Reflections on a Hard Year, A Reminder of Why We Garden
For us here in Ohio, in the middle of the continent, the weather does what it does and all of us gardeners are just along for the ride. Powerless to [...]
For us here in Ohio, in the middle of the continent, the weather does what it does and all of us gardeners are just along for the ride. Powerless to [...]
Cincinnati, Ohio November 3, 2024 Dear Marianne, I don’t know about you, but I garden a lot more productively when I’m rushed and surly. And I’ve been both lately. Having [...]
Despite all the buzz around planting for pollinators and other eco-gardening drives, perhaps the best and easiest ways to positively impact the environment is to simply plant trees. Last [...]
I’ve been on a very fortunate streak of seeing many fabulous gardens over the past several years, but in early September I visited the display garden at Bustani Plant Farm [...]
Behind the posts, articles, conferences and social media, there’s a backstory. Have you kept up with the digital correspondence between Ranters Scott Beuerlein and Marianne Willburn? You can start here, [...]
This year was the best Spring I can remember. It just rolled out soft and sweet. No late freezes, no extreme temps, no bad storms, and lovely, beautiful, consistent precipitation. It was wonderful and I don’t know which was worse, that the heat and drought came on like someone had thrown a switch or knowing that it would.
So maybe our first goal in urban horticulture should be to use plants to benefit people and, extapolated from that, if a project is also environmentally and economically successful, then there is the bit we expected from horticulture in the first place.
Hell, I've learned that shit dies. I’ve come to accept that. Sort of. And if a Liatris succumbs to a Chionanthus, so be it. I'm not its mother. It won't be on my conscience.
For those who plant them in rows, expect rows. Those who plant them in drifts, expect drifts. And those who plant them where they would plant themselves, will expect to see that. And all will be lifted by the dependably sunny blooms on cold spring days.
Maybe the biggest miracle of all is that there is enough bounty, beauty, and love for everyone if we tend our world as we tend our gardens.
In the past, I tried different systems—various word files, spreadsheets, folders filled with dirty plant tags, and more. But none of these worked. They depended on following up after a day in the garden, or keeping tags or notes in some kind of order. File under "Never Had a Chance."
I love pawpaw trees. In the shade, spindly and stretching. In the sun, pyramidal and bedecked with foliage of a tropical flare.