Great Balls of Fire

The spine of my home state of New Jersey is the Garden State Parkway, a toll road that stretches for 173 miles, up and down the length of the state. This past week, I drove south on the Parkway, heading for a conference in Atlantic City. While I couldn’t ignore the “Jersey maniacs” weaving in … Read more

Slender in the Grass

            I was in the garden center last week, hot on the trail of colorful mums and half-price perennials when I laid eyes on something that made me forget both objects.  It was a young, slender tree with some of the showiest fall foliage I have encountered—red, orange and purple, glowing in the late afternoon … Read more

October

I have always loved the October light, which is so distinctive that novelist John Gardner, who had poetry in his soul, used it in a book title.  On any sunny October Saturday, the light is mellow and golden, illuminating the plants in ways that are absent in summer.   While it gilds the landscape, the light … Read more