Opening up the new gardening catalogs is a form of post-holiday renewal. Despite the fact that I use lots of online vendors and do ninety-nine percent of my ordering online, I still get a thrill from the bright, splashy print catalogs. On New Year’s Day I delved into one of those catalogs. The vendor is … Read more
There are days when I want to live in the moment, celebrate the quotidian experience and relish immediate delights—like the many stands of snowdrops currently on display in various parts of my garden. Other days, I am drawn to the past; especially when I think about people and places that exist only in memory. Being … Read more
Garden centers are catnip to me. I watch for them when I travel, and if at all possible, stop in, even if only for a few minutes. In winter, I make note of promising places, aiming for return trips when the days lengthen and the sap has risen. I have passed a particularly tempting garden … Read more
In the last two weeks I have gotten used to seeing tall garden phlox in the summer gardens in my neighborhood. This morning I walked farther afield and saw masses of another tall, old-fashioned favorite—cleome or spider flower. The cleome were part of a cottage garden planting scheme and when I saw it from a … Read more
Despite my best efforts, my garden has too few late summer flowers. For years I have been shy about putting in enough dahlias, which will bloom their hearts out given a bit of sunny space and water. They come in so many sizes, shapes and colors that even those, like me, who disdain the flashy … Read more
