My Courtyard Garden: One Year Later
It's time for an update on my courtyard garden. The thrill of saying that hasn't dimmed after a year, and I imagine I will still be delighted about it if [...]
Evelyn Hadden, Ranter Emeritus
Real Gardening takes Patience
Part of the fun of creating a garden is trying unfamiliar plants, like this silver-leaved horehound (Marrubium rotundifolium) mingling with winecups (the red-purple blooming Callirhoe involucrata, an old favorite) [...]
A Growing Trend in the U.S.: Food Forests
Mound-forming alpine strawberries (Fragaria vesca) tolerate a range of soil and climate conditions and produce small fruits intermittently throughout the growing season. Upstart food forests -- designed landscapes [...]
Garden Chores: The WANT TO DO List
Many natural occurrences are ephemeral, and our busy lives make it hardto keep a promise to "enjoy that later." What strikes me as the most common thread among [...]
Saving Seedlings, Saving the World
Beyond the campsite's irrigated lawn, the view of native scrub-covered hills. Recently I went camping near my new home in Boise. I sat down with a cup of [...]
The Thrill of New Plants
The first time I ever saw Fritillaria michailowskyi in person was this spring when it bloomed in my garden. It is a joy to grow certain plants for [...]
Behind the Scenes: Making a Video Trailer for a Gardening Book
Recording the soundtrack in my front room with Boise Blues Society Directors. Thanks, guys!!Left to right: Randy Reese, 'Mojo' Mike Witmer, James 'JT' Tyler, and Bobby Peters. Though [...]
From Idaho, a Case of Spring Fever
As the garden wakes up, I find I spend more time in that stock-still, mesmerized state that, let's face it, is the point of all this garden work. Though planting, [...]
I’m Planting Poppies for the Memories
Since I moved to Idaho, my sister and mom and their friends and my friends have been generously donating plants to fill my new garden beds. (Gardeners are the nicest [...]
My Courtyard Garden Promotes Pondering
My understanding of a place dawns slowly. Occasionally I design a garden, and it is a ponderous and effortful activity because it doesn't come easily to me. This has been [...]
Do Trees Have Rights?
Let us consider the non-mobile, those who live at a slower speed than humans, those who conduct many "activities of daily living" underground. I'm talking about trees. Bound to its [...]
The Public Food Forest: Clever Solution or Future Flop?
In a suburban home garden, a young black walnut tree (left) and a sour cherry (right) tower above a blooming patch of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). Many urban gardeners [...]