The Okra Illuminati
"Artemis Rat Okra” aka V.E.G. Ham. Let me introduce Van Eugene Gatewood Ham, a native of Greenville, Mississippi, with a soft spot for okra. Gene Ham visits Central [...]
Allen Bush
Gardening at My Age: Diminishing Returns
Rose unleashes the Louisville garden. I am 68 years old and have been gardening for almost 50 years. For more than a third of this long garden row—18 [...]
Bernheim Arboretum and Forest – Nature and Free Play for All Children
I go back a long way with the award-winning Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. My first experiences at Bernheim were grade school bus trips to the nature center in the [...]
Concrete Rose runs the Kentucky Derby, while I Visit Louisville’s Hertz Gallery and Garden
Concrete Rose wins the Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs. Churchill Downs was packed for two days last Derby weekend. On Friday, instead of slurping sugary mint juleps and [...]
Spring Family Reunion – Daffodils and Serendipity
Rose and I had an idea for a family homecoming last month. We hosted our kids for a week on the spring train to Serendipity. Our son lives with his [...]
Florida’s Corkscrew Swamp, Now Bird Sanctuary, with Thanks to Feather-Rufflers
Lillian Russell. Photo credit: Pittsburgh City Paper Feathers might not have been ruffled if actress Lillian Russell, and other early 20thcentury fashonistas, had not sashayed around in hats [...]
An Open Letter to Kim Kardashian on Talking to Trump about the Environment
Dear Kim, I need your help. I am impressed that a reality television star, like you, with star status as big as the President’s (I mean HUGE), can walk into [...]
Eastern Red Cedars and a Christmas Past
Our grown children were scattered hither and yon this Christmas, so Rose and I downsized Yuletide with a raggedy Eastern red cedar, instead of a sculpted Fraser fir. Meanwhile, I stayed [...]
Miss Goodwin Turned Me into a Sower of Seeds
Sower with Setting Sun “I dream my painting and I paint my dream.” Vincent Van Gogh I doubt, at my age, I will be sowing too many wild oats. [...]
At Jelitto, an Office Became a Garden Sanctuary and Art Space
Mary Vaananen When I retired from Jelitto Perennial Seeds at the end of last year, my desk was neither memorialized nor mothballed. Gone, however, are old coffee cups, [...]
The Spotted Lanternfly is No Hoax
John Prine. Photo: Oh Boy Records. The singer-songwriter John Prine doesn’t have anything to do with the hungry spotted lanternfly, but bear with me. Spotted lanternfly is not [...]
Kentucky Hemp and The Great American Weed Rush
I have a history of occasional, informal, peer-reviewed, THC trials of psychoactive marijuana. The trial was simple: I smoked marijuana with friends. I try to imagine I was judged, [...]