Good luck trying to take your garden beyond the grave
I have two Kentucky gardens. Both are a privilege and a burden. One is in the city, the other in the country. I can’t work either of them with [...]
Allen Bush
The hatchet job
I once ran with a posse of boys who scoured scrawny woods at the end of a suburban street with cowboy hats and hatchets. We were determined to carve [...]
Christmas Cheer with Cassius
My Christmas was a mixed bag for a long time. Mother was all in on the spirit of the season. My father not so much. The push-pull seemed destined [...]
I’m Glad About It
I have had epiphanies in parks around the world, and, more than once, I have been blessed in the Gospel Tent at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. I [...]
Yearning to learn more? I implore you to adore a sycamore.
My friend Paul Sandman called a few weeks ago wondering if I knew the “Three Sisters.” I’ve driven past the 300-year-old, long decaying American sycamores in Louisville’s Cherokee Park [...]
It’s climate change, stupid!
The U.S. presidential election is one long week away. If there is not enough anxiety to go around here on earth, I need to mention the planetary concern that has [...]
Singing through the North Carolina Mountain Soil
This has been a long, difficult growing season in Salvisa. Farm crops and the garden were parched. Groundhogs, with little else to graze, went whole-hog on the 27-acre organic [...]
My influence on an alley is spreading by nature
I feel fondly toward a small stretch of a Louisville neighborhood beyond our 1/3-acre lot in Crescent Hill. I walk along the alley behind our house and see respectable, although [...]
Hell is empty and all the devils are in my garden. Don’t despair.
Summer self-loathing was triggered weeks ago by kinked hoses and endless swearing. The heat and drought were beating me down. Crabgrass and broadleaf plantains couldn’t care less. Ariel, in Shakespeare’s [...]
Ear Seeds and Acupuncture
A year ago, my daughter and I drove to Vancouver and made the rounds. Molly lives in Bellingham, Washington, near the Canadian border. The first stop was the University [...]
Flirting with foliage
Massive storms rolled through Kentucky in late May. We were spared disaster. Thousands of others weren’t so lucky. Trees were downed and power knocked out. This wasn’t the Commonwealth’s [...]
Gardeners Show Mercy
I sometimes go catatonic while standing over an appealing plant I haven’t seen before. Looking like Mr. Pitiful, shoulders slumped, my eyes are fixed on the prize in front [...]