerecorded history, the Mohawk referred to...

Grow a fierce-looking houseplant called Shark’s Tooth

Paul Barbano
1 year ago
Let’s face it – babies are cute. Humans have a built-in attraction for large, symmetrical heads,...

Grow a rabbit foot fern for good luck and fuzzy fun

Paul Barbano
2 years ago
I wonder if the winner of the $2 billion lottery prize clutched a rabbit foot for luck when buying...

Plant a honey of a squash for tasty winter eating

Paul Barbano
2 years ago
Squash is one of the three plants grown in the traditional Native American gardens known as the...

Fly into winter with a helicopter plant

Paul Barbano
2 years ago
Leonardo da Vinci drew plans for a helicopter in the late 1400s, although the first practical one...

Milkweed saves butterflies – and sometimes humans

Paul Barbano
2 years ago
Weeds can save lives. When World War II broke out, Japan cut off the supply of kapok, the filler...

Plant breadseed poppies before the snow comes

Paul Barbano
2 years ago
Dope once meant a sauce or any thick liquid, but by 1889, dope came to mean "narcotic drug," from...

Splash your spring garden with Aquarian-blue...

Paul Barbano
2 years ago
The mythical water carrier Ganymede was a beautiful Phrygian youth who, while tending to his father...

Try a sweet lemon tree to brighten the bitter winter...

Paul Barbano
2 years ago
It is autumn and time to put the gardens to bed. Sometimes after the gardens are cleared and...

Ring in autumn with Silver Bell squash

Paul Barbano
2 years ago
Buying things changed in the 1930s when people began to “ring up a purchase” because of the sound...