Many years ago I wrote an article entitled “Beans or Beach?” – bemoaning the difficulty that serious gardeners have with leaving their gardens like normal people and taking vacations. “If it is a year that we have decided to visit our family in California the question is always “when”? Seedlings are started in February, the [...]
Pam Harper died last week in her home in Seaford, Virginia at the age of 93 after a short illness; and the horticultural community who knew her and loved her shared a collective sigh -- as well as sharing hundreds of emails and texts alerting colleagues and friends worldwide. ‘Another giant says goodbye.’ wrote Tony [...]
I never thought I could find joy in, much less love, a dead tree standing on my property, smack in the middle of otherwise pastoral views. But I not only love a dead tree, I’m distressed by the fact that it’s only mostly dead, which is to say, somewhat alive, and has begun a process [...]
I have received more than a few emails from readers wondering why I haven’t been more active on this blog over the last three months. And for some reason – guilt perhaps – the latest, thoughtful, “Is everything okay?” once answered, did succeed in provoking a painful but involuntary spasm in somewhat atrophied blogging muscles. [...]
The gardener will be busy this month, and find that the available hours to work bear no relation to the amount of work that needs to be done. That is the hallmark of the June garden. In the Northern Hemisphere, we officially transition in June from the spring garden to the summer garden with the [...]
This post originally appeared on GardenRant. So, it’s come to this. As a nation, we are so starved for American garden programming that we are willing to accept that a woman worth over $620 million dollars, stuck for 82 days on her 153-acre estate in Bedford, NY; with her gardener, one of her housekeepers, and [...]
Subscribers to this website receive a members-only seasonal newsletter with book reviews, design ideas, industry news, event announcements and other garden related bits and pieces including a bit of behind-the-scenes here at Oldmeadow. This season, in light of all that we’re going through, I decided to post a longer format newsletter here. Just this [...]
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 [...]
September has suddenly turned. Last night on the deck we ate an al fresco dinner of bratwurst, sauerkraut and apples with heaps of coarse mustard on warmed plates and I found myself thinking out loud about a large fire in the hearth on the other side of the window. My husband stared at me wordlessly [...]
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 [...]
I have been away from my desk for several months. Certainly there has been no absence of delight in the long, cool spring that is only now beginning to turn into stifling summer; nor is it for want of topics – as the garden throws them at me faster than I can catch them. Some [...]
For reasons that are at once both simple and ridiculous, I recently managed to injure my foot in the middle of a four week walking tour of British and French gardens. Occasionally in this life, the devil seizes the wheel, and one must laugh heartily at the abrupt change of plan or find oneself bested. [...]
Gardeners are proud of their gardens for a host of different reasons. Some gardeners spend a great deal of time blending or contrasting color schemes. Others love creating secret rooms or impressive hardscaping. But if you’re a gardener that spends just as much time watching the creatures that pollinate your garden as planting the [...]
When I give you a cutting, it’s more than likely I’m going to remember. It’s not that I’m obsessed, controlling or critical (that’s a different conversation held when I’m not around), it’s simply that I love my plants. If someone expresses an interest that goes beyond “Hey that’s pretty.” I jump on it, usually offer [...]
Tired of the same old, same old? Euonymus and Knock-Out roses just not blowing your proverbial skirt up anymore? I understand. It’s not that we don’t love many of the old standards or even the new, old standards, it’s just that we want to expand our horizons…try new plants…see new textures… have fresh nervous breakdowns. [...]
Thankful as most of us are for the drenching rain this weekend and thunderstorms this week, it remains a hot summer with wasps and Johnson grass around every corner. Spring gardeners are leaving their hard-core cousins outdoors as they beat a hasty retreat to air conditioned sunrooms, prosecco glasses in hand. Any further gardening will [...]
Muttering to oneself in the garden must have been at an all-time high this week. Quite apart from the fact that it is July and there is mandatory muttering to be done after the expensive party that is spring, having to endure day after day of high heat and cloudless skies is enough to coax [...]
As a rule, young girls do not tend to frequent my lectures on gardening. For one, they are about gardening. And, as my heretical 16-year old daughter takes great pains to point out when she is not within arm’s reach, young girls have many distractions in this life, and listening to someone talk about [...]
