Years ago, I planted three garden beds at my family’s summer cottage in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Each bed presented a different set of soil and light conditions. One was adjacent to a shale beach, sunny and exposed with free draining soil. Another was partly shaded, surrounding the stump of a … Read more
I fall in love with some plants easily. Others take longer—sometimes a lot longer. That was the case with Stachys byzantina, known to its friends as lambs’ ears. It is not as if lambs’ ears wasn’t on my radar. When my daughter was small, she saw a bed of the plants, touched their soft, fuzzy … Read more
It is late February, and the air is bone dry. That atmospheric condition will not last forever, and soon enough my part of the world will see a return of humidity. Eventually we will also experience hot weather. Now that the new season catalogs and online offerings are available, I am thinking of adding a … Read more
I have fallen in love with a tall Texan, and, if that isn’t enough to scare the relatives, my Texan is very prone to falling over. At the moment it is very hard to keep this handsome individual grounded, though he hardly drinks at all. I have sworn to find a way. The name of … Read more
I love to walk—in my neighborhood, my town and wherever I vacation. I never wear headphones or talk on my phone, because I like to save my senses for the small worlds that I encounter on my way. Good suburbanite that I am, I always take stock of the neighbors’ gardens. But I am also … Read more
