Where the trees have no names – just bad labels
Name tags tend to be a royal pain for the person who has to wear one, but they're useful to everyone else. This could be said of plant tags or [...]
Barbara Browne
A cavalcade of seed catalogues reassures and delights
I have never been so happy to see seed catalogues land in my mailbox as this year. As they have arrived the past few days and weeks, I’ve started to [...]
Spread the green news by planting it forward
Have you noticed that there are people in this world who simply do not care for plants? They may cut down every single tree in their yard, leaving a barren, [...]
Stopping to smell the roses – and admire the visitors
A perfect late summer day: sleeve-fluttering breeze, a few puffy clouds in a powder-blue sky, pleasantly temperate temperature—it’s finally happening. The pure bliss of just being outdoors is all the [...]
Weed diplomacy rejects extremes for a multi-faceted approach
At this point in the summer, I’m not yet bringing out the big guns when it comes to the weeds. As the 4th of July holiday reminded us, independence and [...]
Spring’s temperamental moods found a voice in Glück
Wild, cold winds are buffeting the garden today in one of spring’s temperamental fits of pique. It’s a good day to sit down with a book and enjoy some flower [...]
Cemetery rules preclude a gardener’s memorial
This topic may be a sensitive one for many readers. As a relatively recently bereaved gardener, I can’t help ruminating on why it has to be so difficult to plant [...]
Skunk cabbage can make you believe in spring
If you are afflicted with melancholy at this season, go to the swamp and see the brave spears of skunk-cabbage buds already advanced toward a new year… Is it the [...]
Old garden books provide a fun perspective on ’60s and ’70s-era attitudes
I had a flashback last month, glimpsing along the roadside a long border of small-flowered, egg-yolk hued daylilies, already blooming in early June. They looked suspiciously like that old stalwart [...]
Plant names can overpromise and underdeliver
What’s in a plant name, indeed? I enjoy finding new-to-me cultivars at the garden center or spring plant sales that stretch the limits of reasonable nomenclature with their hyperbolic, fanciful [...]