Some people love Atlantic City, New Jersey, that enduring combination of gambling mecca and seaside resort. It is a place where breathtaking Atlantic coast scenery is locked in a pitched battle for tourist attention with artificial environments designed to shut out the outside world. Atlantic City is a paradox with hotel rooms. I was on … Read more
For those of us in cold winter climates, mid-fall is the time to say a gradual goodbye to flowers. Annuals will soldier on until the first hard frost, but they are slowing down in anticipation of the inevitable. Most perennials have finished up, with the exception of a few Montauk daisies, tall sedums, fall crocuses … Read more
The tall asters in my garden are finishing their bloom extravaganza, which makes me a bit sad. It is the last big hurrah of the gardening season and it means that I will have to cut them all back, which is not a small endeavor. It also means that I won’t have another big, Cecil … Read more
WEEPING WILLOW By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps Those exiled Israelites of Psalm 137, weeping by the waters of Babylon, could not have known that centuries later, a Chinese tree with long, drooping branches would be christened Salix babylonica … Read more
If you are hoping to grow an olive tree in eastern North America and proudly incorporate your homegrown fruits into martinis, tapenade, or empanadas, you are destined for disappointment. The handsome European olive—Olea europaea—needs a warm winter climate to produce its toothsome harvest. But other members of the Oleaceae or olive family do flourish farther … Read more
