Francis Rosenfeld
Free
Gardening Expert

Francis Rosenfeld Quick Facts
- Main Areas
- Sustainable Gardening; Homegrown Harvest; Garden Writing
- Career Focus
- Author; Consummate Gardener
- Affiliation
- All Year Garden; The Weekly Gardener; Francis Rosenfeld's Blog
I started learning about gardening from my grandfather, at the age of four. Despite his forty years' experience as a natural sciences teacher, mine wasn't a structured instruction, I just followed him around, constantly asking questions, and he built up on the concepts with each answer.
As I grew older I applied this knowledge, experimented with new plants and learned a few things from my mistakes. That was fifteen years ago, and since then I was blessed with a thriving perennial garden. Half way through the journey, the micro-farm concept developed, a yearly challenge to figure out how much produce twenty square feet of dirt can yield.
I started blogging in 2010, to share the joy of growing all things green and the beauty of the garden through the seasons. Two garden blogs were born this way: allyeargarden.com and theweeklygardener.com, a periodical that followed it one year later. I wanted to assemble an informal compendium of the things I learned from my grandfather, wonderful books, educational websites, and my own experience, in the hope that other people might find it useful it in their own gardening practice.
The blogs contain many stories (I am a writer and couldn't help myself), but also practical information about plant propagation, garden maintenance, working with your site, making preserves and keeping the yard welcoming for beneficial insects and local wildlife.
Please enjoy!
Free Articles & Book Excerpts
Francis Rosenfeld Books
Terra Two
http://www.amazon.com/Terra-Two-Francis-Rosenfeld-ebook/dp/B00CXVVGNO/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419003781&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=terra+twp
Generations
http://www.amazon.com/Generations-Terra-Two-Francis-Rosenfeld/dp/150033023X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419003850&sr=8-1&keywords=generations+francis+rosenfeld
Letters to Lelia
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/541262
The Plant - A Steampunk Story
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/589740
Door No. 8
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/686506
Fair
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/687387
A Year and A Day
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/729775
Mobius' Code
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/807198
Between Mirrors
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/907277
The Blue Rose Manuscript
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/997384
Articles by this expert
SelfGrowth articles and saved writing connected to this expert.
Article
At the End of September
With temperatures stubbornly stuck in the eighties and nineties I would have missed the beginning of fall this year but for the garden following its own internal clock: warmth or no warmth, once we passed the fall equinox, everything in the flower and vegetable border went into liquidation mode. The autumn faithfuls, the stonecrops, are putting up a good show with their gradual color change from chartreuse to dark brown but everything else got the message that it’s time to retire for the season and shut down production.
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Charming blues
Gardens have personalities, just like people. You can plant your garden, but it will decide what stays and what goes. Mine decided it likes blue flowers. Maybe it is the clay soil that gives the plants the alkaline mix they need, maybe it's the dappled shade that promotes the growth of woodland bulbs, I don't know, but my plants tend to shift to the blue-violet end of the spectrum. Spring is the bluest season of all, covered in violets, grape hyacinths, irises, blue eyed Mary, forget-me-nots, creeping veronicas and bugleweed.
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Bugleweed
Ajuga reptans, bugleweed, is a fail proof groundcover for any sun exposure or soil type. I started with its Latin name because I always thought it sounded more patrician and better suited to this plants' sophistication. I love bugleweed, it is a versatile plant which helped me bring back to life several locations with dry shade where few other plants thrive. It tends to get invasive in full sun exposure and rich soils.
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Morning glory
I plant morning glory every year. Always in the same spot, always the same variety – Heavenly Blue. I forget about it after I plant it, it is slow to start in spring and its foliage gets lost in the jumble when the mid-summer growth takes over the flower beds. Come August, its growth accelerates enthusiastically, especially if summer rains have been plentiful, and it swallows up its supports, clambering eagerly to the highest point it can find, and only there it starts to bloom.
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What's in a name
Being vague in gardening often yields hilarious results. I will apply myself to relea ing horticulture basics next season, and heed the experts' advice to be specific about what I'm planning to plant. Here are a few lessons I learned this year. Paying attention to the correct Latin designation of Saint John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) makes the difference between getting the familiar medicinal plant and getting a gangly bog native (Hypericum pyramidatum) that keeps its flowers open for all of five minutes.
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Fall Perennials
By the time sedum starts to bloom autumn is not too far behind, and since every year I have the same problem, which is that the fall landscape turns into a sea of mums in every color known to man, I made a list of other perennials to get a little variety during the cooler months. Between the obedient plant, the goldenrod, the Japanese anemones and the asters there should be plenty of flowers for the fall garden. Monkshood has spectacular purple-blue flowers and blooms in the fall, but it is very toxic, so be careful.
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The Glow of Late Afte oons
Everything looked radiant in the glow of the golden hour, before the sunset dimmed it to violet and blue. This surreal light quality created halos around everything, lighting up the late daffodil blossoms from inside like so many tiny lante s. I stayed outside for as long as I could and took many pictures, I didn’t want to miss this little slice of heaven that opened fleetingly before my eyes. Every day there is a chance for the golden hour, but the actual occurrence of one is quite rare, especially so early in the year.
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Jack in the Pulpit
I know that Jack in the Pulpit is not the only living thing that changes genders in order to adapt to its circumstances, but I still think it is a cool enough fact to mention. The plant starts out male and if in time it finds its location accommodating and its nutrient supply adequate, it becomes female and produces fruit, beautiful red berries that pepper the forest floor throughout the summer. If over its lifetime it stumbles upon a lean year it will turn male again until conditions improve.
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Millefleur
Every spring I plan on planting more annuals and every summer I fall short of the desired effect. At least this year I have an excuse: after clearing up the shrubbery from a large portion of the front yard, the design of a new perennial border became a priority. There seems to be a quiet understanding among the plants that every year a precious few will get to shine while the others considerately fade into the background. It's not something you learn from gardening books, the garden teaches the gardener a thing or two over the years.
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Season's End
One of the perks of keeping a garden is stumbling upon little joyful moments when time stands still and life flows softly through, peaceful and unhurried. Time slows down so we have enough of it to notice how bright the sunlight looks, reflected in the gold and orange leaves of the maple trees, how the long clouds cross each other in the periwinkle sky, how contours lose their sharpness and how a bronze hue underlies the colors; subtle changes, slow changes, not tethered to our speed at all.
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Charming in the Shade
Shade gardening grew on me, literally. I don’t know how fast trees grow, but it’s fast enough and those lovely giants of the vegetal world can cover a lot of territory, both above ground and below. That’s how I ended up with every flavor of shade known to horticulture. In this situation, if you care about flowers at all you become an expert in shade loving perennials really fast. Shade is tricky, you have to charm it.
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Collaborative Growth
Established gardens have a secret gardeners don't learn until they've spent many seasons watching them and caring for them: the group planting graciously indulges one or two species to rule the garden for a season, and those rights change every year, allowing all the plants the opportunity to shine. Perennial borders are collective entities, in which the plants thrive together, as opposed to individually, and they look different from one year to the next because you are looking at different blooming species.
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Websites & resources
SelfGrowth-published websites, downloads, and contributor profile websites connected to this expert.
Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Francis Rosenfeld
Sitting at the table under the tree canopy, a book in one hand, the other hand mindlessly rubbing your temples, you lose track of time. The splotches of light filtered through the branches above move slowly opposite the sun path while the day merges into evening. The light becomes gentler, more tired, almost horizontal. Around you two full walls, one half wall, a tree for a roof, and a balcony: your private outdoors.
Contacting Francis Rosenfeld
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