The Small Town Gardener

Winter Warm Up

MB Willburn — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:14:49 +0000

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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 [...]

I’m Okay – You’re Okay

MB Willburn — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:34:06 +0000

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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 [...]

Face It and Embrace It

MB Willburn — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:07:16 +0000

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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 [...]

Raking Leaves: A Child’s Primer

MB Willburn — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 05:01:08 +0000

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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 [...]

Death of a Conversation

MB Willburn — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:20:46 +0000

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A week ago I was leisurely wandering with a friend through his garden when I spied the familiar burnt orange of leaf blotch discoloring what could only be a large horse chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum) near his drive. I was surprised to see the tree in such a dry, rural Californian setting and proclaimed [...]

Loose Ends to Be Tied

MB Willburn — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:48:35 +0000

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Things are moving quickly in the garden once again. However it is not new growth of which I speak, nor the rustle of birds frantically throwing together nests in the spirea. We have reaped that particular whirlwind and now stand on the other side of our garden season – watching the rapid decay of [...]

Magical Mushrooms

MB Willburn — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:01:34 +0000

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Polyporus squamosus "Dryad's Saddle"

Most of us have been instructed from an early age to keep our hands and our mouths away from fruiting fungi. We may be happy to nibble on a bit of wild sorrel, or taste the pungent acidity of a dandelion, but the minute we are faced with a large, [...]

One Last Hurrah

MB Willburn — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:01:36 +0000

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It’s difficult to inspire plants to perform. As a rule, they don’t respond well to sweet nothings, obnoxious shouting is ignored, and begging is right out. At the end of the day it comes down to an adequate supply of water and nutrients, lack of disease and pests….oh and one other trifling detail – [...]