Digging Deeply

Where’s Your Book? and Other Difficult Questions

By |2021-04-01T20:53:28+00:00April 1st, 2021|

“What’s up with your book?” I’ve fielded this question from many readers lately. If you pre-ordered Tropical Plants and How To Love Them because you either read this post, or this article, or listened to this interview, or found out the book was ranked as Amazon’s number one new release in cool-climate gardening for many [...]

The Bees are Dead, The Goldfish Are Not, and It’s Okay.

By |2021-03-20T15:48:17+00:00March 20th, 2021|

It’s the first day of spring and the bees are dead. After a long yesterday assessing the winter garden hangover – the deer-nibbled evergreens, the chicken-uprooted polygonatum, the muddy mess that will someday house new garden beds, but currently looks like the Somme in 1916 – this news hit me the hardest. Give me [...]

Review: ‘Martha Knows Best’ is not Great. It’s Not Even a Good Thing.

By |2020-09-11T04:24:03+00:00September 11th, 2020|

This post originally appeared on GardenRant. So, it’s come to this. As a nation, we are so starved for American garden programming that we are willing to accept that a woman worth over $620 million dollars, stuck for 82 days on her 153-acre estate in Bedford, NY; with her gardener, one of her housekeepers, and [...]

Control Your Response Through Organization, Schedule & Rhythm

By |2020-11-02T03:05:32+00:00August 21st, 2020|

Most of us are living in an advanced state of Stress Factor 10 right now. Between the COVID virus, economic shutdown & political unrest, we continue to experience the severe emotional stress of living without any sense of control over our own lives.  It’s in the background of every event, every trip to the store, [...]

Preserving the Harvest or Preserving Sanity?

By |2020-07-12T22:01:11+00:00July 24th, 2020|

For three days I haven't been fun to live with. Preserving the harvest, fulfilling my writing deadlines, managing my family’s outrageous expectations of motherhood, and doing all of this without losing my ever-living mind. Even the dogs are keeping their distance. Oh, and there’s something else…What was it?….Ah yes.  The garden.  I actually have to [...]

Garden Regionally. Get Inspired Globally.

By |2020-04-18T18:28:27+00:00October 18th, 2019|

I can't resist a challenge.  And neither, apparently can Scott Beuerlein of Horticulture & Garden Rant.  Thus, my rebuttal to his rebuttal to...well, you get it.  She-devil? Me? Somewhere near the bottom of every writer's artistic license, a clever wordsmith will find the following recommendation: "Comically exaggerating the position of one's opponent is encouraged in [...]

Hie Thee To a Garden!

By |2019-07-11T17:17:16+00:00May 12th, 2019|

May is here. Whether you’re a gardener or merely a part-time forest-bather, those words have got to get your heart pumping.  This year I admit to feeling that we haven’t quite earned it (the winter being so mild), but I will accept the gift nonetheless.  It is my favorite month of the year, and ironically [...]

Electric Scooters: Efficient Transport. Ridiculous Fun.

By |2019-02-10T15:36:00+00:00February 10th, 2019|

Three weeks ago while attending the Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS) in Baltimore and walking the streets of that city in between meetings and meet-ups, I noticed that teenagers were being careless and leaving electric scooters on sidewalks for responsible pedestrians like myself to trip over. After my fifth encounter, I peered a little closer [...]

Experimentation as Energy: Lessons from Great Dixter

By |2018-11-30T18:20:20+00:00November 30th, 2018|

Just before leaving for Great Britain three months ago, I threw an overnight case in the back of a friend’s overworked Prius and headed down to Raleigh to attend a lecture being given by Fergus Garrett, head gardener at Great Dixter, and the Chief Executive of its charitable trust. Many gardeners, especially those who read [...]

Decorating The Thanksgiving Table with Natural Materials

By |2018-11-23T15:38:48+00:00November 21st, 2018|

It’s Thanksgiving morning.  What have you forgotten? You’ve thrown the turkey in the oven, the stuffing is made and on its way to being glorious, and your sister is bringing the rolls and jello. In a few minutes the game and/or parade will start blaring from the living room and you can start to relax. [...]

Right Plant, Right Place – The Wisdom of Beth Chatto

By |2018-11-16T20:01:10+00:00November 16th, 2018|

“We lost too many plants in our impatience to possess them, because we had not achieved the proper growing conditions.” - Beth Chatto, The Beth Chatto Handbook _______________________________ If ever a sentence deserves a garden writers' gold medal for excellence and simplicity, it is this one, written decades ago by gardener and garden designer, the [...]

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