Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” asked the poet, Mary Oliver in her 1990 poem “The Summer Day” “Catastrophizing.” Says the Modern, looking up from desk or device, oblivious to the tangible, observable, intoxicating natural world that Oliver inhabited for 83 years as a student. [...]
For gardeners who grow few plants from seed, or who only grow the seeds that they can scatter with a drink in their hands in spring (preferably from the deck), the process may feel complicated and time consuming. Sure, time is money, but if you’ve been watching prices sharply increase for tiny tomato [...]
A new year, a new growing season. January is a wonderfully busy month in my garden, as I am given the opportunity to get on top of difficult areas of bramble and vine without the overwhelming and often impenetrable problem of foliage. This is the month I attack the woodland garden and the stream banks, [...]
December is a resting month in my Mid-Atlantic garden, which is convenient as it is not a resting month in any other part of my life. The holiday season – frantic and beautiful – occupies a lot of thought. This means that, yes, I may be doing tasks in the garden such as planting last-minute bulbs, [...]
The day before Christmas, I was gathering colorful ‘Arctic Fire’ cornus twigs in the garden, and was feeling content about the fact that the surrounding scene wasn’t the winter wasteland it once had been. Creating a garden that can stand proudly – or at least unashamedly – when leaves are gone and soils are grey [...]
I'm into table decorating. Always have been. If you give me a table and an hour, and put someone else in charge of stirring the balsamic reduction, I am in my happy place. Somewhere between my twenties and now, table decorations have become 'tablescapes', and I can't disagree with the term - creating a gorgeous [...]
Yes, I know. We could have done with this post about two months ago. But two months ago I was planting bulbs and didn’t have time to write it. Still, there’s a good chance there are more than a few of you with boxes of bulbs that haven’t gone in yet, and very little time [...]
December is upon us, the spirit is in the air, and you have an itch to try the whole wreath-making thing again. Except...you've never really nailed the art of wreath making. 'Spindly' and 'amateurish' are words that figure prominently in the memories you haven't already blocked, followed by 'lop-sided,' and 'award for participation.' Perhaps you'd [...]
Inevitably, the time will arrive when many gardeners will consider starting their own seeds indoors. Perhaps it is the threat of being faced, once again, with only two tomato varieties at the big box retailers, and the shock at paying premium prices for the much greater selection available at a nursery. Perhaps it is the [...]
Have you had it with the constant, unrelenting weather reports that sound more like John Grisham novels than weather reports? Me too. This week, I shared my thoughts on GardenRant (where one should share Rants after all), but share them here too on a Friday afternoon. Weather forecasting is good. Weather fear porn is not. [...]
Spring or Winter? March is of two minds. I understand completely. Although this month marks a significant change in the weather going forward, that change brings with it many tasks for the gardener. Sometimes we feel up to hitting them hard and sometimes we could use a few more weeks of winter to prepare for [...]
There are few things more magical than a snowfall, and few terms more overused to describe it. Nonetheless, the cliché communicates the outright miracle of slowing a world that refuses to slow itself. As the flakes fall, and the cardinals and Jenny wrens bob back and forth from feeder to trees, I am entranced. 24 [...]
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 [...]
“Are you from the past?” asked my daughter this morning when she came down to the dining room table to find me writing in my garden journal. I raised my eyebrows pointedly and swept my hand over the table as if to present exhibits for the defense. My phone sat inches away from my right [...]
The office is lightly scented with pencil shavings and old coffee mugs this morning. Not an unpleasant smell, but an unfamiliar one. I have ignored this room for two weeks over the Christmas holiday, and come back to it apologetically now – watering the parched papyrus tub and mindlessly straightening piles of to-do on three [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
