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 [...]
Every year around this time, I get into a car with my husband and a couple friends and make the journey over hill and dale and White Marsh Shopping center to Longwood Gardens. The drive is a long one. But a day savoring A Longwood Christmas and the pleasures of conversation stimulated by thousands of [...]
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 [...]
“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 [...]
Fresh from an exhaustive three weeks driving 1800 miles to tour British gardens and their associated tea rooms, I am full of ideas and inspiration for next year’s planting schemes. The British know how to do it. The hype is real. But what exactly is that ‘it’ comprised of? Cottagey color? Architectural hedging? Jam covered [...]
For reasons that are at once both simple and ridiculous, I recently managed to injure my foot in the middle of a four week walking tour of British and French gardens. Occasionally in this life, the devil seizes the wheel, and one must laugh heartily at the abrupt change of plan or find oneself bested. [...]
By the time you read these words, I’ll be gone. I might add, “to a higher place,” but that wouldn’t sit very well with those who consider American gardens to be the best in the world. I don’t necessarily think of any country’s gardens as ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than those of any other, but it [...]
Perhaps you’ve heard that approximately 2 ½ hours north of Central Maryland there is a world-class garden where fireworks and fountains explode every summer, horticultural splendor is commonplace and inspiration for the common gardener is calf-deep. A place called Longwood. A magical feast in The Music Room And perhaps you’ve ignored [...]
Are you struggling with the neighborhood in which you live? Are the 'cons' besting the 'pros' no matter how long you make that list? Are promises of 'urban renewal' by elected officials merely promises, or worse, unsophisticated attempts lacking vision and funding? Most importantly, are you unable or unwilling to move? Maybe you have more [...]
How many gardeners are currently being held against their will in beach houses up and down the Outer Banks while their families burn themselves crispy on sandy beaches? Gardeners get all that sun nonsense at home – in fact we can rarely get out of it. How much better then to interrupt the day’s regularly [...]
