There is only one word for my lower back garden these days—depressing. The infernal heat, with or without humidity, has made the hydrangeas, ferns and hostas look as if they are in the last stages of consumption. Even the stalwart hellebores are flat out—literally. Daily watering does little to stave off the desiccating effects of … Read more
Like the neighborhood ice cream truck, summer flowers announce themselves loudly and insistently. My front borders are screaming with tall Shasta daisies and multi-colored coneflowers. Standing head to head with all those daisy-flowered amazons are the daylilies, which are among the best-loved early to mid-summer plants. I have lots of daylilies, but I have forgotten … Read more
My collections of garden books and garden weeds are roughly the same size. I haven’t learned much from the weeds–except that they are eternal–but I have learned a lot from the books. There are some lessons, though, that only experience can teach. Here are a few of them. Self Seeding vs. Self Preservation—If you have … Read more
My grandparents’ house was like a small English island in the middle of a vast American sea. They went back and forth to regularly to visit English relatives and the relatives, in turn, sent gifts of impenetrable black fruitcakes every Christmas. A biscuit tin bearing the likenesses of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth sat … Read more
I always aim to be thrifty; occasionally I succeed. Back in March I filled each of the two big pots that flank our front steps with a white-flowered hellebore surrounded by purple and white violas. That serendipitous combination looked great for a full three months because spring was slow and cool. Now that the … Read more
