Four Years of Blogging
I started this blog four years ago today.It has been a rewarding diversion, and it has brought me commenters and friends from all over the world.When I started I was still a relatively new gardener,...
View ArticleJanuary Mornings
One morning this winter the coyotes came to visit. It was a family, a mother and four pups. Jim wanted to get all five in a shot, but they wouldn't pose together. The pups tumbled and played and they...
View ArticleLuxe
Plants that have rich mahogany tones always draw my attention. I like shades of deep cordovan, plummy wine, and tawny cognac. I am obviously supposed to be living a different life, drinking expensive...
View ArticleTowering Nuisance
Eastern Cottonwood trees (Populus deltoides) grow all around us in areas that were disturbed by the builders.They are fast growing, messy, weak wooded trees that do not live very long, but they grow to...
View ArticleQueen Z
I have written about Zenobia pulverulenta before, but she is growing on me more and more each season.It gets its botanical name and its common name, Dusty Zenobia, from the fact that the leaves are...
View ArticleBury My Heart
The winter weather has been wild in the upper US, with severe cold one day, and warm, wet fog the next. We haven't had as sharply bitter temperatures as further north, but I did wake up to minus 7 F...
View ArticlePermissions and Wishes
Back in November, C.L. Fornari wrote a post on her blog Whole Life Gardening that made me smile. It's about persimmons and permission and mixing them up and the idea of a Permission Tree. Go read it...
View ArticleGuests Are Expected
We are expecting guests to visit this winter, as they do every year. Here are a few that came last year. I hope they make a return visit -- we're ready for them!The bobcat as seen through our dining...
View ArticleSo Far So Good
So far this season the stacked stone wall I built so laboriously last summer has not fallen down, despite freezing nights and thawing days.But the plow has not come up the driveway yet to bury it, and...
View ArticleBecause Snow
I am going to repost something from 2010 today. Because it is the holiday season and I am baking cookies, and it is snowing outside right now.December 12, 2010Christmas does not smell like pine needles...
View ArticleUplift
I have been pruning the lower branches of some shrubs in an effort to create small, upright trees out of them, and the work has been very rewarding.One is a hybrid witch hazel, Hamamelis x intermedia...
View ArticleDinner Menu
Here is what is on the menu for Thanksgiving in my garden:Winterberries (Ilex verticillata 'Red Sprite')Everyone says the birds like these, but in my garden it is the deer who strip the berries off...
View ArticleBurnt Sugar
I learned something new recently. I learned katsura trees are aromatic even after all their leaves are down.In early November I took a walk around the neighborhood one morning, and suddenly caught the...
View ArticleLiquid Gold
At this time of year the first rays of sun in the morning light up the magnolia tree outside the bedroom window as if the sun was pouring liquid gold on the branches. It happens just as I wake each...
View ArticleBiltmore
We visited the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina in mid September. Several people commented they were eager to see the Biltmore, but were put off by the price. They asked if it was really...
View ArticleCarnage
Oh my god, blood all over the walk, wheel tracks leading away. Did Jim fall off the John Deere lawnmower and then get run over?But no, there he was, coming down the path, ready to do chores, no sign of...
View ArticleAs Planned
October left us, November arrived, and overnight, it seems, the Norway maples turned butter yellow, the silver maples turned lemony and the red maple in the back yard went up in flames.I planned the...
View ArticleThe Light in the Morning
In the waning days of October, before last weekend's frost changed everything, there were mornings when the light stopped me in my tracks.The rays were so specific, lighting up just a tree or a clump...
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