Midsummer a perfect time to take a break
I don’t think my garden has ever made me happier than it does this very minute. After eight years of adding, transplanting, editing, and endless tweaking, its ensembles of plants and ornaments are...
View ArticleGrounded in the garden, for life
I wish I could put my hands on the New York Times article clipped for me by a friend in which the author, or maybe it was an interviewee, shared the reason behind his lifelong passion for gardening....
View ArticleLive and let live in the garden
When I was first bitten by the gardening bug, I hated them. Insects and creepy crawlies of all stripes gave me the heebies. (Butterflies excepted.) Gardening for me was about being outside under a warm...
View ArticleFrost a bittersweet reminder to appreciate the fall garden while it lasts
With below-freezing temperatures forecast for the weekend I should be spending every waking moment moving the rest of my container plants indoors. Digging and potting up as many tender perennials as I...
View ArticleFall bulb planting has ‘land mines’ of its own
A little over a month ago I received an email from a Master Gardener on Cape Cod who mentioned at the end of the note an intention to go right out and plant Eremurus bulbs. She said foxtail lilies had...
View ArticleDespite springlike blooming, winter on the way
Every time I walk around the yard or through the neighborhood with the dog, I see something blooming. Lots of things, in fact, not just mums. Without a killing frost there’s nothing to say, “quit it...
View ArticleLichen gratitude for the holidays
Lest we become completely overwhelmed and demoralized by horrendous events happening around the world, the news media have also been reporting, as they usually do around the holidays, on the benefits...
View ArticleThoughtful gifts for the gardener who has it all
It has been my habit in the weeks before Christmas to offer garden-y gift suggestions pulled directly from my own wish list. I’m doing it again but with a twist. I haven’t made a list this year; I am...
View ArticleIn the garden, make new friends but keep the old
It has been many years since I stayed up late enough to properly celebrate the turn of the New Year and even longer since I belted out the first verse of Auld Lang Syne. Nonetheless, I appreciate the...
View ArticleResolve to have fun with this year’s garden
I read an article last week by Valerie Easton, avid gardener and Seattle Times columnist, whose New Year’s resolution was to plant less. What a notion! That goes against almost everything I stand for....
View Article
