The symbolic promise of a new year is not enough for me this time around. Normally happy to raise my glass and cheerfully throw out The Old as the clock ticks towards midnight, this year I am not so simple-minded as to think that the Fates look at December 31, 2020 and January 01, 2021 [...]
To walk through a young garden in winter is a courageous act when the garden is your own, and the budget, diminutive. We forget how much frosting the active growing season naturally spreads over an imperfect cake – or indeed, how much frosting the resourceful amongst us can whip up with the aid of dramatic, [...]
At this time of year there is much advice floating around to “use natural materials” to create amazing holiday decorations cheaply. Indeed I’ve floated much of it myself. However, for the average suburban or urban dweller with little land at his or her disposal, it might not be second nature to make the most of [...]
At the top of my driveway, slightly hidden on a south-facing slope that could less generously be termed a rocky mound, there is a small gathering of snowdrops and eranthis that in a few short months will poke up amongst the stones and the chickweed. This grouping is visible only to those that pass our [...]
Effusive, late-season displays of color become harder to come by as the days become cooler, which is why I enjoy growing the bright, carefree wands of windflower in my garden, and always make room for their clumping foliage between other spring and summer flowering perennials. Paired with berried shrubs, reddening foliage, maturing tropicals, and other [...]
For three days I haven't been fun to live with. Preserving the harvest, fulfilling my writing deadlines, managing my family’s outrageous expectations of motherhood, and doing all of this without losing my ever-living mind. Even the dogs are keeping their distance. Oh, and there’s something else…What was it?….Ah yes. The garden. I actually have to [...]
On the way to the chickens this morning I placed my coffee mug on the ground in order to tidy the fading blooms of a primrose. I can clearly see now that setting down the mug was the point at which I lost control of the situation. A one-handed tidy performed indifferently from the walking [...]
Miraculous spring. In the midst of the worry and panic that currently grips the nation, I am thankful at least that the Northern Hemisphere is emerging into this soul-lifting season. The weather is warming and the earth is awakening – just as we need more access to our outside world and more opportunities to be [...]
It’s early morning in late fall; and as you sprint to the car, your eyes are caught and held by the incredible holiday container display sitting by your neighbor’s front door – a display you know was all about the beauty of autumn just yesterday morning. Berries, pinecones, magnolia leaves and a huge variety of [...]
Printed directions and warnings for products that require only a modicum of common sense exhaust me. Yesterday I purchased a vanity mirror with accompanying booklet in four languages on how to a) plug it in and b) turn it on. On page four were various line drawings in red and black depicting line people being [...]
Friends have recently moved into their This-Is-The-One. ‘Exciting’ doesn’t seem strong enough to capture the emotions that such a move elicits. There is excitement, certainly, and joy; but also sadness in the changing of neighborhoods, of community, and in losing the familiar daily routines that quietly build the foundations we rely upon. Two weeks ago, [...]
This week I want to sincerely thank Scott Beuerlein, friend and columnist at Horticulture magazine, whose irreverent column about British garden writers got me out of my funk and racing for the laptop to write a rebuttal for Garden Rant. Do you keep to regional garden advice or do you like to dip into voices [...]
May is here. Whether you’re a gardener or merely a part-time forest-bather, those words have got to get your heart pumping. This year I admit to feeling that we haven’t quite earned it (the winter being so mild), but I will accept the gift nonetheless. It is my favorite month of the year, and ironically [...]
If you had to pick one flowering plant whose appearance on the scene signals the return of spring and all her little angels, which one would it be? The plant collectors might scream “Adonis!” -- the neophytes “Forsythia!” but for me and for many others, there is no sweeter reminder of warm days ahead than [...]
Sometimes we need an easy win. We need a riot of color that looks like we planned it, even if we didn’t. We need ‘low maintenance’ and ‘average soils.’ We need something along the lines of ‘direct sow’ and ‘blooms from summer ‘till frost.’ And while we’re at it, we’ll take ‘deer resistant,’ [...]
I intended yesterday to have a little walk around the place, observing what was and what wasn’t coming up. And I did. But these things always evolve (some would argue, devolve) into a large scale something or other, and before I knew it, I had taken the serpentine bed almightily in hand. A strong, sexy [...]
As if to punish me for my naiveté in penning an article in January on the subtle joys of a Mid-Atlantic winter, the Mid-Atlantic immediately doubled down, presenting us with icy wind, freezing rain and single digit temperatures. Eyes watched me carefully for retracted statements, but I had nothing to retract. The sooner the mud [...]
It may be cold. And windy. And fairly miserable at six in the morning when you’ve misplaced the car scraper. But with a little know-how and a bag of bulbs, we can bring the sights and scents of spring into our living rooms and offices. Some will point out that we can bring the sights [...]
Fresh from speaking at a seed swapping seminar a few weeks ago at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, I am pumped up to begin this year’s vegetable garden. There is no early spring travel on the horizon, my seeds are organized, and I have a light table already set up in a corner of the [...]
