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 [...]
Allen Bush
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. [...]
At Cincinnati’s Cultivate ’14, the Green Industry Takes Stock.
Garden suppliers’ sights are set on next spring. Last month, representatives from nurseries, greenhouses, independent garden centers and even Big Box Stores loaded up their cars, vans and trucks, heading [...]
More Foreign Invaders: Armadillos
Robyn Brown, a Nashville buddy and talented gardener, told me last week that her garden is under siege by armadillos. I was all ears. The nine-banded armadillos are rooting [...]
Canada’s Free Spirit Nursery: Landscapes, Laughs and Love
Lambèrt Vrijmoed, a British Columbia nurseryman, once drove a Pontiac hearse as his get-around car. There was not a hint of Goth subculture about him, though there was a touch [...]
Lover of Life: My Tribute to Kurt Bluemel
Kurt Bluemel defied the odds most of his long, illustrious life, so no one was ready for the inoperable, rare liver cancer that was diagnosed a few weeks ago. After [...]