How Flora Grubb and an Airport DJ Saved My Soul
I never saw it coming. Flora Grubb, the pioneering urban gardener and style maven, convinced me—to my great relief—that the Millennial Generation is beginning to shop for plants. Meanwhile DJ [...]
Allen Bush
See the Documentary “Wonder: The Lives of Anna and Harlan Hubbard” if You Can
Anna and Harlan Hubbard may not be names familiar to most readers. But if you have ever thought dreamily of Henry David Thoreau’s experiment, forsaking the “slavery of time” and [...]
The Rigors of Chiggers
Chiggers, you're there in our garden, somewhere? Some of you had cotton balls stuffed in your ears this past month, deafening the sound of droning cicadas. But relax. [...]
Bless All Parks Big and Small
Tiny Mills End Park in Portland, Oregon There is a friendly dispute going on about who has the smallest…umm…park. That’s a big deal. In the U.S., Portland’s Mill [...]
Michael Pollan and Wendell Berry on When Food is Too Convenient for Our Own Good
Michael Pollan and Wendell Berry were in Louisville during the first week of May. They weren’t on the Derby celebrity runway that rainy day at Churchill Downs. That was left [...]
At Churchill Downs, the Run for the Roses is Really About Mint
Thousands of red tulips have been planted in the Churchill Downs paddock and winner’s circle for this year’s Kentucky Derby. They were shipped from Holland months ago. Nearly 500 red [...]
Pour Me Another Kentucky Coffeetree
When you think of plant hunting—Indiana Jones style—you usually think of faraway places. Throw in tall mountains, deep ravines, landslides and feuding warlords, and you might soon forget the plants. [...]
Bugger Off, Stink Bugs
Photo by Tracy Leskey of the Appalachian Fruit Research Station Armadillos have reached southern Kentucky, while the Asian longhorn beetle is poised just across the Ohio River in [...]
Arrowhead Alpine Nursery’s “Winter Sucks Party”
Some of the party animals at Arrowhead Alpines. Enduring winter in Kentucky is like sitting at the stop light, fiddling around trying to find a radio station, waiting [...]
Rereading Letters from my Old Nursery-Center Boss in England
The Ingwersen's Birch Farm nursery staff 1979. David Watling is 3rd from left. Allen Bush is 5th from right. I’m not much of a pack rat, but I [...]
Our Holiday Party with Non-Gardeners.
You Can Make It If You Try.
Mac Reid, Gene Hamm, Tay Breene, and Rose Bush Too many times over the decades, even knowing that it won’t end well, I have herded party captives into [...]
International Plant Propagators show their Almighty Will to Propagate
From left, Lloyd and Candy Traven, Joe Lament “Why do you love what you do?” This was a question posed last month at the annual conference of the [...]