No one has to mulch their garden and there are plenty of reasons—read excuses—not to do so. Suppose you contract with a mulch merchant to dump a big load of the stuff in a corner of your driveway. The load always looks much bigger than you expected and suddenly you have a very visible reminder … Read more
In a memorable scene from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, the character of Emile de Becque sings: “Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger, You may see a stranger across a crowded room,…” I had a similar feeling one semi-enchanted afternoon, when I saw a bush clematis across a crowded garden center. … Read more
Cleaning up an overgrown garden is a little like a soap opera, complete with births, deaths, ambitious characters, opportunists, odd match-ups and thuggish intruders. As a gardener, you act as director and editor, generally simplifying the plot line, cleaning up messy situations, and making the whole more coherent. I did this recently with a garden … Read more
Last week I saw a field of wild bergamot or Monarda fistulosa in full bloom. This miracle of nature, which may or may not have been helped along by human beings, was a sea of pale purple. Butterflies—monarchs, sulphurs, swallowtails and red admirals—danced just above the blooms, landing long enough to sip nectar. The buzzing … Read more
Lately I have been fascinated by plants with ugly names—a few weeks ago it was streptocarpus, better and more euphoniously known as Cape primrose. Right now, as my snapdragons prepare to bloom, it is their plant family, known as the “figwort” family, or Scrophulariaceae. Gardeners have long celebrated members of this family, which includes summer … Read more
