How Do You Cut Down a Family Tree?
Monet's Giverny - our inspiration. Don't laugh. It’s been more than 30 years since we began converting our eight acres of cow pasture into a mini-arboretum and sculpture [...]
Bob Hill, Ranter Emeritus
Gardening inspiration on my hottub wall, one quote at a time
As winter moves in, gardening inspiration lives indoors on the walls of our sunlit plant room from November to March, pithy little sayings that are written on wood, steel and [...]
Ending 19 Wonderful Years in the Nursery Business
As anyone who has ever opened a small, home-grown retail nursery can tell you, the economic reality for such is straight out of the veteran horse gambler’s prayer: Lord, I [...]
A Forgotten Lincoln in our Hosta Chain
This will be the only garden rant you’ll ever read connecting Abe Lincoln, Southern Indiana, hostas and dirt. We will begin with the dirt. Lots of dirt. A sprawling pile [...]
Peter the Great’s Fountain-Filled Gardens
Most gardeners after about 40 years in the asparagus patch begin to at least consider downsizing. You know, cutting back to only three-quarters of an acre of weeds, fewer disease-plagued [...]
Tin Chickens are the Right Garden Art for Us
In the end it came down to a pair of ornamental tin chickens, both of them, no doubt, created in a distant and dangerous land soon to be confronting more [...]
Ordering Butterflies by Weight for Weddings, Parties, or Domes
As it turns out butterflies are not free. They can cost anywhere from $3 to $6 each. They will arrive at your doorstep in small white insulated boxes carried by [...]
Customers in Search of the Perfect Plant
Bob's perfect plant We are all forever perched on a learning curve in the horticulture business. There’s always way more to learn than any of us will ever [...]
Kids and Kudzu for a Better World
Students competing in the 2015 fair We who worry and wonder about our social-media-obsessed youth and the future of horticulture found some relief at a recent gathering of [...]
From Seasonal Affective Disorder to Pursuing Inner Happiness with Witchhazels
Dwarf peach 'Theodore Klein' Current politics notwithstanding, I again deal in late winter with a mild case of SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder – that sluggish, depressed feeling [...]
Historic Utica, Indiana – where tulips make the town
There is a soldiers and sailors memorial garden near the center of my small Ohio River town that also pays homage to our local police and firemen. Nobody wanted to [...]
The Clarion Call of Brugmansia
October is peeking its nose up over the horizon now, shortening the days, painting the landscape, dredging up reluctant thoughts of the leaf blower and raggedy sweaters. And yet it’s [...]