I always make New Year’s resolutions. I also tend to make resolutions at the beginning of each month and the beginning of each day. This sounds like a ritualized form of punishment, but I find that making resolutions is a little like panning for gold—most of what turns up is useless, but occasionally you find … Read more
Lately the garden media has been buzzing about a wonderful new plant. Acquire it and in one swoop you have checked off all the boxes on the fashionable garden requirements sheet—sustainability, native origins, attracts wildlife, low maintenance, looks good and smells good. Get one and you can feel horticulturally sanctified for an entire season. The … Read more
GHOSTS OF GARDENS PAST Last week, in need of a minor adventure, I went to Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. On the face of it, a thirty-eight minute drive to the northern part of the state might not seem like the stuff of which adventures are made. However, I was in search … Read more
This year I acquired a camellia, and not just any camellia, but Camellia japonica, the kind that I have long coveted in greenhouses and other high-toned, enclosed locales. Where does my camellia live? Outdoors in the middle of my back garden—not exactly a “protected place.” Now, in the beginning of December, the camellia has fat … Read more
One of the leading horticultural newsletters has just announced the next “big thing” in home gardening–the cutting garden. It is now clear that vegetable gardeners, who have gotten used to being considered cutting edge, will have to step aside in favor of those who are actually cutting flowers. The wheel of fashion simply never stops … Read more
