perspective

The 2017 PHS Flower Show – “Holland” is So Much More Than Bulbs

By |2018-02-20T20:40:50+00:00March 11th, 2017|

Choosing a theme like “Holland: Flowering the World” gives the Philadelphia Flower Show a great opportunity to surprise and delight the public.  After all, attendees already think they know what they’ll see when they walk through that bank of doors and onto the show floor of the Convention Center:     Bulbs, and lots of [...]

Big Dreams, Small Garden

By |2020-09-07T22:46:33+00:00February 15th, 2017|

Over the last eight years, I have written many columns encouraging people to face the space in which they find themselves and to create the garden that lives within them. Particularly in the midst of the difficult economic period of the last decade. Disturbingly, one of the things that I often heard when I initially [...]

Mid-Atlantic Gardening – Not for The Faint of Heart

By |2018-02-20T20:41:04+00:00July 1st, 2016|

I can’t remember which of the many gardening books I was reading the day I jubilantly came across the statement, “If you can garden in the Mid-Atlantic you can garden anywhere.” My self-satisfied smirk widened further when I realized that the author wasn’t even a Mid-Atlantic gardener himself.  This gave his words great gobs of [...]

Let the Garden Soften the Journey

By |2020-03-30T19:38:29+00:00June 17th, 2016|

  We'd had a bad day, he and I. Not together mind you, but each in our separate lanes, navigating the daily demons that divert us all from enjoying the precious days we are granted on this Earth. Broken water lines, missed deadlines and a pointless conversation with a computerized banker featured heavily in that [...]

This isn’t your grandmother’s Show: Philly rocks it with “Explore America”

By |2018-02-20T20:41:08+00:00March 4th, 2016|

I cannot say I was optimistic this morning, heading north and wondering how on Earth the Philadelphia Horticultural Society was going to pull off a show dedicated to the immense grandeur of America's National Parks. They did more than pull it off.  Spring is on display in Philadelphia. And boy is it on display.  As [...]

When you make your own yogurt but don’t milk your own goats: Finding your place in an age of homesteading fanaticism

By |2018-02-20T20:41:08+00:00February 26th, 2016|

It’s a running joke amongst our friends that our place is the safe house for any type of future apocalyptic scenario. I’d like to believe that they just want to get together, laugh, drink wine, and discuss the mysticism of Yeats before the zombies descend, but in reality, there’s something about owning your own wheat [...]

‘Easy’ Is a Matter of Perspective

By |2018-02-20T20:41:08+00:00February 9th, 2016|

With millions of innovative gardeners on this planet, differences of opinion and horticultural hair-pulling sessions are bound to erupt. Most of us look forward to a little good-natured thrust and parry – particularly in February when we’re all getting tired of endless conversations about how this winter stacks up to the last. Well this [...]

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