Around St. Patrick’s Day I like to dip into Thomas Cahill’s wonderful book, How the Irish Saved Civilization. The title is lofty, but the book is very accessible and focuses on how Irish monks helped preserve great works of Classical learning as civilization traveled the path of time from the Roman era to the medieval … Read more
The wind is roaring around the desiccated shrubbery in my front yard, while several robins, their feathers fully puffed, scout the few areas of bare ground for whatever they can find. I am sure they are regretting the irresistible impulse that compelled them to come north so far in advance of spring. I am regretting … Read more
I am partial to toads. Greenish-brown and warty, they perform useful functions in the garden, including consumption of troublesome plant pests. Despite those virtues, they are usually exempted from the good press lavished on their relatives, the frogs. This probably happens because frogs, with their smooth skins and slender profiles are considered the most glamorous … Read more
Marvel of Peru is a plant that lives up to its name, even though it rarely, if ever, appears on garden center pallets. Practical gardeners call it”four o’clock.” Botanists, starting with Linnaeus, the great eighteenth century father of binomial nomenclature, refer to it with a Latin superlative — Mirabilis jalopa. Whatever you call it, the … Read more
If I were to succeed in the nefarious scheme of annexing my neighbor’s property, I would immediately create a garden room devoted to peonies of all sorts. In my mind’s eye, the scene unfolds, with hundreds of garden peonies, otherwise known as Paeonia lactiflora, in bloom. Tree peonies—Paeonia suffuticosa–would abound. Intersectional types, a marriage of … Read more
