Janet Draper: A Perennial Force
Janet Draper at the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden. Rare is the circus that has the extraordinary talent or the vast experience of someone like Janet Draper. This dynamo [...]
Allen Bush
Adventures in a Real Kentucky Prairie
Shutterstock photo My excitement for wild plants is as far afield from Mad Max: Fury Road as you can imagine. My best botanizing adventures, by comparison, would be [...]
My Prairie Plot Thickens
It would be a stretch to call our reconstituted former hay field a prairie. What we have is a beautiful contrivance—a make-believe prairie. July 1, 2014 Contrary to [...]
Clausen and Christopher’s “Essential Perennials”…You Gotta Have It.
Are you ready for another great Garden Rant Giveaway? Now’s your chance! You could be the lucky winner of Essential Perennials: The Complete Reference to 2700 Perennials for the Home [...]
Whitewashed Tree Trunks: The Unvarnished Story
Jardins du Mont des Arts. Brussels, Belgium.Shutterstock Photo After a few swipes on Aunt Polly’s plank fence, Tom Sawyer tired of painting whitewash. So it doesn’t surprise me [...]
Witches’ Brooms – my Epigenetic Epiphany and the Gingko Hermaphrodite
High up in a white pine last summer, on our farm in Salvisa, Kentucky, I spotted something odd. I called my neighbor Otis Knox and asked him if he’d ever [...]
In Louisville, Who Will See the Canopy for the Trees?
Louisville, Kentucky is on Fodor’s 2015 travel “Go List.” Forget about Antarctica and Iceland. You want a hot spot? My hometown is unquestionably the hot spot among the top 25 [...]
Reading for the Holidays – “Deep-Rooted Wisdom”
I skipped Black Friday again this year. I shop at Christmastime only under duress, but as days grow shorter, my noose tightens. Yuletide suffocation draws nigh. There is no way I’m going to the [...]
Travels with Rufus
John Steinbeck crossed the country with Charley in 1960. I rode to Louisville last month, from Pennsylvania, with Rufus. Steinbeck, who wrote Travels with Charley, made the road trip with [...]
Variegated Kudzu Cultivar ‘Sherman’s Ghost’
Kudzu is the poster child for invasive plants. The vine that gobbled up more than seven million acres in the south became the unintended consequence of the USDA’s plan to [...]
I’m Told my Lawn Looks like Putt-Putt at Machu Picchu
I confess: I keep a lawn. Call me heathen. I know lawns are environmentally suspect, but mine doesn't ask for much. I've applied nothing from the periodic table that screams [...]
Driving in Alaska with My Three Miss Daisies
Bears loomed large last month in Alaska, but there was more danger lurking for a scrapulation.* Close quarters and too much family togetherness always make for a menacing vacation threat. [...]