About Here in the Catskills
Welcome to Here in the Catskills, the blog all about northeast gardening, nature, and baking!
I share gardening tips and tricks for vegetables, flowers, indoor plants, and more. I cover questions about interesting birds, insects, animals, and plants that can be found in the northeast region of the U.S. To supplement the gardening sections, I include some of our great family recipes that will use up some of your crops, from apples to zucchini!
My Story
I’ve been gardening on and off all my life, from a little patch where I grew blue-ribbon carrots (it was 4H, where everyone gets a blue ribbon) to a pot of peppers I tried desperately to keep growing on my south-facing apartment patio.
I dabbled, but didn’t really take it seriously until 2020, when my grandmother passed away. She was the most active family gardener, and while I’d helped her out with her plants many times, it was, in hindsight, never enough.
That spring, I moved home and took over the raised beds in our backyard. Working with the plants was a way to stay close to her – particularly when growing the gladiolas we both loved. It was at that time that I started really learning how to garden: spending time selecting the right seeds, preparing the soil, figuring out the right plan for companion planting, and so much more.
With all the extra fruits and vegetables, I got to work baking. Grandma had a recipe column in the local paper where she included many seasonal recipes. Many that she included came from further back in our family line and have been handed down over the years. Many of them now live in the “Recipes” section here on the site. (As you might have guessed, Here in the Catskills itself was inspired largely by her newspaper column.)
The year’s experiences also put me back in touch with the beautiful mountains and nature we’re surrounded by. I observed our summer birds more carefully – there was a pair of cardinals that would occasionally watch me work from a nearby tree. We purchased a hummingbird feeder, and that winter we broke out the seed feeder we’d been given years ago (don’t ask how many). Birds started coming out in droves, and the whole family loved watching them.
While I know a little more now than I did three years ago, I’m still learning, and I like to share what I find with you as I learn and experience it! This blog should be a helpful resource for anyone like me – who lives in the northeast and loves working in their backyard.
Blog’s Legacy
This blog started as a way to share various Catskills interest pieces with residents – a variety of history, seasonal topics, lifestyle items, and more, all related to the Catskills. If you were an early reader, you remember how all-over-the-place it seemed to be!
But when I thought about the parts I loved writing most, there were really only three major sections: gardening, nature, and recipes. Thus, the blog now focuses on those topics as they pertain to the general northeast region.
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