IKEEP SEEING TOP-10 LISTS EVERYWHERE; ‘TIS THE SEASON. So what’s mine—what individual posts on A Way to Garden got the most interest in 2009? And the winners are… 1. PICKLE-MANIA: My old friend Dan Koshansky’s recipe for refrigerator...

CAN A TREE BE ACCIDENT-PRONE? I fear my Pinus bungeana, or lacebark pine, is just that, always finding itself in harm’s way. And here we go again: This long-needled pine, grown for its beautiful, peeling bark that resembles camouflage fabric, just...

WEDNESDAY’S SNOW IS TURNING MY HILLY WORLD TO ICE; the day was so short as to be unforgivable; the forecast calls for 11 degrees F tonight, the second such low in a row. No matter, though, because in my imagination, at least, I’m having grilled...

HE READ IT IN MY DECEMBER CHORES LIST: Make the last mowing before winter a short cut, way down low. And even though the snow fell before he got to that task, the guy in the doodle (is that you, Andre Jordan?) didn’t want to skip a single to-do I’d...

THE FIRST REAL SNOW CAME SATURDAY NIGHT, December 5, depositing 4 or 5 inches of heavy stuff on an evening followed by the most brilliant day, the kind where the sun and moon were both in the sky. But all I could see at first when I looked outside: the...