The Gardeners' Apprentice When I am alone in my garden in late October I often think about music, especially Ralph Vaughn Williams’ elegiac settings of English folk tunes. My favorite is the haunting “Fantasia on Greensleeves,” because the musical images just seem right for the season of variable weather, early sunsets and mornings when the grass glistens with … Read more
Last weekend, I found the gardenalia store of my dreams in a Pennsylvania town. Like many wondrous finds, it happened by accident. Like many wondrous finds in the northeastern United States, it happened because I couldn’t find a parking place. As I walked the half mile from the parking lot to my destination—a quaint village … Read more
Birds love shrubs that produce quantities of fall fruit. Unfortunately birds generally don’t communicate with plant merchandisers. Humans finally began to agree with the birds in the last third of the twentieth century, as the three or even four-season gardening trend took hold. Garden writers caught the bug and began extolling the virtues of fruits … Read more
Late fall is dominated by orange, red, russet and gold, as brilliant leaves, goldenrod and millions of cushion mums crash together in a colorful, season-ending plant eruption. But the prelude to all that brilliance rolls through in early fall, in the form of blue, pink, purple and white asters, boltonia and fall-blooming crocuses. A less … Read more
Some day I am going to open a school to train professional gardeners. I have ample proof that such a school is much needed. After spending years tending my gardens and those of others, not to mention fraternizing with landscape designers and garden lovers, I have discovered a universal truth. Lots of horticulturally-inclined people want … Read more
