Articles written by Mary Honrud
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Sweet Recipes
We’re off on another trip that involves our grandsons and hockey. This one, unfortunately, is not to warmer southern climes. There’s a bit of prideful boasting involved in this, since both boys were invited to compete in a tournament in Quebec Ci...
Palm Reading? Or Too Many Palms...
Last week I briefly mentioned there being so many varieties of palm trees at the Sunken Gardens. There were palm trees scattered throughout the gardens, a well as a palm grove. Many of them I'd never...
Manatees and Sunken Gardens
During our last few days enjoying Florida, we made our usual trip to see the manatees. These aquatic mammals, also called sea cows, used to be mistaken for mythical mermaids. I think those sailors...
Cold Snap and Iguanasicles
As you may have read from previous columns, we are currently enjoying some time off from the usual northeastern Montana early winter weather. That cold invasion from Canada extended even deep into sunny Florida. People joked about Canada declaring wa...
Orchidmania
We're on our annual winter trip to "sunny" Florida to have the Christmas holiday with our middle daughter and her family. So far, while we have seen the sun off and on, it hasn't been particularly...
Cooking Without Poison
I wrote so much about my growing poisonous plants, I didn't have room to include these great recipes. I'm not cooking with any of those plants. I'm not sure how much you'd have to ingest to get...
Amaryllis Grower, Maleficent Me?
This week I'm going to maybe bore you with the info I've gleaned on amaryllis plants. Aren't you excited? These bulbs are ubiquitous in the Christmas season. They are 'forced' to bloom during this...
Plantology & Cookology
Let's start this week with some of the previously threatened "too much info" on plants. I have a Flamingo Flower, also called a Flamingo Lily or Tailfeather. It's similar to a Peace Lily, but has...
Olio
You may be wondering why I titled this week's column as I did. I could have used a number of synonyms (assortment, conglomerate, hodgepodge, jumble, medley) but then I wouldn't have the built-in...
Early Winter
I'm afraid winter is here to stay. Our Opheim snow-birds have or are preparing to fly the coop. The last of the couples have just deserted us for warmer climes. I can't blame them. I'm starting to dre...
Early Winter?
We arrived back home in time to enjoy the last of the beautiful fall weather. (I do hope we get more, but I won't hold my breath.) Didn't we all enjoy a rare relatively warm (and snow-free)...
On Vacation
Editor's Note: This column was submitted on Oct. 22. We are currently out of state, at my family reunion in Nebraska. My father was born and raised in Ponca, Neb. His dad was a railroad man, with a...
Hard Freeze
Editor's Note: This column was submitted to us Oct. 8. There was ample warning, for those of us who check weather forecasts, that a hard freeze was coming. This forced me to stop (some of) my...
Too Much Procrastination
I'm much too good at putting things off. Who wants to think about pulling all the tomatoes when it's still pushing 100°? Even though we're now into October (!), it hasn't seemed like fall. And so,...
Officially Fall
The calendar says it is officially fall, but you wouldn't know it with the return of such warm temperatures. I lucked out and didn't lose my entire garden to frost, even though our thermometer read...
Fall Is Coming
As much as I hate to see summer go, I cannot prevent fall from arriving. I hate seeing fall because we all know what follows, usually much too quickly. I'm giving in to reality, though, and starting...
Fall Garden Chores
As much as I hate to see summer go, it’s going to. I can’t stop it. And so it’s definitely time to be thinking of clearing up the garden. I’ve been pulling all the dead and dying vegetation. That mostly consists of flowers past their prime,...
End of Summer Doldrums
I’m starting this week with a short lesson, the meaning of doldrums. It’s a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or depression. The term is nautical, taken from sailors describing an equatorial region of the Atlantic. The shifting area...
Trying To Keep My Space Green
The garden keeps on growing: it’s relentless as long as it has water and the temps stay above freezing. And even when the first frosts hit, I’ll blanket the plants I wish to save. Those plants always include the tomatoes and peppers. Sometimes...
Fair and Farewells
There have been a lot of trips to Glasgow this past week. The Florida grandsons as well as our daughter had to take in the county fair. Those boys were thrilled with the bouncy house attractions after initially being told there wouldn’t be a...
Gardening Doldrums
I must admit that the presence of our grandsons (and now our middle daughter) has kept my attention away from my yard and garden. We’ve been golfing, attended two productions at the Fort Peck...
Vacation Consequences
Last week I had a mini-vacation: I flew to Florida for the purpose of bringing our two grandsons to Montana so they could have their own vacation. They’ll have fodder for the inevitable “what did you do over your summer vacation” reports for...
Slow Starts
As others have noted on the Gardening in NE MT Facebook page, things have been slow in starting as far as the garden goes. We did have a long, cool spring. Very few of my corn seeds came up. Even the replanting was a bust, so I guess I’ll be...
An Excess Of Rhubarb
We’ve had more rain, plus lots of lightning and thunder, but no hail (knock on wood). With these last storms there have been some power outages, so I’m grateful for our generator. The extra wetness has made weeding easier. I’ve had plenty of...
What Is A Gardener?
Last week, while buying yet more plants from the greenhouse (there was a sale! Who could resist?), a gentleman recognized me and remarked upon my being there. He intimated he was disappointed to see me purchasing plants because “you write a...
