On the way to the chickens this morning I placed my coffee mug on the ground in order to tidy the fading blooms of a primrose. I can clearly see now that setting down the mug was the point at which I lost control of the situation. A one-handed tidy performed indifferently from the walking [...]
Last week, I glanced at a bronze statue of a pig with wings that sits on my stone steps, and thought, "Well, that pretty much sums it up right now." Crazy things are happening. Crazy times make us re-examine our dependencies. Even if we don't change anything, it's good to know where we stand and [...]
Miraculous spring. In the midst of the worry and panic that currently grips the nation, I am thankful at least that the Northern Hemisphere is emerging into this soul-lifting season. The weather is warming and the earth is awakening – just as we need more access to our outside world and more opportunities to be [...]
Over the last decade, plant breeders and seed companies have risen to the challenge of tight spaces and busy schedules and given the small-space gardener many excellent choices for fresh produce right outside the sliding glass door. Visions of balcony gardeners cutting up eighteen cherry tomatoes in order to make a respectable BLT, or supplementing [...]
“Are you from the past?” asked my daughter this morning when she came down to the dining room table to find me writing in my garden journal. I raised my eyebrows pointedly and swept my hand over the table as if to present exhibits for the defense. My phone sat inches away from my right [...]
The office is lightly scented with pencil shavings and old coffee mugs this morning. Not an unpleasant smell, but an unfamiliar one. I have ignored this room for two weeks over the Christmas holiday, and come back to it apologetically now – watering the parched papyrus tub and mindlessly straightening piles of to-do on three [...]
It’s early morning in late fall; and as you sprint to the car, your eyes are caught and held by the incredible holiday container display sitting by your neighbor’s front door – a display you know was all about the beauty of autumn just yesterday morning. Berries, pinecones, magnolia leaves and a huge variety of [...]
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 [...]
September has suddenly turned. Last night on the deck we ate an al fresco dinner of bratwurst, sauerkraut and apples with heaps of coarse mustard on warmed plates and I found myself thinking out loud about a large fire in the hearth on the other side of the window. My husband stared at me wordlessly [...]
Printed directions and warnings for products that require only a modicum of common sense exhaust me. Yesterday I purchased a vanity mirror with accompanying booklet in four languages on how to a) plug it in and b) turn it on. On page four were various line drawings in red and black depicting line people being [...]
Friends have recently moved into their This-Is-The-One. ‘Exciting’ doesn’t seem strong enough to capture the emotions that such a move elicits. There is excitement, certainly, and joy; but also sadness in the changing of neighborhoods, of community, and in losing the familiar daily routines that quietly build the foundations we rely upon. Two weeks ago, [...]
This week I want to sincerely thank Scott Beuerlein, friend and columnist at Horticulture magazine, whose irreverent column about British garden writers got me out of my funk and racing for the laptop to write a rebuttal for Garden Rant. Do you keep to regional garden advice or do you like to dip into voices [...]
I have been away from my desk for several months. Certainly there has been no absence of delight in the long, cool spring that is only now beginning to turn into stifling summer; nor is it for want of topics – as the garden throws them at me faster than I can catch them. Some [...]
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 [...]
You don’t have to have a garden to enjoy daffodils. Anyone can buy a few stems at the grocery store and brighten bedside tables and bathroom countertops with their joyful heads and sweet fragrance. Children can be brought to gardening through the miracle of planting a few bulbs in fall and watching spring unfold; [...]
If you’re wondering what to use, this isn’t the article for you. If you’re wondering why to use – and perhaps how to use – read on. The sentences above might be a little uncomfortable to read. Though we understand that social media is addictive, discussing it in terms of ‘use’ implies something darker [...]
Sometimes we need an easy win. We need a riot of color that looks like we planned it, even if we didn’t. We need ‘low maintenance’ and ‘average soils.’ We need something along the lines of ‘direct sow’ and ‘blooms from summer ‘till frost.’ And while we’re at it, we’ll take ‘deer resistant,’ ‘drought-resistant’ and [...]
My subconscious was working overtime last week. At about the same time I was throwing up my hands up at the cruel and unusual punishment that is parenting today’s American teenager, I decided to pick up ten random balls of fluffy, need-me-desperately adoration. And, within the space of six days and a half a bag [...]
I intended yesterday to have a little walk around the place, observing what was and what wasn’t coming up. And I did. But these things always evolve (some would argue, devolve) into a large scale something or other, and before I knew it, I had taken the serpentine bed almightily in hand. A strong, sexy [...]
As if to punish me for my naiveté in penning an article in January on the subtle joys of a Mid-Atlantic winter, the Mid-Atlantic immediately doubled down, presenting us with icy wind, freezing rain and single digit temperatures. Eyes watched me carefully for retracted statements, but I had nothing to retract. The sooner the mud [...]
