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I was posed an interesting question recently. Said my examiner, “If you had to pick one purchase you have made that cost a good deal of money, but constantly contributed to the joy and fullness of your life what would it be?”

I had to think for a minute or two. I am teased for [...]

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It’s official. It’s February and the garden is dead. Not a respectable flower head to be seen, not a chewing, rasping, sucking insect to be sprayed. It’s over. Finito. The ground has started to heave, the gate has started to stick and even the hard core gardeners such as myself have retreated against the [...]

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What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?

– WH Davies, 1871-1940

I will admit it. It is difficult, if well nigh impossible, to think of something profound to write about January’s garden.  I simply cannot stand upon my ivory tower and proclaim to the masses the [...]

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If you ask the average person bent double under the burden of yet another winter, there can be little beauty found in a season characterized by bitterly cold winds, lifeless gardens and roads speckled with the ashy white of salt residue. There is no doubt that winter toughens us and makes us stronger; but [...]

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We’ve been gone some time visiting family in warmer climes.  While we were chasing the last of the summer sun in California, back home in Maryland fall turned into winter, Halloween turned into Christmas, and my garden turned into a sea of browning, crumbling leaves.

I have two children and I know how to use [...]

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Yesterday I went outside in an attempt to initiate the production of Vitamin D by a body wearied with four walls and space heaters. And not a moment too soon. Coleridge’s “Dejection: An Ode” sat open upon my desk, and I was starting to bypass Christopher Lloyd and a glass of red in [...]