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Most of the risks I take in the garden are financially motivated and involve the shade garden on the north side of my house.  If a true plantsman or woman comes to lunch with notebook in hand, I save that bit of the kingdom for the last part of the tour.  For when appetites [...]

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Everywhere you look these days you’re confronted by images of others who appear to be gardening, cooking, exercising, traveling, or just plain living, better than you are.  If the copious postings of your “closest friends” on social media sites weren’t enough to convince you of your total inadequacy as a human being, you can [...]

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September nears.  We are either excited to begin the fall season and forget about summer failings, or we are starting to plan for next year, when the weather will be perfect, and a kinder, gentler insect nation will live in harmony with our pole beans and pelargoniums.

I have let much go over the season, [...]

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It’s 5:11 am. I am standing in the garden watching the ligustrum shiver as a tiny white bullet passes through the undergrowth and flattens the remains of the iris. Rosy-fingered Dawn is still somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, leaving my pajama-clad frame illuminated solely by the yellow rays of an iron porch lamp. [...]

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It has often troubled me to think of my garden when I eventually leave it. With any luck, this won’t be a feet-first scenario, as my husband and I are constantly on the prowl for a few extra square feet in which to fulfill dreams of botanical splendor.  But this scenario leaves me saying [...]

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I am struggling in the garden right now.  It would be untruthful to say that I am not, and I find that pretending otherwise only serves to perpetuate magazine myths that make the home gardener feel inadequate and overwhelmed.  There is joy to be had out there, surely; but three conditions exist that dampen [...]