Good Garden Keeping

I have always been extremely impressionable. Last weekend I watched video adaptations of some of English author P.G. Wodehouse’s hilarious short stories, featuring the ultimate upper class wastrel, Bertie Wooster, and his indispensible valet, Jeeves. I was so impressed with Jeeves’ impeccable housekeeping standards that for the next two days I had the bed made, … Read more

Baby Faurax

The weather for the last few days has been as gray and sticky as the slugs it seems to generate. The most pervasive scent in my dripping garden is the smell of honeysuckle drifting over from the neighbors’ yard. I let my nose revel in the sweet fragrance, even though I have done my best … Read more

Too Much, Too Fast

TOO MUCH, TOO FAST This is the time of year when the garden is a rampaging torrent of growth. Plants—cultivated and wild—are increasing with reckless abandon, vying with each other in Darwinian attempts to attract as many pollinators as possible. Every day I pull out handfuls of garlic mustard, chickweed, immature pokeweed and other noxious … Read more

Happy Nasturtiums

Unless you have been on another planet for the past few months, you have probably heard at least snatches of the infectious song, “Happy,” by artist Pharrell Williams. It may or may not be your kind of music, but it makes an awful lot of people all around the world want to dance. I am … Read more

Non-Blooming Hydrangeas

Life in my garden each season can be like a telenovela, with a cast of colorful characters, a somewhat improbable plot line, tempestuous relationships and the occasional untimely death. Of course telenovelas generally involve a lot of hair tossing and that doesn’t happen much at my place. Still, the similarities are there. This year’s dramatic … Read more